Is this normal? (Stupid Common App)

Applying to College
1

<p>Ok, so I sent in my common app to all the schools about a week ago. I reviewed all of my essays to make sure that everything was in good and proper order. I look back at it for the first time today, and I see that it completely butchered my paragraph structure, which I considered to be a very important part of my essay. I used to have about six evenly-worded paragraphs. Now, I have only three, including what looks to be about a four-hundred word behemoth stuck right in the middle that is just hideous.</p>

<p>My question is, is this what the colleges will see? Or do you think that they will see what I am 99% sure I originally wrote?</p>

2

<p>b u</p>

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3

<p>Were the words the same, just the paragraphs not seperated any more?</p>

<p>I am not understanding exactly what happened</p>

<p>If that is what happened, you are probably not the only one</p>

4

<p>ditto, it happened to me on one of my supplements, you are not alone. i think it would annoy them more if we all sent corrected drafts after the deadline has passed.</p>

5

<p>it happened to me too. I sent a booklist, and common app strung everything together like one huge paragraph. so the list is very difficult to read/understand. i didn't know how to fix it either because it is entered into the field correctly.</p>

6

<p>did you print preview before you submit? the common app erroneously creates extra spaces between some paragraphs (where the last line of the paragraph hasn't passed the halfway mark of the line). Otherwise, it doesn't indent anything which could lead to an appearance that the paragraphs are clumped together.</p>

<p>In the future, just print preview and check where the common app has already made spaces between paragraphs. Then, create a space by hitting return for paragraphs that haven't already been spaced out. It's kinda complicated, and I hope you understand what I'm saying. Anyway, good luck with everything.</p>

7

<p>Yep, the words were exactly the same, just not the paragraph breaks. I'm not so worried now that I know other people have had the same problem. For a couple hours, though, I was ****ed. I had worked incredibly hard on that essay, and then common app went and completely messed it up. I don't think its worth hasseling my colleges for, though. They already have enough work to do.</p>

<p>Edit- Just read what you said Patriotboy, that would have been extremely helpful about a week ago. I don't think that colleges will penalize for something like this because it is probably so prevalent. I don't think that I have the computer skills to do what you just said.</p>

8

<p>I remember reading on the Common App site somewhere "colleges will understand formatting issues" or something. In the future though, print preview a lot. I print previewed so many times that the Common App sent me an e-mail asking if I was having technical diffficulties (50 times).</p>

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<p>i tried to change the spacing on the print preview and it didn't work, so i just had to send my app in.</p>

10

<p>I found that inserting line breaks worked, and with extra blank lines, extra spaces after the end of the paragraphs was typically the culprit.</p>

11

<p>same thing heppend to me</p>

12

<p>I experienced the same thing. Fortunately, I print/preview a lot, and fixed the problems. Here are my 2 cents:</p>

<p>If there is extra space b/w paragraphs, just leave no space in the box where you type in your essay.</p>

<p>If there is no space b/w paragraphs, just leave one extra space in the box where you type in your essay.</p>

13

<p>If you are talking about the HTML page, then make sure you look at the PDF. The HTML page strings things together.</p>

14

<p>Wow, thanks zogoto. This whole time I was just clicking on page three of my app, not the print preview. In my print preview everything looks great. So is the PDF what my colleges are going to see?</p>