Significant error on application - what to do?

[gellert]

I'm such an idiot.

One of my applications requires you to report grades you made in classes relevant to your major. In one of these classes, I accidentally reported the wrong grade on the self-report portion when it's perfectly clear on my uploaded transcript that I made a different grade. (Example: grade being a B on the transcript and I wrote A- on the self-report.)

Also realized that I calculated my major GPA only including classes from my alma mater, and forgot to include a class that I took at a different school.

So, how screwed am I? And should I contact the school to see if they can change it? Or will they likely not even notice?

(eta: and okay, so maybe not SIGNIFICANT error, but it certainly feels significant right now. )

Edited December 26, 2011 by gellert

[runonsentence]

If you feel the errors were significant, politely contact the graduate secretary/administrator, explain the error, and ask him/her if it can be corrected. I've done this and had incredibly helpful, polite responses.

[Helpplease123]

Unless they're sitting there with all you documents laid out making comparisons, I doubt they'd remember all your grades for each class from one part of the application to another...unless it's some hugely important class?

How off was the GPA? If it's wrong by a matter of 0.1+ i'd say you should probably contact them to correct, if not leave it because again, I highly doubt they're investigating it as thoroughly as finding that out would require.

[Gvh]

I definitely agree that it's worth calling admissions. Just be very nice and apologetic and itàs unlikely they will be unhelpful. I have also had some screw ups and managed to fix it this way. I even managed to get them to change the concentration of the major after I had submitted the application, they let me submit an updated SOP and everything! =)

[gellert]

Thanks so much guys. I'll definitely be calling them as soon as their office reopens after the holidays. (And the class that I miswrote the grade for was in a semi-relevant field, but no, not really a big deal.)

So, another problem. I got anxious and started rechecking all my applications and then realized that, on three of them, I put down the GPA from my alma mater under "overall undergraduate GPA" when they probably wanted the combined alma mater + institution I transferred from + study abroad. Now, it's pretty obvious what my mistake was, and that I wasn't just making up some random GPA. Should I call and point this out or are they unlikely to notice (or, if they do, unlikely to care)?

Edited December 26, 2011 by gellert

[Gvh]

Again, I would just explain the situation as you did here - in my experience the admissions secretaries are super nice and want us to be in good shape. Worst that can happen is that they say it can't be changed. Can't hurt, right?

[gellert]

Awesome. Thanks so much again, Gvh!

(lol I'm a little terrified of admissions secretaries because, while two of the three I've called before were super nice, the third quite literally yelled at me before I'd even finished explaining my question. I was completely shocked and now a little bit nervous about calling schools!)

[Gvh]

Haha no worries =) And that's funny about the angry secretary...! I suppose it does say something about the school if the admissions assistants aren't helpful. I don't know about anyone else, but I would like to attend a school with informed, nice and helpful management employees! After all, we might be dealing with them in the future if we decide to attend the school

Edited December 26, 2011 by Gvh

[gellert]

Yeah, seriously. I mean, the admin assistants are paid to be helpful, even if they think the question is stupid. The person in question went so far as to insult my surname. I mean, what the actual heck? Even a bad day doesn't excuse that.

I love the POI at that school, though, so I'm still applying. Might submit an anonymous complaint after I get my final result, though.

Edited December 26, 2011 by gellert

[Gvh]

Wow, really? Yeah, as soon as you get your decision send in that letter. That is ridiculous. It would take a lot less than that to piss me off. In fact, I made an appointment to to visit one of my schools (an ivey, no less) this summer and have a one-to-one with the main admissions counselor. She sat at her computer, staring the at the screen throughout the whole 15 minutes I was there and answered my questions monosillabically and with disinterest. I wasn't happy.