<p>Grrrr...I changed it at the last minute before submitting! It reads "I sat down beside to the lamp"...how horrible is this and how will it affect my chances?</p>
<p>Will hardly matter. It’s possible no one will even catch it</p>
<p>Wait, you changed it before submitting? Why are you asking then?</p>
<p>Before it was “next to” and then I changed it at the last minute to “beside to”</p>
<p>Umm, it shouldn’t matter TOO much. They might either a) assume typo, b) think your grammar skills are sorta weak.</p>
<p>I have a couple typos too. Sent in ED. Hopefully they don’t count for much!</p>
<p>welllllll when i first read it, i read “i sat down beside the lamp” and thought, "maybe he’s freaking out because he meant “besides…” i didnt even notice the “to”</p>
<p>long story short: they won’t catch it, most likely</p>
<p>^ Same as him. I didn’t catch it at all; hell, I just saw “I sat down beside the lamp” and continued reading it.</p>
<p>You will be rejected. Abandon all hope.</p>
<p>Nice satire of useless panic TheHalfrican. It won’t matter unless the rest of your essay is riddled with typos and grammatical slips. This is a really petty issue and if you honestly believe this will harm your chances, then you probably do not have a particularly strong conviction as to why you belong at Columbia, which is a far more serious concern than any little typo…</p>
<p>I know that admissions officers run the gamut from not caring at all to viewing typos as a sign of not caring. And both kinds work at Columbia.</p>