This is the time perspective students read over their applications and realize that they have typos in their essays. Others said something odd or showed up late for the interview. Panicked, they come on this site and ask if they will be rejected on the basis of their glitch. If you know much about admissions, you know that a school is unlikely to reject a candidate on the basis of a trivial mistake. But if you are the one with your application on the line, things can look a lot less clear. So, if you have had this sort of experience, yet ended up getting into school, can you describe what happened and how things ended up. This may help a lot of applicants. After all, what is the chance any applicant submitted a application that was devoid of any typos?
I know a kid whose “Why Duke” essay was full of stuff about Columbia–she recycled, submitted hastily, and forgot to do a find/replace.
She got in to Duke off the waitlist and graduated last year.
Pretty sure most people’s app mistakes are less severe than hers 
Great thread idea. =D>
I’m purposefully avoiding my application out of the fear that if I look over it again, I’ll find mistakes.
I forgot to finish the first sentence of my Northwestern Essay lol
Not a huge one, but I mentioned that I’d love to pursue journalism in an essay for a school that does not offer a journalism program. It was originally written for Columbia. (
@marvin100 's story seems like the worst possible typo scenario haha. Other than that, I’ve read essays over to find they’ve had one or two grammar errors, but if it took me 5+ reads to catch them I doubt the AOs caught them.
Yes and No. I had my D apply to a couple of local schools (2 hours away) that she really did not want to attend or visit on the theory that if it was between them and our local state school she would reconsider. She was above their 75th % and lets say this school is #28, she got into at least 3 #22 and under schools one of which she accepted. The #28 school which was a low target for her (I know nothing is guaranteed blah blah) wait listed her. When I went back and read her application I found the one original essay was basically a good essay but filled with obvious typos like “not not” and bad spacing and things that pop out. She also did not visit, did not interview and basically showed very little interest in the school. So the moral is, if you make typos do not worry unless they are so bad it looks like you did not care. If that is the case do not point it out but instead try to make an extra effort to show interest if you want that school.
Seems like a golden opportunity to bring back this gem: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/470497-clam-fart-oh-my-god-what-did-i-do-p1.html
On a more personal note: I didn’t make any huge typos aside from some verb tense inconsistencies in my (rushed) UPenn supplement which aren’t too noticeable and didn’t stop me from getting in. I did however essentially force my Yale interviewer to interview me on one day’s notice since I was planning to leave on an international trip the day after (it was a late interview) and still got in.
Ah, the old clam fart. I love that post. So funny!
My D and I thought every school she applied to, it would be the same easy process, and what could go wrong? The first app she sent, she transferred her Google docs common app essay into the common app and hit send. Then a couple of weeks later, she filled out her next app, but this time noticed that when the essay transferred on the common app, it was littered with ? marks and weird spaces everywhere. She fixed it all, and hit send, then began to panic about whether her first application had the same mistakes on the essay. Neither of us recalled seeing anything amiss, but we also couldn’t recall looking at the essay on the actual application. That was back in October, and she is still wondering if she sent off her first common app essay with ? marks all over it.
Turned out the glitch had been reported to Common App, and she was satisfied that other kids may also have submitted essays with weird spaces and ? marks. She never contacted admissions about it, because she didn’t want to call attention to a probable non-problem. She figured if it did have ? marks everywhere, they would easily see it was a glitch of some type. Wish her luck!
Linda, she can still access that essay. She can go into her common app, and download what she submitted to school x. She will see whether it is properly formatted or not.
@SeekingPam , I will tell her that, thanks! She should have times, as she applied RD to the school.
@SeekingPam , thanks again! In fact, her essay did have all the random punctuation, and she is mortified. She has sent a correct version to the college. Fingers crossed!
I can’t imagine any school holding that against your daughter. They know it was a glitch in their system not in your system. I’m sure they got many similar ones and most are probably not going to be corrected but it won’t matter.