I just submitted my application to harvey mudd college. The problem is, I forgot to change the name of the college mentioned in my common app essay. At the end of my essay, I mention the college name in a sentence - “I can think of no place better than an international university campus like Harvey Mudd’s to both express…”
Except, I left it as “Washington University’s” from my last application.
Will this severely affect my chance of admission and is there anything I can possibly do to rectify this blunder on my part??
Not sure why that sentence is in your common app personal statement anyway (that type of sentence is more appropriate for a Why Us? supplemental, in case you have more apps to do).
Anyway, there is nothing to do, I would not email your rep and bring it to their attention. They are likely to notice it, but there’s no way of knowing to what degree, if any, it will affect your app. Good luck.
It’ll likely lead the admissions office to discount your essay. The rest of your application is still the same strength.
BTW I made my daughter print her common app pdf for each school and proofread it herself. Then I looked it over as well. I highly recommend destroying some trees for this as the change from online on a computer to paper gets you to notice mistakes.
I normally notice all these things; I was just under a lot of stress today and was already a few minutes late while submitting so I ended up ignoring it
Originally I had left it at “this university” instead of mentioning the name but I assumed there’s no harm in naming each college provided I change it.
You missed my point. Whether you name the university or not in the type of sentence you mentioned in your OP, that sentence doesn’t belong in one’s personal statement.
I’ve reviewed 100s of resumes/CVs/applications for legal positions. I do notice typos, and I would definitely notice something like this IF I read all the way through.
It’s not great, but, IMHO, if they really want you, they won’t really care. I would be pretty sure that AOs know they are competing for you like you are competing for them. They also know that students have a huge amount of information they are putting together and that there is some (perhaps very large) amount of re-cycling with the essays. I am sure you’re not the first one to do this!
Let it go, don’t let it happen again, and best of luck!
I’d say - you’ll find out if essays are truly read - well if you get rejected, you won’t know why. if you get in, they likely didn’t see it.
It’s pretty egregious.
Colleges aren’t dumb. They know kids recycle the same essays - with some moderation. It’s a lesson to you - to have more than two eyes look at it before you hit the button. Or also to know how many edits you need to make for each school - and track them.
Nothing you can do though - but learn for the future.
While I agree that the name of the school has no place in your personal statement, it is your statement, so that’s not for me or us to judge. But your personal statement in general should be static - no need to change.
it’s the school specific essays - many of which are similar from school to school or identical - that need the editing (generally).
if it’s meant to be, it will happen. If it’s not, there’s lots of great schools for you.