<p>Well, my friend over here is stressing because she has made a spelling mistake in her essay. She wrote Dexler instead of Drexler. How bad is this?
She is applying Stanford EA</p>
<p>Isn’t it obvious?</p>
<p>That’s definitely an automatic rejection.</p>
<p>depends on the context. I thought you meant she applied to Drexler University and wrote Dexler…that would have been bad.</p>
<p>well, she was writing about Eric Drexler, the founder of nanotechnology. She spelled his name right on other occasions but misspelled in one sentence. still automatic rejection?</p>
<p>I would call that a typo and not a misspell, given that she spelled it correctly several other times. I think that not being perfect in this situation is not a big deal. It means that the work is more likely her own–thats good. It means the piece did not go through several editors and tt means she is not likely a “packaged” candidate using some professional admisions counselor–another plus. She’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I agree with sunnyF. It’s when you spell Drexler…S-T-A-N-F-O-R-D that they get a little upset.</p>
<p>_______________________(bottom line) = If the person reading your essay or whatever is a real fan of that school…then i would be worried.</p>
<p>The auto-rejection comment was sarcastic.</p>
<p>Don’t worry, it isn’t a big deal.</p>
<p>Oh yes, for some folk, including myself, it would be a big deal. Some would interpret it as laziness or not caring enough to have sufficiently proof read your papers, which is supposed to be important to you. It’s not an automatic rejection, but it’s certainly a demerit. You aren’t a child anymore. You’re asking people to accept you based on your desire and aspirations and, of course, ability.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t say “it’s certainly a demerit” – especially since it is the misspelling of a name – not bad grammar or other common word usage. I’d bet that 99% of readers would miss it all together – even if they knew the person’s correct name.</p>
<p>Anyways, why sweat over something you can’t change. There’s no such thing as an automatic rejection. People are looking to admit good students, not quirkily toss out otherwise spectacular ones (but I guess LakeWashington’s argument is that your friend ISN’T spectacular – I disagree that one error denotes that – at least in this context.)</p>
<p>Can you imagine an adcom going to committee saying: “Yeah she’s great but she had one spelling error. Let’s table her while we look at the others.” How evil do we imagine these people to be?</p>
<p>Be an encouragement to your friend. Good luck to you all.</p>
<p>Look at the bright side. At least, it shows you are not using a paid counselor to catch your mistake.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it; it is certainly not a “demerit.”</p>
<p>I read and write research proposals, codes and standards, and publish original work in refereed journals. A single letter missing from a proper noun, such as a surname, is simply a typo, nothing more. I have seen similar typos in proposals for 7+ figure contracts and none of them were referenced by any evaluator in their comments.</p>
<p>I agree with sunnyflorida.</p>
<p>chances are the people reading it wont even notice, it. After reading the first time you write it, the person’s brain will probably automatically assume that drexler is being spelled, unless the person really reads through it carefully, paying attention to every word, that I doubt</p>
<p>some college consultants even advise you to make a few minor typos of that sort to make the app feel more “authentic”</p>
<p>you’ve gotta be kidding me. I accidentally wrote that my mom was a scool teacher on one of my apps. I scored a 35 and have a 4.0, there’s not an admissions counselor in the world who would see that and say, this kid obviously can’t spell.</p>
<p>I accidently forgot a “the” on my essay, making the sentence grammatically incorrect (and it looked incorrect, not as if I just forgot the word). Oh, and on my Wellesley essay I said “the hoop cafe” rather than “cafe hoop” and FLIPPED when I realized the mistake a few hours after mailing it. I’ll let you know how it turns out for me! I don’t think it should matter though, especially not for a missing letter. It is not as if they will believe she doesn’t know his name. All writers make mistakes. That is why editors were invented!</p>
<p>You can’t really say that minor spelling errors have NO effect. If you think about it, having an essay with spelling errors shows the adcom that you didn’t bother to take the time to go back and proofread, which may imply that you don’t really care about getting into their college that much. Granted, it’s a small detail and everybody makes typos, but to say that it has absolutely no effect is stretching it.</p>
<p>In theory, Virgil is correct. It <em>might</em> give them the impression that you did not read carefully; however, as a person who has written MANY papers, I can tell you that sometimes it doesn’t matter how many times you proofread, you still miss something. I was hyperbolizing when I said that I flipped myself, and the reason that I didn’t is because anyone who has written a lot knows that sometimes when you re-read, you read what you <em>think</em> it says, not what it says. Remember that spam email a while ago that went something like:</p>
<p>“it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are,the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae”</p>
<p>?</p>
<p>Well, the same general thing happens when you write essays and papers. So, MAYBE they won’t realize that, and if they don’t and are THAT picky then the OP may have a disadvantage, but adcom members really are people and probably not as evil as we make them out to be. And, more importantly, the same effect may happen while they are reading (especially given that they will probably be fairly tired, etc.), so they may not even notice.</p>
<p>Point: The OP should be fine. If the essay is well-written otherwise, the committee would have no reason to reject based on one tiny mistake that they may not even notice.</p>