*Sigh* just...general issues. Mistakes and the like.

<p><em>deep breath</em></p>

<p>Okay, so I've submitted the Common App to all of my schools. I was never really in a hurry with any of them, and I definitely checked the apps over many times before submitting, but I still feel like I made at least one egregious mistake.</p>

<p>-For the first four applications that I submitted, I listed my "first language" as the language that I first spoke when learning how to speak (Tamil). However, I listed English as my "language spoken at home" because I learned to speak English very early as well and am a fluent English speaker who has not needed to got through any sort of ESOL/English as a second language program. I changed this for my last 7 applications, but I contacted the admissions officer at my top choice school (which was one of the first four) to make sure that there would be no confusion or question about having to take the TOEFL or anything (which I don't think should be an issue, but I wanted to be cautious). I would have emailed my second choice as well, but this school's TOEFL guidelines were slightly more clear and led me to believe that I didn't need to email.</p>

<p>-Additionally, for the first four, I did not attach short explanations for some of my other important EC activities in which I had significant roles, which I later decided that I wanted to do (this would be in the additional info section). I emailed the admissions officers of these schools this attachment.</p>

<p>-This doesn't have to do with the Common App, but on the supplement for my top choice school, I had accidentally listed that I would not be applying for financial aid, when indeed I will be. I contacted the admissions officer about this, and she did make note of the change.</p>

<p>That already makes three mistakes that I've emailed my top choice school about, and now I'm afraid there might be a fourth. I had initially written my "please explain one of your ECs" short answer about a research internship I had done in a style that just says straight up "this is what I did, this is what I found, this is what I learned", nothing fancy, and sent it to one school. I then read an opinion on another college essay board that basically stated "don't just say what you did, make it about how the experience impacted you!", so I rewrote my short answer, making it more creative. I had to sacrifice some of the explanation of precisely what I did, but I did manage to get in what my project was about and some other important details, and added more details into my additional info (although the "nothing fancy" response that I sent to the one school was probably still more descriptive). However, I posted it on a college essay board, and the two opinions that I got basically said "this is not descriptive enough at all".</p>

<p>I'm kind of at a loss on what to do. I'm thinking it may not be a huge deal for most of my schools, since they have supplements with other essays that I think I've written well. But my top choice school's supplement doesn't have any additional essays, so my Common App essay + this EC short answer are it, basically. If I email my admissions officer again, I fear she'll think "this kid is really careless, isn't she", and it'll reflect badly on my application, though I'll probably end up having to do that anyways. Should I just email my admissions officer again? Should I submit a completely new application to this particular school, or is that too drastic?</p>

<p>I'm sorry if this is really ambiguous and if anyone needs more details, please PM me as I don't want to make this too personal on a public board. I'm just really feeling awful and honestly kind of lost about this.</p>

<p>Thanks SO MUCH for any responses, I know that this is one hell of a post.</p>

<p>Don’t panic! Calm down and breathe. I read your whole post but I didn’t find any specific questions in it. If I can be of any help to you, PM me, I’m at your service. </p>

<p>Also, I just wanted to make sure you know that the short answer doesn’t have to be a creative mini-essay. What you did is just fine.</p>

<p>Your EC short answer is fine. There are different ways to write an essay, and what you did was one way.</p>

<p>Thanks for the support. :)</p>

<p>Miss Princeton, the problem was actually that I wrote my short answer in a “creative” manner for most of the schools I applied to, instead of being very frank about the research I did. I am thinking about just emailing my admissions officer and asking to replace the short answer at the risk of looking careless, but I’m not sure if this is a wise decision or not.</p>