<p>I admit. I am guilty of recycling essays, but in my defense, several of the colleges I applied to had word for word the exact same prompt (Describe one of your extracurriculars or activities, ect. something like that). </p>
<p>I accidentally submitted my "activity" essay with "Stanford" in it. I even read through my application but my brain must have looked over it (it only happened once). I'm going to email them and maybe call them about it later, but am I completely hopeless?</p>
<p>Honestly Rice is in my Top 3 choices and my other essays are completely original (not recycled) and I am super proud of them. I'd hate to not even have a chance because I reused one 150 word essay. </p>
<p>Bottom line: What should I do? Is Rice very forgiving? Has anyone else had this experience?</p>
<p>Another note: I actually have a few different “activity” essays and the one I wrote for Rice is on a different activity than the one I wrote for Stanford. </p>
<p>[Stanford was also a “for fun” application. I know it’s nearly impossible to get in, but their essay topics were fairly entertaining so I submitted anyways]</p>
<p>I would email them as soon as you can. Be honest - tell them you are also applying to Stanford and accidentally pasted the wrong attachment in. Use this email to add a little note about Rice being one of your top choices and you like it because x,y,z.</p>
<p>Give it a little personality so it doesn’t feel like you slipped up while shotgunning applications. If your Rice one is different that the Stanford one, even better as it doesnt come off as using the EXACT same thing with different school names. That said, no one here can answer how this will affect you. Hope for the best.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>
<p>@countysheriff
I saw the same as Antarius. You cannot undo what you did but what you can do is be honest and send them an email and apologize. Let them know of the situation and do what you can to make it sound that you are sincere about Rice. But in the end, you have to realize that this situation MIGHT come back to hurt you but noone here knows like Antarius said…just keep that in mind. but good luck!!</p>
<p>@matrixsurgeon and @antarius </p>
<p>Thanks for helping and not being hostile. Totally expected some negative comments but you guys made me feel a bit better. </p>
<p>I emailed them and made it clear I meant no disrespect and that they were one of my top choices. Also if it was possible to send my original intended essay. If a reply doesn’t come in about 24 hours I’ll also call them to be on the safe side. </p>
<p>Bottom line: ALWAYS put all supplemental essays for a college on ONE word document.</p>
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<p>Glad to help. Definitely done stuff similar before - turned in a history paper as an attachment to my Computational Mathematics programming course. Professor was like *** but was understanding when I explained I made a mistake; he let me submit the original attachment with no penalty.</p>