I have 9 schools I’m applying to with Nov. 1 deadlines (all EA), and I was about ready to submit them all. I had finished writing about 90% of my essays, and only had one left (for the college-specific ones). However, I dropped my laptop by mistake (because I hurt my wrist and was holding it with my non-dominant hand, and it slipped) and the laptop wouldn’t boot up after that. This happened on the 22nd- I took it to a data recovery place but even though they couldn’t find any physical damage with the hard drive, they were unable to get my laptop fixed, or retrieve any files.
I already know I probably should have backed up my files, but I didn’t- I did all my work on Word Doc. I’m applying to fairly selective schools (UChicago, Boston College, etc.) and I would say I’m an excellent writer- I was really hoping that perfect essays would tip the scales in my favor during admissions (my GPA is only 3.7 unweighted, 4.2 weighted- I do have good E.Cs though). I’ve been working on all my essays since July, and they were just perfect- now I’ve lost everything and need to start again.
I’m wondering if this is someone worth mentioning as an ‘extenuating circumstance’- I was only a few days away from submitting before this happened, it’s not like I procrastinated- it’s just really bad luck. But now that I’m writing them all over, really rushed, I already know they’re not going to be as good and I’m afraid the admission officers will think I’m just a terrible writer and reject me. This is not so- I’m fairly prolific when I try- but I know that my half-hazardly written essays won’t reflect that. What should I do? Is this worth emailing admission officers about, to give them a heads up? I just don’t want to submit an application that’s not reflective of who I truly am!
So sorry this happened. Really sounds like a nightmare scenario. Not quite sure what you are asking. If you are asking, do I tell admissions that my essays are not as good as they could be, because of this computer mishap - don’t do it. It will not convince them that you are a good writer and may cast you in a negative light. If you are asking, does this computer mishap qualify as an extenuating circumstance that would allow a deadline extension for EA - probably not, but check with your gc on that one. For the selective schools, you are better off applying when you think your essays are in tip top shape. If that means forgoing EA and applying RD, then do that.
I wasn’t looking for an extension- that seems unreasonable, even to me- but I was wondering if I should tell admissions about this in the form of an extenuating circumstance. However, I get that it seems like just “making excuses”, so I’m not too keen on doing it.
Would it be at all damning, to apply Regular Decision? Would it damage my chances at all? I know that the odds of being accepted go up a bit with EA, but my essays would be undoubtedly better if I went RD. So should I just forget about EA?
It all depends on the school, their admit rates and your stats. But generally, applying early with an app that does not put your best foot forward, is probably not going to help, but could hurt. If a school is a safety, that could be a different story
You have plenty of time to rewrite at least a couple of those essays to your high standards before the EA deadline. Do that for your top 2 schools and do the rest RD.
So you hadn’t sent any of the essay’s out to anyone to proof? I only ask just in case you could retrieve something through email. How good was the company you took the computer to? Not all companies are equal in data retrieval, so you could try another company. But I bet a lot will come back to you as you start to write. I think you should do as suggested focus on one or two EA applications and send the rest RD.
Had you never emailed drafts of your essays to anyone to look at or edit or had you never printed out a copy? I would take the time to write strong essays and apply RD rather than try to quickly slap together something for EA. (And I’d try using a program like Google Docs).
^^Agree. I’m very old school, but I also find it hard to believe you were that close to sending them and haven’t emailed them to be proofed by teacher or parent, even if just for grammar errors. Since I think most people do this, then claiming you have no copies at all does sound like an excuse. Honestly, most essays are not that long. You ought to be able to mostly recreate them pretty quickly if you have been working on them intensely.
Again, old school, but my Ds will tell you I’m a big fan of keeping a notebook or folder with copies of all relevant information - test scores, emails to/from recommender, CV, etc. Good thing to start now.
Google docs or a regular backup of some kind going forward. Agree with the question of whether you emailed drafts to anyone of any of them for review. Buckle down and write the ones with Nov 1 scholarship deadlines first.
And no, I would not tell colleges. Do what you can by the deadline, and move the rest to RD.
I would say that it sounds like you are applying to too many schools. 10 is about tops (wait til your parents have to do all the FA paperwork, they won’t be very happy).
It is too bad it happened but definitely don’t use it as an excuse. It would sound a lot like “the dog ate my homework” type of excuse. And that is not the kind of student college’s seek out. Better to not say anything and submit any applications you can’t finish for the RD deadline.
I would warn you to not rush through and do a sub-optimal job just to get applications in by the EA deadline.
And going forward you need to use Google docs, a flash drive etc. to insure this doesn’t happen again.
Same thing happened to me yesterday but I dont think I have much rewriting to do, it was just a couple half finished drafts that I lost, the rest is in the portals. I feel your pain though, good luck!
First off- thank you everyone for the advice, everything ended up fine in the end and I was accepted into every college I applied to except one. A little late for an update, sure, but you’ll see why in a second.
Now. It’s been months since I first wanted to say this, but I held off because I’m passive and don’t like to create conflict. But this has been bothering me for months so I need to say this: @millie210, you didn’t need to be so nit-picky with my original post! I know this is insignificant, and if you never respond or see this that’s okay- but this is something I wanted to get off my chest. I typed my post with an injured dominant hand in roughly two-three minutes. Surely you realize I spent more time with/put more care into my college essays? Just because I made one or two mistakes in my post doesn’t mean losing my college essays was a “blessing in disguise”, and I resent you for saying so. The writing prowess I display in an informal forum setting is not indicative of my overall writing abilities. I spent a significant time on my essays and was devastated to lose them: so for you imply that I was somehow better off to have lost them was inherently hurtful.
I hope you don’t take this as a personal attack; I just hope you come to understand how your words were hurtful to someone who came looking for genuine advice and was told that she was such a poor writer she was better off having lost so much of her hard work. At this point, there’s almost no point in writing this, but I figure I have nothing to lose and I’ve been trying to share my feelings more so… that’s that. Much love xx
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I see an astonishing number of people on CC who use or spell words incorrectly. Even taking into account errors from autocorrect and the fact that most people, including me, don’t write as carefully in a place like CC as they do when they need to write more formally, it’s clear that there are a fair number of people out there who don’t know as much as they think they do. I had no way of knowing that your mistakes weren’t representative of your general writing ability. I’m entirely sure that there are people who think something done carelessly is done half-hazardly. I’m glad you’re not one of them and that you did so well with admissione.