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<p>Don’t send any other emails! But if a school writes back to your previous query and says, “Send the essay,” then send it … whenever they write you. If they don’t write back, then DON’T send it. Very simple.</p>
<p>And this isn’t going to have an impact one way or the other on your outcomes. It’s a spit in the ocean compared to everything these admission folks are dealing with right now.</p>
<p>AspiringStudent - </p>
<p>Actually, I am now starting to consider you annoying. You posted your query, received a reply from Sally, apparently decided that wasn’t sufficient, and then posted your query (in its entirety) again!</p>
<p>You’ve already corrected the situation with Harvard to the best of your ability. Let it go now and move on.</p>
<p>Jpeeps - I don’t believe any of the things you listed is worth mentioning in an email. The college doesn’t care about your grandmother; all colleges understand that AP tests are administered at the end of the year; and no one gives a darn about a single misspelled word, especially when it’s in a foreign language!</p>
<p>The application has been submitted. You need to find something else to occupy your time from now until April. :)</p>
<p>dodgersmom-i just wanted other input…</p>
<p>Hello Sally, </p>
<p>First off, thank you so much for this thread and devoting your time to help us!</p>
<p>Second, I just have a couple of questions regarding my app.</p>
<p>1) So, for my Mother, I wrote that she is unemployed on my application, but actually she has a part time job. She has a teaching degree, but right now she is a substitute teacher. I asked her and she said to put unemployed, but I am worried now if colleges will think I am lying to them. Should I report this to them?</p>
<p>2) One of my EC’s is that I run a Facebook group where I tutor students by posting reviews, study tips, and schedules. Other students can also ask questions, so it’s a students-helping-students community. It’s very nice. Basically, it’s to keep all the students in my graduating class organized. I have been doing this for three years now. But I don’t think colleges will really like it because it’s, well, Facebook (and I guess nothing productive really happens on Facebook?). On my Common App, I wasn’t able to adequately explain it given the limited space for each activity, so do you think I should send a resume to each college (can I send it through email)? Or is it such a stupid EC not to even mention…?</p>
<p>3) So when my counselor did her school report for my common app, on the resume I gave her, I forgot to list one activity. Do colleges really scrutinize this? I am not even sure if she put all my actvities in her report, but will colleges think my activities on the CA are false if they do not match my counselor’s report? Also, on the resume I gave to my counselor, I put I was selected for an award from “The National Academy of Future Physicians,” which I later found out was a for-profit organization that does not count for an honor. Therefore, I was quick to remove it from my app. I am not sure about my counselor though.</p>
<p>Thanks so much if you read all of this! I really appreciate it. It sucks so much when you start thinking of all the possible things that could go wrong after you turn in the application, haha.</p>
<p>StarSeraph, here are some answers for you:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If your mother is a “permanent sub” and draws a steady paycheck from a school or school district, then her occupation should have been listed on your applications. But if she doesn’t have a regular income, she can be considered “Unemployed.” In any case, if you are applying for financial aid, your mother’s employment and income … even if sporadic … must be listed on your financial aid forms because whatever you put on the finaid forms must mesh with whatever is on your family’s tax forms. </p></li>
<li><p>I think that this is a very GOOD activity (not just the same-old-same-old stuff as are many others, and admission committees will also appreciate the three-year duration). So if you couldn’t adequately explain it on your application, sending a resume is a wise idea. (Just check first to make sure that each college accepts resumes. A few don’t.) Explain your Facebook project clearly but succinctly on your resume. (I call these things “Annotated Activities Lists” rather than “resumes” because you can allow yourself a few sentences to explain uncommon undertakings.) The college folks will have no problem with the fact that this is a Facebook activity. They probably all have Facebook pages themselves. You should even include a link to the page in your resume … as long as the page doesn’t include any photos of you with a red plastic cup. ;)</p></li>
<li><p>This is nothing to worry about. Typically, counselors aren’t even supposed to discuss activities with colleges. It’s really YOUR job to tell colleges what you do outside of class, whether this is via the application itself, via a resume or an essay, etc. Sometimes, of course, the counselors DO discuss activities, but this is often because they don’t know their advisees well (or at ALL) and have little to say besides whatever it is that they culled from the resume such as, “Harvey is vice president of the Latin Club and plays saxophone in the jazz band.” This type of counselor reference, however, tends to irk the college folks because it doesn’t tell them anything that your application already didn’t. So the counselor should really only mention a student’s activities when using them as examples of some OTHER point that he or she wants to make. Example: “Even though Fred weighs only 85 pounds, he made the varsity football team due to sheer effort and will. Never have I known a student to work so hard” or “Harriet is the best student body president I’ve seen since I’ve been here and really does go the extra mile to make sure all voices are heard.” If there is some discrepancy between the activities you listed on your application and those that the counselor mentions, this is not a big deal in most instances. (The only time it IS a big deal is when the student list and counselor list are egregiously out of sync. For instance, if a student claims to be class president and the counselor mentions only that she’s in the ping-pong club, a college official may follow up to see why the counselor didn’t say a thing about the big job. ) So, from what you’ve described here about your own situation, it seems like there’s no problem. It definitely will not hurt you if the counselor mentions that future physician’s gig, but you were wise to delete it yourself.