Dumb Mistake in First Application

[88literatureguy88]

I just made a really, really dumb mistake in my first submitted application (Minnesota). In the writing sample, the word "of" is missing in a sentence that clearly needs the word "of." Facepalm. Also, this dumb mistake is in the FIRST PARAGRAPH. The entire writing sample is great -- except for this mistake. What should I do? I can't exactly call the program and say, um, my writing same is missing the word of, please don't think of me as an incompetent idiot. I can't sleep now either...so annoyed and frightened this will turn off the adcomm. Big deal? Not a big deal? Contact the program, don't contact the program?

[mostlytoasty]

I say don't contact! The rest of your sample is great—let it be. Think of how many other people are badgering the department with questions, troubleshooting issues, etc. I would be pretty annoyed if I had to go back and help someone fix a measly "of." It's something you should have ideally caught before hand, but you know what... we're human and we make mistakes especially after working for months on apps for a bunch of other schools while trying to have a life. No big deal. I'm pretty sure my writing sample has mistakes too even after staring at it for so long. Take heart that the adcomm will probably be speed reading your paper most of the time and will brush right through it to get to the meat of your paper, aka stuff that really matters like your argument.

[1Q84]

I'll vouch for the other option: contact the department.

Graduate secretaries are your best friends. If you're nice and polite, they can bend over backwards for you. I would ask him or her to see if it might be possible to resubmit a corrected copy of your SOP, so that they don't have to go correct anything for you, just replace the paper. I don't see the harm in trying, especially because grammatical errors/typos could be jarring for some adcomm readers.

[TakeruK]

As you said, the entire writing sample is great, so there's no need to worry about it. They are not going to throw out your application because of something like that.

[waparys]

I'm leaning more towards 1Q84's opinion. The SoP and Writing Sample are supposed to be polished through and through. It's possible they'll see that mistake in the first sentence and think you didn't even read your own writing sample through before you submitted it. I say try to reach out to the secretary to get it replaced.

If you decide not to, though, I also don't think it'll be a huge deal. But it will be noticed. Either way make sure to correct it and read through your writing sample again! (Or get a friend to do it!). Best of luck.

[ProfLorax]

I made a spelling mistake in my SoP for one of my top choices, and I contacted the department as soon as I noticed it. The office was extremely understanding and allowed me to submit a revision. Here is my email:

My name is ProfLorax, and I submitted my application to Purdue University's English Department this week. I was just reviewing my statement of purpose for another school, and I realized I have a spelling error; sure enough, the spelling error is in the SoP I just submitted to Purdue. I am so embarrassed that I misspelled the name of an important theorist in my field, and neither my advisors nor I caught it! Is it possible for me to email you a revised draft to replace the statement that was submitted with the electronic application?

Thank you,

ProfLorax

When the administrative assistant replied with a very sweet "yes," I responded with profuse thanks ("you're a life saver!"). Hope that helps! One thing that helped me is reminding myself that the person I emailed would not be on the admissions committee, so I needn't worry about pointing out my own mistakes. Just be polite and gracious, and you'll be fine.

[practical cat]

Do what you have peace about. If you're going to beat yourself up about it, it seems worth it to contact someone in the very awesome and diplomatic way proflorax suggested.

[88literatureguy88]

Thanks for the advice. I think I'm going to contact the program. A polite email mentioning the mistake shouldn't bomb my application. Maybe I'll get lucky and they will let me submit a draft without the mistake. Good luck with apps.

[Chai_latte]

Oh my goodness. That's what I did...right in the 3rd-4th sentence of my SOP. I was missing one of those 2 or 3 letter words. I almost died. It was my first application and my first choice school. I'm attending that school now. I didn't think to contact them, but I'm also in a different field. Whatever you decide, good luck!

[pinkrobot]

For what it's worth, in my writing sample for one of my top choices, I ended a paragraph without a period, forgot a citation, and had what may possibly be the world's worst title. (Seriously, the title may well have been "[insert Placeholder Here]": it was not precisely that, but it was a phrase that I'd hoped to replace with a good title when I managed to think of one, which did not happen until weeks after that first deadline.) I am attending that program right now. Take heart!