Two silly mistakes, how poorly does it reflect on me?

[Tolman's Rat]

I'm sure none of us can say definitively, but how poorly do you think a few silly mistakes will reflect on me? They are just typographical errors that must have gotten lost in the editing process.

One: "I believe that an eclectic approach to topics in psychology is essential for a holistic understanding of contemporary issues in psychology. No single approach is sufficient to explain complex phenomena. We should strive to understand processes at the neural level, at cognitive level, and within a developmental framework, both ontogenetic and evolutionary."

Two: "In order to foster the development of psychology, the teaching of undergraduates is of the substantial importance."

The bolded being the mistakes.

So unbelievably frustrating. I went over these so many times, but after X amount of edits, the words just start blending together, I guess. I'd like to think that these small errors won't entirely ruin an application package, but I also had a hiccup on the quant GRE (which, hopefully, is mitigated by my outstanding stats background)

The rest of my package is solid. My recommenders said that my statements are very strong. They wrote very positive letters. My GPA is very strong. Plenty of research experience. Did very well on verbal and AW GRE.

Insight, anyone?

[Allouette]

I found a very similar mistake (I forgot a 'the' and had an 'an' in front of a consonant FOR SHAME) on one of my applications. I felt terrible about it all evening and lost a few hours of sleep biting my nails over it (I still feel nervous about it and cycle between 'it doesn't matter' and 'oh god oh god WHY').

That being said, someone put to me it this way: "If you only noticed it on your four hundredth read through, how likely do you think it is someone else will immediately zone in on it when they are scanning it through quickly?"

I hope he's right because aaah. So I'm not much help insight-wise (sorry), but I feel you, and hopefully for both of us, people will either not notice or not care?

[fuzzylogician]

Look, better no mistakes than 1-2 mistakes but typos of that nature really aren't going to be what keeps you out of grad school. Can you imagine anybody saying "we really liked X and her fit with our department, she has great research interests and would be an asset to have in our incoming cohort! ... but her writing sample contains two typos, so lets move on to the next candidate."

[Tolman's Rat]

I found a very similar mistake (I forgot a 'the' and had an 'an' in front of a consonant FOR SHAME) on one of my applications. I felt terrible about it all evening and lost a few hours of sleep biting my nails over it (I still feel nervous about it and cycle between 'it doesn't matter' and 'oh god oh god WHY').

That being said, someone put to me it this way: "If you only noticed it on your four hundredth read through, how likely do you think it is someone else will immediately zone in on it when they are scanning it through quickly?"

I hope he's right because aaah. So I'm not much help insight-wise (sorry), but I feel you, and hopefully for both of us, people will either not notice or not care?

OK! It makes me feel a little better that others have made the same mistake. I mean, it's such a silly error that I've made similar errors on major papers and still come out with an A+

I agree, and it seems obvious enough that adcomms will be looking content not grammar, and really, grammar should only play a part if it's an obvious issue that reflects poorly on the candidate's writing skills. That isn't the case (I have attached my thesis research as a supplemental document, and my recommenders have told me that this demonstrates my excellent writing skills)

I hope you're right and they won't even notice it. The grad advisor told me the same thing, it's unlikely to even be noticed, and if it is, it won't be the difference maker.

Look, better no mistakes than 1-2 mistakes but typos of that nature really aren't going to be what keeps you out of grad school. Can you imagine anybody saying "we really liked X and her fit with our department, she has great research interests and would be an asset to have in our incoming cohort! ... but her writing sample contains two typos, so lets move on to the next candidate."

Well...when you put it that way...

My neuroticism gets the best of me sometimes, but I suppose it's gotten me this far...

Edited December 5, 2012 by Tolman's Rat

[Ablukhov]

It's hard to remember that the adcoms are composed of people who are genuinely (and sympathetically) interested in us and not evil robots set on destroying our egos, dreams, hopes, etc.