I made several mistakes on my application. Will I get rejected?

[26in2020void]

I am applied to University of Southern California’s Master of Social Work program back in April, and I am anxiously awaiting the results. This is my dream program because I know two people who are alumni and I want to make them proud. However, I was reviewing my application and I noticed some mistakes on my part.

1. I put that I attended one of my community colleges for two school years, but I forgot that I attended another semester online while physically attending a different community college.

2. I also forgot that I started at the university I graduated from much earlier because I took a summer class through the summer I graduated high school.

3. For the same university, I accidentally checked “still attending.”

I am really freaking out because I already got rejected by two MSW programs over the past two weeks. Upon realizing this mistake, I frantically emailed my admissions counselor on Friday Night, and I hope to get a response on Monday. I just hope that there’s some clemency because I attended five different colleges (official transcripts are not cheap), I am on the autism spectrum, and I had an eating disorder for the first half of college so my memory of those years is spotty. I went into detail about the latter two in my personal statement.

The question is, are these mistakes going to cost me?

Edited May 23, 2021 by 26in2020void
Needed better tags

[labradoodle]

Honestly, these mistakes seem quite minor to me - it's not as if you put the wrong university you're applying to in your personal statement, or something. Of course, the fewer mistakes, the better, but mistakes will always happen and as long as they can understand the basic trajectory of your studies and see that you meet their criteria, I personally don't think it would be a huge issue. I get that it feels like that from your perspective, though! But if they don't know you did an extra summer semester, why would they make a problem out of it?

[26in2020void]

10 hours ago, labradoodle said:

Honestly, these mistakes seem quite minor to me - it's not as if you put the wrong university you're applying to in your personal statement, or something. Of course, the fewer mistakes, the better, but mistakes will always happen and as long as they can understand the basic trajectory of your studies and see that you meet their criteria, I personally don't think it would be a huge issue. I get that it feels like that from your perspective, though! But if they don't know you did an extra summer semester, why would they make a problem out of it?

I really appreciate you saying that and I hope the committee that views my application is as understanding as you are. Sometimes I find it annoying that we have to repeat information that’s already there like being asked to describe our work duties if we already have to attach our resumes. In this case, it’s putting the months we attended certain schools when we’re already sending our transcripts. Regarding the summer classes I forgot about, the one I took at a university, started not long before high school graduation, so it may not be included in my GPA calculation (hopefully that’s the case because I was not a good student back then). While the extra semester I took at a community college was an online crash course in the fall. I have very little recollection of that time due to my eating disorder being at its worse and taking chemistry at another community college. I am fearful of it being a problem because I made the same mistakes on my other applications and I got rejected by two schools (Columbia and CSU Long Beach). I wouldn’t doubt it if the mistake I made is what cost me admission to those schools.

[labradoodle]

14 hours ago, 26in2020void said:

I really appreciate you saying that and I hope the committee that views my application is as understanding as you are. Sometimes I find it annoying that we have to repeat information that’s already there like being asked to describe our work duties if we already have to attach our resumes. In this case, it’s putting the months we attended certain schools when we’re already sending our transcripts. Regarding the summer classes I forgot about, the one I took at a university, started not long before high school graduation, so it may not be included in my GPA calculation (hopefully that’s the case because I was not a good student back then). While the extra semester I took at a community college was an online crash course in the fall. I have very little recollection of that time due to my eating disorder being at its worse and taking chemistry at another community college. I am fearful of it being a problem because I made the same mistakes on my other applications and I got rejected by two schools (Columbia and CSU Long Beach). I wouldn’t doubt it if the mistake I made is what cost me admission to those schools.

You have to remember that they see a lot of applications; if it's just a few small discrepancies between your cv and your statement and only has relevance on a few extra classes you took, they might not even notice? I'm not sure about that of course, but even if they do, it's not like you're deliberately leaving something bad out or put a different university than the one you actually went to, or something. Additionally, I'm not from the US so take this with a grain of salt, but Columbia seems quite picky in who they let in anyway, and especially with the huge numbers of applicants this year "getting rejected from a top university" isn't a bad sign at all; it's just circumstantial. The other university I've never heard of tbh (that's a me thing, nothing to do with the university in particular lol), but still getting rejected by two schools doesn't mean anything for your other applications!

[26in2020void]

10 hours ago, labradoodle said:

You have to remember that they see a lot of applications; if it's just a few small discrepancies between your cv and your statement and only has relevance on a few extra classes you took, they might not even notice? I'm not sure about that of course, but even if they do, it's not like you're deliberately leaving something bad out or put a different university than the one you actually went to, or something. Additionally, I'm not from the US so take this with a grain of salt, but Columbia seems quite picky in who they let in anyway, and especially with the huge numbers of applicants this year "getting rejected from a top university" isn't a bad sign at all; it's just circumstantial. The other university I've never heard of tbh (that's a me thing, nothing to do with the university in particular lol), but still getting rejected by two schools doesn't mean anything for your other applications!

I understand what you’re saying and I hope you are right. I can see how students might accidentally put a different school due to heavily relying on acronyms instead of full names. I also understand what you mean with the volume of applicants this year. I feel stuck because I am unable to get a job, so I thought that grad school would help me. I couldn’t have been more wrong because I can’t even get in. I wouldn’t doubt it if this all boils down to my lack of experience. I appreciate your perspective from outside the United States. You’re right about Columbia being difficult. I honestly thought that I had a chance because I know people with a much lower GPA than me who got in. Don’t worry, I’m not offended that you don’t know of California State University, Long Beach. It doesn’t have a football team (by football I mean the American version with tackling and touchdowns) and it is not highly ranked. I hope you are right about the other schools. I have my doubts because I applied to one of them dead first (so I had no idea to what I was doing). However, I went there for undergrad so I think there will be a slight advantage. As for the second school I’m waiting on, the one mentioned in this post, I really hope that the errors don’t kill my chances. I also applied to USC’s MPH program this weekend and tried to be more careful.