<p>So yesterday I submitted to two schools early action on Common App, and I worked very hard on my essay. However, today I reviewed my application again and was rereading my essay, and realized that for whatever reason, the punctuation on my essay was different in the Common App than the way I had typed it in Word. I have no idea why. It happened four times, and three times it makes the sentence completely grammatically incorrect and incoherent. I have no idea why I didn't realize this when I reviewed my essay the first time, but I could not feel any worse and have no idea how to handle this situation. Any thoughts?</p>
<p>Its possible when the formatting got messed up when you copied and pasted it into the Common App. Same thing happened to me when I did my Rutgers app. I called Rutgers and they said it was fine because it happens a lot. But just call the schools and let them know when you went back to your essay, the punctuation got messed up when you pasted it from word. I don’t think it’ll be a problem or ruin you. </p>
<p>Happens when word saves as rich text - it happens to so many people it really is no big deal. But if you are going to send in more applications to additional schools, correct your common app essay (you can see the actual application formatting in the pdf you can print prior to submitting) and you have a total of 3 opportunities to edit your essay.</p>
<p>Thank you both so much! I’ll contact the schools to explain, and fix my essay on Common App before sending it out anywhere else. </p>