<p>I used the word "disciples" instead of "disciplines".</p>
<p>The word disciples does not make sense in context, obviously.
This was for my Penn essay.</p>
<p>I mean it obviously won’t get you directly rejected; but it actually is a pretty big mistake because from the word “disciples” you don’t get “disciplines” very easily, after all “disciples” is a meaningful word all on its own. Anyway, hopefully the person reading it will skim through so fast that they will think it says “disciplines”; otherwise you may come across as someone who doesn’t know what “disciples” means. :S
Don’t stress too much over it. If Penn wants you, they will make sure they have you :)</p>
<p>It’s not a plus for sure, and it really is a big negative. If you were a reach before, this is not good at all.</p>
<p>Really? I really didn’t think it would be as big of a deal as you guys are saying it is…it’s just one word.</p>
<p>its not that big a deal. having said that, if they were on the fence about you a careless mistake could make rub them the wrong way</p>
<p>Hmmm, I feel like Euroazn and rahuja are overreacting slightly. Its definitely not going to put you out of contention if you are a “reach applicant”, and even if you are on the fence, I am pretty sure they will use some other metric to decide whether or not they want you. </p>
<p>Is there a possibility that this affects your decision, yeah, but is it a very large possibility no. I would say that if you were going to get in, you still will, and if you weren’t going to get in, well you still won’t. The spelling mistake won’t kill you.</p>
<p>Here’s the thing: if there’s another applicant like you, with no fatal mistake in their essay… why shouldn’t they choose them over you? 
That’s the problem… at a highly competitive school like Penn, there are a lot of applicants like you and even a lot of applicants better than you. Just my two cents.</p>
<p>Yeah I agree with you Wiki. Thanks for your input.
@Euroazn, I guess, but again, I doubt this’ll decide it.</p>
<p>lol, seems like you’re looking more for reassurance than actual opinions ;)</p>
<p>It’s not the end of the worst…At most the reader will think you edited poorly which can show that you didn’t take it very seriously. </p>
<p>I mean I took my essays to be edited by 5 different people, including a PhD in English that was head of English at my school.</p>
<p>It’s not going to change your outcome though, it won’t keep you out if you would have been accepted otherwise.</p>
<p>@Euroazn
Sadly, you’re right. But oh well. I feel better now.</p>
<p>i didnt mean to be a downer or anything haha. im sure you shall be fine we are all human spelling mistakes happen even with a lot of editors.</p>
<p>I can say it will most likely not kill your application. They’re not going to reject you because of that, trust me.</p>
<p>i think some of you are overestimating the amount of time adcoms spend on each essay. they are very tired and try to skim as quickly as possible. i doubt this will have a big effect on your application.</p>
<p>I once knew a guy at my high school (which is fairly small) who misspelled Frederick Douglass throughout his essay (which was centered on Douglass). </p>
<p>He still got into William and Mary. Which, to be sure, is not UPENN. </p>
<p>It doesn’t kill you. Unless you came across as arrogant in the essay. Or you’re a borderline candidate, where one last thing would end your chances. Or the adcoms reading it are in a bad mood. </p>
<p>Chill out. You’ll never know if it hurt you if you don’t get in, and if you do get in, then it obviously didn’t hurt you. </p>
<p>ABOVE ALL ELSE: I would not send an email correction because doing so seems kind of pathetic. Whereas not doing so can be construed as meaning that you are not some high-strung, nervous breakdown kid.</p>
<p>look folks the way adcom’s work is that they assign candidates points for various pieces of their application…the sum of those points put you in the admit, waitlist, reject buckets. </p>
<p>One spelling mistake is not going to drop your “essay points.” What matters is how good and compelling your essay is. In all reality, the essays are ready so quickly that there is a low chance that anyone would even catch the mistake. </p>
<p>You should be fine…people on this site are so ridiculous some times. Look even is one piece of your application is not stellar you still have a chance to get in…I know a decent amount of people at penn with sub 1400 (out of 1600) SAT scores…sub 30 ACTs…low AP scores… etc. It’s always funny on the “chance me” threads when a person has stellar stats save for a “lower” SAT and then everyone responds being like “yeah you wont get in with that SAT…” Honestly they look for well rounded applicants with leadership potential. One poor test score…on a test that isnt really a good indicator of success or a spelling mistake or whatever is not going to kill your application.</p>
<p>I have never heard of this points system thing before, I have heard of the infamous AI, but this whole getting points for parts of the application is new. How do you know that this is how the admissions process works? Sorry if that sounds weird, but I am just curious. It makes sense to me now that admission vs. rejection will never actually come down to scores. I mean if your scores are too low, then your out, but after that hurdle is passed, then a 780 vs 720 or a spelling mistake vs. no spelling mistake, really doesn’t matter. Its all intangibles from there.</p>
<p>Being an interviewer (and one of the co-chairs for our regional committee) I’m actually pretty close with the regional admission counselor in my region she described the process to me at an even we had a few months ago.</p>
<p>She obviously didn’t go into detail but it’s just funny to see on this site when people are like oh you got a 710 on math you should retake it…in all reality I assume the point system for each piece of the application is tiered so there is probably very little marginal benefit (if any) by retaking a 710. Obviously some of the point categories will be really subjective…like the essay component, etc. but in the end they do have a point system which helps them decide the admission decision.</p>
<p>Are points assigned to the AI or to GPA and SAT separately?</p>
<p>Thanks for the info Whartongrad, that makes some sense.</p>
<p>@Euroazn, I would assume that if they do use a points system, it would probably be independent of the AI, so maybe GPA and SAT are seperate categories for which points are assigned.</p>