All those little mistakes

[EngineerGrad]

I wrote the wrong name of the program for one of my school's statement of purpose

[Sarah Bee]

Wrote wrong date of work experience in my CV and the right one in my online application.

Well, every time I am looking at my application, I am finding flaws. Imperfect sentence structures in my SoP, I am finding my writing samples to be substandard, etc.

One part of me says that this is a strong application but when I think of this application being compared to others’, it’s giving me the creeps. 

Edited January 13, 2014 by Sarah Bee

[barnardbonnu]

I refuse to go back and look at anything I submitted.  I don't want to find a mistake and then be worried 

I'm doing the same. At this point, I think we've done everything we can.

[starofdawn]

I'm doing the same. At this point, I think we've done everything we can.

 

Same here. It would be very masochistic to go back and search for mistakes. I will look for mistakes if I don't get in anywhere and reapply, but for now, I refresh the results page every 20 seconds.

[AvatarPsych]

I'd just like to chime in here. I spent a lot of time ruminating over my mistakes (I'm applying to joint programs so law school and grad school) and the law school applications are seemingly much more cut throat. I applied to a law school and actually wrote the wrong law school name in my personal statement. Usually that's a kiss of death, but I got accepted with a generous scholarship. It's important to know when something is "good enough" and not perfect and to just press the send key and don't look back.

[alyoshakaramazov]

I also know I had some typos in my NSF personal statement.  Whooooops.  That's what happens when you turn off spellcheck. 

Happened to me in my Penn State personal statement. I still got a call from a POI. Honestly, I don't know how that happened.

[Sarah Bee]

Just found out that there was an unforgivable grammatical error in the very first sentence of my SoP. So much for being a Sub-editor at a leading English Language Daily! 

Dreading the consequences now! Though it wouldn't be considered a sound enough reason to trash my application, but I am pretty sure that  it's going to give a bad first impression about me. 

Edited February 6, 2014 by Sarah Bee

[scottdickson86]

I typed my letter to my POI on Word and copied it to Mac's Mail client. When I checked my Sent folder to reread what I wrote, all the formatting is gone. The "new lines" disappeared and the letter just looks like one very long paragraph. I resent the email explaining what happened. Luckily, my POI responded to the second letter and asked about my GPA. Whew! 

[Macavity]

When I was applying for MA programs 2 years ago, I sent an empty envelope to one of my programs.  I don't even remember what was supposed to be in it.  Maybe my SOP.  But the grad dept only got an empty, sealed envelope.

[Porshyen]

I realized that I didn't accurately name a journal I was published in on my CV. Luckily, I caught it before submitting it to the various schools I have applied, but, for some, it was too late. Yikes. 

[rbroni88]

I made a huge booboo on one of my first applications--I accidentally wrote that I was born in 1998...I was too embarrassed to even let them know.

[Boba felt]

First line of my Resume.....I put 2013 instead of 2014 as my graduation date for my Masters (applying for PhD).  All my apps were due in Jan 2014 or later, so it's an obvious typo.  I felt like a MORON, oh god.  Of course I only noticed after submitting my last application.  Doh.

[EccentricAcademic]

So I found three dumb mistakes in my writing sample (what can I say, it's ongoing research) and  I contacted the two schools that got those samples and asked: 1. Have the committees met yet? 2. May I send a revised copy.

 

Both times they were incredibly kind, no one had met yet, and one school let me completely replace the sample. 

I'm glad I had the chutzpah to ask; they were happy to help and it made my application better.

 

I guess my new motto is: asking (usually) never hurts. The worst that anyone can say is "no" and then a polite, "thank you" is the best response.

[MastersHoping]

I am applying to masters programs in East Asian Studies, with a primary interest in Korea and a secondary interest in China. 

For my top choice, the classes I listed as being interested in taking and the faculty that I'd be in interested in working with were all China-related. Probably not a big deal, but still arghhh.

 

Also for my top choice (the first time around) I basically said "blah blah blah and that's why i'd be a great fit for Stanford University" (the application wasn't for Stanford).

 

Luckily I emailed the administrator for the program and he told me how to resubmit it and change the error. 

[scottdickson86]

Also for my top choice (the first time around) I basically said "blah blah blah and that's why i'd be a great fit for Stanford University" (the application wasn't for Stanford).

 

Oh wow! I would freak out if that happened to me! 

[catsandscarves]

I refuse to go back and look at anything I submitted.  I don't want to find a mistake and then be worried 

I did the exact same thing! Then I had to review materials for an interview I had..I tried to scan as much as I could so as to not notice mistakes ha

[manduke]

So I found three dumb mistakes in my writing sample (what can I say, it's ongoing research) and I contacted the two schools that got those samples and asked: 1. Have the committees met yet? 2. May I send a revised copy.

Both times they were incredibly kind, no one had met yet, and one school let me completely replace the sample.

I'm glad I had the chutzpah to ask; they were happy to help and it made my application better.

I guess my new motto is: asking (usually) never hurts. The worst that anyone can say is "no" and then a polite, "thank you" is the best response.

I did this too!

[Mogriff]

I was reviewing my submitted applications and realized that for one of the schools - my top choice, at that - I accidentally put that I had a 3.6 major GPA when in fact it's 3.9.  Eek!

 

I'm not sure if I should try to submit a revision or if I should just trust them to read my transcripts.  

 

What mistakes have you all made?

 

They have your transcripts that show your real GPA and assume it was a typo or that you made a mistake in reporting it. Don't sweat it!

[reinhard]

Lol after making all those mistakes, I still made it in.

[krishnalynn]

Too scared to look back at anything, I'm sure there's a mistake but I'm already freaking out about every little thing that I don't need the additional stress. 

[MoJuiced]

For the first couple schools I applied to my poetry portfolio didn't contain my name...

[HicklePickle]

I just reread my SOP... I addressed THREE faculty members as their respective Mr./Ms. Ughhh what was I thinking?!

[HermoineG]

I submitted an app late AND spelled a POI's first name wrong in that SOP because I was so freaked out by missing the deadline.  Not sure I'd call it a little mistake, but definitely in the "OH NO" category.

 

Other horror stories?

 

 

I did the same thing! But she called me for the interview anyway

[Between Fields]

I ran a POI's name together with a coordinating conjunction because I copy/pasted. But I got waitlisted, anyway, so I guess it was only mildly crippling.

[disba]

I wrote the wrong name of the program for one of my school's statement of purpose

I did the same thing but it was in the objective of my resume. I totally forgot that I had anything about the program in there, and I submitted it saying "Master of Public Administration" (the other 2 programs I applied to) instead of "Master of Public Service" - whoops!

 

I tried to email and re-submit (since most are fairly nice and will help you out when dumb mistakes happen) but they said it was final    Ah well!