A while back I had finished my Common Application. I went over it with my guidance counselor and everything seemed fine. I just recently sent in 6 Applications and I discovered mistakes on every one. Small mistakes like: “Menber of the National Honor Society” instead of member and “my father is from Belgian” instead of Belgium, and on my activities section I really screwed up the weeks and hours section, like instead of puting National Honor Society for 40 weeks of the year I put 10 (this was not the only mistake for this section), and finally in the activities section also I forgot to put periods in the end of some descriptions as well as the activity name bar, and I also capitalized Junior Varsity instead of using lower case. (my guidance counselor said I should put periods at the end of the activity name bar. Are these mistakes going to have a huge effect on whether I get accepted or not??? I am really paranoid about this. Is it worth the trouble to contact the universities about the mistakes. (just for further clarification, the first 2 apps I sent had all of the mistakes, the next 3 had most but not all of the mistakes and the last one which i just recently sent had a few of the mistakes)
“Menber” or “Belgian” won’t matter as long as this isn’t a pattern. You need to ask yourself if it’s better to let colleges maybe see a few spelling mistakes, or call, in which case they’ll definitely know about the mistakes and they also find out you obsess over details like this.
As for capitalization and full stops, these will have no effect, because they’re a matter of personal preference - like soda vs. pop vs. soft drinks. Relax, and definitely don’t contact the universities about these.
No college is going to say “Gosh, he’s a great applicant, but he made a spelling mistake in his application.” Don’t worry about it.
I would not call. But it does not make a good impression if there are several mistakes. I assume you will proofread important documents better in the future. Colleges that are reaches with low acceptance rates might consider it. Colleges that aren’t as selective probably won’t.
I’m no expert, but common sense tells me that so long as the mistakes aren’t part of a broader, visible pattern, none of the admissions officers is bothered. Most expect error - it’s human nature.
If you are applying to the Ivies and similar schools, it will hurt.
@TomSrOfBoston, why would he be negatively affected, exactly?
They are looking for exceptional applicants.
And misspelling something, overlooking something, etc. renders you less attractive how, exactly? How does accidentally forgetting a period make one any less of an exceptional applicant? That sort of thing certainly has no bearing on intellect and - as far as I’m concerned - is no indicator of the care with which tasks are completed; it’s too minor to be of any statistical significance.
Now, an essay riddled with grammatical errors or poor use of the English language is different, but that’s not what we’re referring to here.
Read this. Chill out. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/470497-clam-fart-oh-my-god-what-did-i-do-p1.html
@SirPepsi These schools have their pick of 30,000+ applicants. They can afford to set arbitrary and/or unfair standards.
Here is the thing about typos - most of the time people don’t notice them. The eye sees what it expects to see. That’s why you can proofread something several times and still end up with typos. Most likely the school will not even notice the typos. I wouldn’t call about it because then you have made sure that they would notice them.
A high school senior who is supposedly ready for the Ivies has surely been advised to proofread. People who can’t be bothered or don’t know a mistake when they see one aren’t likely very good candidates. I can see one mistake in an otherwise stellar application getting through at a tippy top college. But not a bunch of them. It is a hard lesson, but will serve you well in life if you learn it now. You will get dinged hard in college papers for typos, and adults who don’t proofread have trouble being taken seriously in the workplace.
@“Erin’s Dad” . That must be a CC classic, I’m surprised I haven’t come across it before. Seriously, I’ve been laughing for the last 5 minutes straight. That was magnificent.