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>My final advice would be to put a quarter in a jar every time you start to obsess over your already-submitted applications. The mere effort of finding the jar and the quarter may distract you from your woes. And, if not, at least after a month or so you’ll have collected enough money to treat yourself and perhaps a friend to something fun like a movie or a restaurant meal (or a trip to Paris, if you’re a major worry-wort!) and that should also distract you, at least temporarily. :)</p>
<p>Thank you so much, Sally! I really appreciate your response and will follow your advice. </p>
<p>Seriously, I have never met anyone so nice. :)</p>
<p>You’re welcome, StarSeraph. I appreciate the compliment, although I suspect that I am merely loquacious and not necessarily nice. ;)</p>
<p>Ah, but to help so many students, you must be the real seraph here. :)</p>
<p>Also, I was wondering about the Common App time stamp. Do you think the time you turn in your application really influences your chances? For example, I turned in my Common App for Cornell at 11:00 PM ET. Does this show I procrastinate a lot? In all honesty, I was actually proofreading my application a lot…sigh.</p>
<p>Oh and another thing. Usually my school offers 7 classes for each year. This year I took 6 classes and early release. I took the early release because there were no AP classes 7th period (or any other class that I really liked for that matter). Do you think this is worth mentioning to the colleges I applied to? Or does it show that I am just a diehard workaholic who won’t contribute much to the campus… 
</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>The Common App time stamp is a non-issue. </p>
<p>As for the open 6th period, that will only matter if your course load wasn’t rigorous. In other words, if you skipped taking a science or a math class, then the open period could be an issue. But if your 6 classes were challenging ones (or at least 5 of the 6 were), then the open last period is also a non-issue.</p>
<p>Thank you again!</p>
<p>I sent a correction email, but I’m now thinking that the mistake I made was sort of minor (I also asked about it before in this thread but I sent the correction without reading the replies here first, derp). Will sending a correction on a sort of minor mistake hurt admission chances?</p>
<p>Alone555 - Please read (and reread!) the final paragraph of post # 146. Then follow that advice. :)</p>
<p>Imagine you are throwing a small pebble at the moon. No matter how hard you throw it, it won’t knock the moon out of its orbit. That’s the way it is with your small mistake, and also your correction. Neither of them will have enough force to knock your application out of its destined orbit.</p>
<p>Now . . . go put a quarter in a jar. ;)</p>
<p>I’m panicking because I wrote a sentence in my essay that I realized could be misconstrued…nothing I can do about it now though :/</p>
<p>I changed from a second semester survey of art class into PE for a graduation requirement. I did report my senior classes for some of my colleges. Do I have to email them all about this? It seems like it really will not make a difference in the admissions process. I’m caught between seeming annoying or dishonest.</p>
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<p>I feel your pain. Even in your adult life, you may face this dilemma from time to time. ;)</p>
<p>So here’s what I suggest that may solve your problem:</p>
<p>Ask your guidance counselor if he or she plans to send a Mid-Year Report to all of the colleges you’ve applied to. If you still haven’t received your first-semester grades, then the answer is probably “Yes.” </p>
<p>If so, ask the counselor to include a short note in the Report explaining that you had to drop the art survey in order to take a required PE class.</p>
<p>If the counselor can’t send this to colleges–for whatever reason–just send a quick email to all of your colleges yourself. It won’t be considered annoying so don’t worry about it. If you have any other significant updates since you submitted your applications … e.g. a new job, major extracurricular undertaking, awards (not likely but possible), you can include those in the same message.</p>
<p>Hi Sally. Are changes made after an application is submitted reflected on the application PDF file or HTML file?</p>
<p>I’m asking because when I reviewed my Virginia Tech app PDF file I noticed I accidentally checked “No” to “Is English the primary language spoken at home?” I notified admissions and they responded telling me the change was made but when I went to check the PDF file online it still had “No” checked. I’m worried because it’s an important question but I don’t want to seem annoying by emailing them again even though they confirmed the change.</p>
<p>Good question, Louis24. NO, application errors are NOT corrected on the pdf file. Only YOU have access to that. The college folks will simply put a note in your folder if you’ve sent in a correction or they will make the change on any type of form that they’ve created and put in your file and in their computer system. But if you look online at the application you submitted, you will not see this change.</p>
<p>So, don’t worry. You made the correction, and it was acknowledged. It’s no big deal, and you’re fine.</p>
<p>Thank you for the quick answer Sally. Good to hear I was worrying over nothing. :)</p>
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<p>Well said, dodgersmom. I will definitely recycle your analogy when I’m asked about correcting petty application errors.</p>