Post By: COYD Staff
It’s almost that time. No, not Christmas. I was referring to the regular decision application deadlines… However, for most of us, we have already gotten into the holiday spirit. I hope most of you guys have finished 99% percent of your regular decision applications and are using the next few days for the finishing touches. Here are few very common, dumb mistakes students make. Make sure you didn’t commit any of them!
1. Having typos and grammatical errors in the application
Use spell check and have somebody look the whole application over for any typos as well.
2. Saying the wrong university name in the essay
The worst way to not show demonstrated interest in a college is writing how much you want to attend Brown in an essay to Columbia. Believe it or not, I have seen this several times mainly because students do reuse parts of their essay for one university on the applications for other universities. The best way to avoid this dumb mistake is to start your essays early and proofread, proofread, and proofread. Making this mistake might mislead admissions officers to think that you recycled the whole Brown essay for your Columbia essay when you only might have cut and paste part of a sentence.
3. Not answering the question
This includes answers that don’t answer the question, but it also includes blank answers. Often, a final essay is a work of several drafts. Unfortunately, when a student writes several drafts, each draft has a tendency to change each time, and by the end, it might not answer the question at all. Even worse, you don’t answer a question at all. Go through each question line by line. Don’t let your eyes fool you!
4. Providing an unprofessional e-mail address
You might have perfected your application and then have an e-mail address like bootayprincess155@gmail.com. Everything you do contributes to your brand, your image. Don’t let a teenybopper e-mail address hurt your chances of getting into your number one choice college. Some admissions officers won’t care or think it’s funny, but some might not. Don’t even risk it. A benign e-mail address is the safest bet.
5. Not backing up your information and losing everything
Many students fill out their applications directly on the university’s website and don’t save an extra draft on their hard drive. Big mistake! Don’t let a computer or an Internet error set you back. These are very common problems, and you probably have experienced them on online surveys or other non-college related sites. In addition, try to submit your application prior to the deadline. Many times websites do not function well if there is too much traffic, and since many students will probably be submitting their application at the very last minute, don’t risk not being able to submit your application due to traffic overload.
Happy Holidays everybody! We are going to take a little vacation ourselves this week but we will see you next week!
