Typo in the Common App Essay

<p>We were so happy to have my son's Early Decision and Early Action applications submitted on Sunday, but I just realized/found that my child used a homonym in his essay and picked the wrong word, i.e. creak vs. creek. (His English teacher edited the piece, I edited it about a dozen times, and he's a great English student (a 5 in AP Lang & Comp last year) but not a great speller and no one saw it. I know I can change it on the Common Apps going forward for the schools he hasn't yet applied to, and I think it would be dumb to have him contact the Admissions Counselors to try to re-submit it. I guess I just want to hear how bad of a mistake that was, and if you think there's anything to be done at this point.</p>

<p>My D had a typo in the first line of her supplemental essay to an Ivy League and she still got in. This was after proofreading the essay over and over a million times. She omitted an s in a word. She also had 2 5’s on the AP English. If the essay is really strong, I think it will be overlooked. She did not contact the college - she just let it go. She was an overall very strong candidate and just left it at that.</p>

<p>This doesn’t matter. The time to panic is when the last line in the essay about ‘why I want to attend XYZ University’ says ‘and that’s why ABC University is my first choice.’ </p>

<p>So long as the essay isn’t obviously sloppy and last minute, or obviously illiterate, it’s fine.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t worry about it either. It could be worse…clamfart comes to mind. </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/470497-clam-fart-oh-my-god-what-did-i-do.html?highlight=clamfart[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/470497-clam-fart-oh-my-god-what-did-i-do.html?highlight=clamfart&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>

You would change it? Doesn’t he submit his own Common Ap??</p>

<p>If that many people read it and proofed it and didn’t catch it, chances of the ad comm doing the same are slim :D. I really don’t think they read every word in every essay anyway, there just isn’t time to do that. I’m sure they skim most of them. You can just write it off to a northern/southern thing too and how that word is pronounced in various parts of the country. :D.</p>

<p>Hi CTTC - You’re right - I am definitely not applying for my child! In fact, he doesn’t even know he has a typo yet. I realized it after he’d left for school and quickly did some research on the Common App website to find out what could be done and I learned that one could create a new Common App. I feel like I had ownership of the new information about creating a new application, that’s all. All the applications have to be electronically signed by him before being submitted. This is his deal, I just feel bad because I proofread it for him each time he asked and I never found it, and I should have known better. I just feel like I let him down.</p>

<p>To all the posters, thanks for your positive thoughts. And the funny clamfart link. I did some googling since I posted and I see that some schools will accept corrections. I don’t know if the schools he applied to allow that, but it’s probably not a good idea anyway, since it’s pretty minor and would just call attention to the mistake. </p>

<p>I guess I am going to go with your advice to let it go. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.</p>

<p>YES! I wanted to tell the OP about CLAM FART!</p>

<p>I will tell you I had a near nervous breakdown when I realize the common app went out with several mistakes on it. Like a bottle of wine one night kind of time. He spelled counselor - counciler (with the word spelled correctly below), didn’t check his race, had a few other odds and ends incorrect.</p>

<p>I was convinced it was the end of his hs career. He is a freshman this year and got in his ED school.</p>

<p>I had to research this myself - unless it’s a huge, huge mistake - wrong essay uploaded, etc - do not contact them to point out the errors. Schools are used to typos.</p>

<p>–> M’s Mom: “lol” and <em>cringe</em>.</p>

<p>Re: “clamfart”: At least it persists in memory, like a bad commercial or an offensive date. And getting remembered is, like, I dunno, half the game?</p>

<p>(Patriots: 18-1)</p>

<p>I feel stupid because I accidental wrote invidious instead of individual and apparently the former word means discriminatatory. Should I bother to contact the colleges because I don’t them to think I Am “invidious.” </p>

<p>I think it’s reasonable to assume that no one is going to get bent out of shape about a couple of minor typos. I think the only time I would consider contacting the college to make a correction would be if something was bad enough that it really interfered with the overall content of the essay. For example, if you realize that a paragraph (or even a sentence) had been repeated or omitted because of a cut/copy/paste error. Beyond that, the people who are reading these are human beings who make mistakes themselves. (One of my son’s friends found a grammatical error in a letter from Harvard. She had no interest in applying, so she sent a very polite email pointing out the error.)</p>

Lol. applied to Michigan EA and found that when writing the long form of LSA I wrote it wrong. In the first line. HOpe I am ok

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