How bad are indentation errors in my college supplemental essay?

annahebert
Sun, 17 Jan 2021 19:23:40 +0000

@MYOS1634, I do agree that it is a silly issue; although, I have friends who got into certain schools—I will not disclose which school(s)—and such, awarded certain scholarships, and got As in high school English classes because their mom actually wrote their essays for them. I am not saying that what they did is undeserving of their successes, as if they were to have submitted essays without their mom’s “help”, they would have received all of that regardless of it being wrong. My mom and I highly suspected this to be the case as their mom is a writer and constantly says “we” whenever college discussions came around. eg: “We had to write this 800 word essay for Johnny’s application to XYZ.” My mom and I sent a copy of my personal essay to her as a test to see what she would do when we asked her to “look over” it. Turns out, our hypothesis was correct as she sent us back this copy with hardly any of my original words. Is it possible that all the people who received their essays and applications do not know that this was not their true voice? Yes. Is it also possible this is the case with several students in the same boat? No. Could whoever reading OP’s essay believe this is a red flag? Who knows.

@lookingforward I know that there are several red flags in college applications from simple errors. College Application Red Flags | IvyWise Personally, if I were reviewing over an application, I would spot several things that could potentially be red flags, as I go through everything with a fine-tooth comb. One of my friends sent me a personal statement to look over, and if you saw that email thread, it looked like a literal monstrosity. People would honestly hate me if I became an English teacher—lucky future high school students because Spanish is my passion.

@Stupidaspirithous, I am not an admissions person, so I can not tell you what exactly they are looking for or if they think there would be red flags revolving around that. If you think that it is something that really bugs you, it really wouldn’t hurt to send an email to your AO asking an opinion regarding formatting.