I sent an email to Harvard, Columbia and Yale about my financial aid and since I had similar questions, I copy-pasted from my Columbia email into my Yale/Harvard emails. My sister was calling me and I was in a rush, so I just hit send without reading it over.
… A second after, I realized I referred to Columbia in my emails to Harvard and Yale. It was only a 10-word email, and I followed it up with a quick apology but I feel MORTIFIED. Are admissions officers goingto take this as seriously as I am, or is college admissions stress just getting to me.?
Did you send it to the admissions office or the financial aid office? Luckily, for the above three schools, they operate separately, at least in terms of admission & financial aid.
IF you sent it to the admission office, you might get an email saying something like this: “This is school X, NOT school Y” – nobody really knows what AO might do (such as noting it on your application profile). But they know applicants make mistakes, and most of the times ignore minor errors in the application or communications.
I hope your Admissions Officer has a sense of humor, has experienced this before, and – most important – isn’t feeling the real stresses of 80 hour workweeks and only ~40 days until RD determinations must be finalized. S/he could laugh it off or could feel there are only 20,000+ equally well qualified candidates to select.
@NEPatsGirl I consider this Freedom of speech and I assume what I said. "Retarded"means it lacks thought/intellect. I don’t need your opinion.Thanks for your concern.
RELAX…its not that big of a deal. It happens all the time. Let me tell you about a story that happened to us. My son was applying to boarding schools last year. As part of the application process, parents have to write essays.
Well my son applied to two arch-rival schools (Andover and Exeter). He was accepted everywhere. I went back after acceptance day and looked at our parent essays. I was mortified to read the following line:
This was a pretty obvious cut-and paste error on my part. But he still got in. so RELAX. They realize people recycle these essays and humans make mistakes.
You know, @meriks, the OP specifically mentioned three Ivy League universities: Harvard, Yale, and Columbia. All of these schools annually:
[QUOTE=""]
Receive at least 10x the number of applications for which they have freshman openings.
Will deny at least 90 percent of their candidates.
And, most important, have applicant pools in which certainly 75 percent of the individuals are fully qualified to attend, merit acceptance, and would be essentially indistinguishable from those who matriculate.
[/QUOTE]
The critical, foregoing facts therefore describe a situation in which tens-of-thousands of absolutely distinguished, deserving, and immensely talented youngsters will be denied. MANY of these splendid applicants inhabit a large – and eminent – “numerical pack:” neither the few who truthfully had no legitimate basis to apply, nor the few who are so demonstrable superior that they will be accepted by nearly every school to which they apply.
How do admissions organizations cull this large – and truly remarkable – pack? Many CC participants use the terms including “lottery” and “crap shoot” to describe the process;" I dislike these phrases, because I know that tremendous effort is devoted to ensure fairness and to achieve institutional admissions objectives. However, under these circumstances, inconsequential nuances unfortunately can – and do – make the difference between receipt of “a thin or a fat envelope.” I am sure @WooTheDay would agree that this gaffe might fall in that category.
I wish the OP the best of luck, but I also appreciate the pressures and extreme difficulties which Harvard’s, Yale’s and Columbia’s undergraduate admissions organizations currently endure.
I do have to unfortunately agree with TopTier. While the actual admission’s department/staff will not say it, given the profound number of applications, the phrase “primum non nocere–first, do no harm”, is the unspoken motto for these departments. Placed bluntly, given the tiny sliver of folks who are actually admitted against the great hordes that apply, their posture is much more aligned to who they can eliminate, rather who they can accommodate.
Hopefully, in your situation, it will be meet with a forgiving laugh, and you will be on your way…
TopTier is on point with post #10. They will most likely ignore the minor error – the good news is that sometimes, they hire undergraduate part-time students to assist with the menial tasks in the Admission Office (such as answering phone calls, replying to emails etc).
I definitely wouldn’t send any further followup mea culpa emails on the subject to the AO’s - it may just draw attention to a small gaffe that might have otherwise gone overlooked.
