Hi, so for my personal essay I wrote about a minor detail towards the end where I stated I did an “online TED talk presentation within my school community”
I already submitted this to a college, and I am very scared that they might interpret the wording of this and think I am referring to the official TED talk event (which is pretty prestigious and rare for a high school student to do). My passion project was based on a TED-like presentation that I gave to the clubs & peers at my school, which I just summarized as “within the school community”
I didn’t realize TED was a trademark of an actual official organization, and I did not mean for it to come off as the official thing - as many of my teachers had us do projects at our school labeled “TED Talk Project” for our finals and stuff so I thought TED talk was some sort of “presentation style based off the actual TED talk components”
So if they looked it up there would be no results since it was a “mock” TED or inspired model TED based off the actual thing - would they assume I was trying to lie about it? Should I update them on this in the additional activities after I submitted or would they just know I didn’t mean it that way? The school is a very competitive school T20 so I am afraid they will look deeper into this and interpret it differently, but if I keep updating them about stuff after my application it may seem like I am irresponsible and rude to their time.
If you’ve only sent the essay to one school, just email the Admission Officer with an explanation and explain what you’ve said here (preferably more succinctly) and reiterate your strong interest in the school. The AOs I’ve met all say they are a resource for students and like to hear from them if they can answer questions or provide information not on the website. This qualifies and gives you a chance to introduce yourself. Good luck!
I don’t think it is necessary to contact admissions. You used the term in good faith, in the context of how your teachers used it, and you were clear that it was given “within the school community” so you were in no way trying to overstate the scope or scale of what you did. Plus, whether it is trademarked or not, the term “Ted Talk” seems to be heading towards genericization, much like Kleenex and Velcro.
The AO will understand your intent. It sounds like this was a ED school and bringing attention to your essay for such a small transgression is likely not a good use of their time given that they are about to start reviewing applications.
Had you not been so clear on the context, I might have advised differently, but your intent is obvious. For any RD schools, I would change the wording to something like, “Ted Talk-like presentation” or similar so that you have 100% comfort with the usage.
My general sense is although that TED talk is an official “brand,” in common language it has become generalized to precisely the meaning you gave it. Just like Xerox has come to be synonymous with photocopies and Kleenex has become synonymous with tissues. People use TED talk this way all the time. Is it technically correct to do so? No, probably not. Do people use it this way anyway? They definitely do. And that’s just how language works sometimes.
Just chiming in to say I easily understood your meaning on first reading – I do not think the original wording was confusing or misleading. You are good!
