Today I woke up to my music teacher (who is my additional recommender) calling to inform me that she’s made a mistake on her recommendation.
One of the international competitions (for piano) I attended was in 2014, but she wrote that it was in 2012. This is a big deal because, in my CommonApp essay, I talk about this competition, and I mention my age in it which is the age I would be if I attended in 2014, not 2012.
I already applied to all universities and can do nothing to change it. I’m afraid that some of the top universities I applied to, including ivy leagues, might see this as a typo and use it as a reason to reject me. This is no grammar mistake; this changes the timeline of my essay - not very significantly, but it still does. I applied to over 15 universities, and my CommonApp and the additional recommendation was sent to every one of those universities…
I talked with my counselor, and they said we could potentially do a little paragraph update, but Orthodox Christmas is around the corner and, in my part of the world, I probably won’t be able to reach my teacher for at least another couple of days. My counselor also told me that the universities won’t care, but I don’t know if I agree with that. I feel like if I was an admissions officer, I would care a lot, and I’d probably believe the teacher over the applicant. Maybe it’s just post-college application anxiety, but I’d really hate to lose my potential place at top universities because of some dumb typo I had no control over.
So… how screwed am I? If I’m really screwed, who do I contact? What do I do? I’m not trying to sit around and do nothing.
Thank you so much.
Your counselor is right. Don’t worry about it.
Presumably something so far in your past (either 6 or 8 years ago) wasn’t a big part of your application so I wouldn’t worry about it. Good luck!
They won’t be admitting you for that one competition, so you can rest that they will not deny you for that one detail. It may even be lost on them as they scan your application. Don’t fret.
School’s won’t hold a typo by a recommender against you.
I doubt they’ll even note a slight misalignment of dates from 6+ years ago. Worst case, they’ll email for a clarification.
Don’t worry about it.
“can do nothing to change”
Of course you can. And if the recommender
is busy, the GC can send a note.
I wouldn’t assume it has no impact. We think it’s small but don’t know how you wrote your piece.
True, 6 years ago is a long time. You weren’t even in high school?
Why not just fix this?? Tidy the loose ends. Not assume.
Does it even matter if it was that long ago? I thought the general advice was not to mention anything before high school because it was too long ago to matter. I doubt the AO would even notice the discrepancy.
But we don’t know how OP wrote this. It may be minor, just a reference, tying in to current activities, but important to get right. We don’t know. OP has to make his/her own best decision.
No issue if an AO doesn’t notice. What if they do? Can’t predict that.
And OP did make the decision to write whatever it is, is now frazzled. I don’t think we judge whether it was appropriate or not. I do think CYA sometimes applies.
If this was a major international competition, and admissions has a question about the date it was won, wouldn’t they just google it and see what year it was?
You refer to “ how you wrote your piece.” and “OP wrote” “important to get it right” and “OP did make the decision”.
This is not an error OP made or something wrong with OPs submission.
Well look, let me clarify. I wrote it in my CommonApp essay. The event itself wasn’t important but rather the discovery during that event which led to me changing a lot as a pianist. I later talk about its effects on me now.
I only mention it once. I only mention my age. The age I won it at isn’t important. The thing I’m worried about is confusing the admissions officer, or giving myself a bad image because they see it as a typo.
I meant OP made the decision on topic and structure, which was getting a little dissected. (I may have been first. Sorry.)
Not that he flubbed the LoR.
But now there’s a choice: some attention to fix. Or not. Yes, the logical (and simple) fix is that teacher. But OP thinks the holiday may get in the way.
I like kids to be satisfied with their submissions, their choices, and offered an idea beyond the certainty that it’s nothing, a way.
OP can think about it.