Affective vs. Effective

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Dear All,

After sending in my app, I realized that I accidentally wrote affective where I should have written effective. If you stretch the meaning of affective it could work, but it's not what I meant.

I feel like I may be under higher scrutiny because I'm applying after termination. Should I send in a corrected PS? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

[shan564]

You can always upload a new personal statement. If nobody has read it yet, odds are that they'll read the new one rather than the old one.

 

[majahops]

There is a small minority of the population with a powerful obsession over the misuse of there/their/they're, effective/affective, you're/your, etc... My guess is the majority of the rest of the population will read over your misuse and say to themselves "aww man I do that all the time." I really wouldn't worry at all about it.

However, if what Shan says is true (that you can upload another PS and they are more likely to read the newer one), then I would definitely do that... if for no other reason than to relieve your own anxiety (which, admittedly, I might have myself if I were in your position, because we're perfectionists being evaluated by other perfectionists).

Best of luck either way! 🙂

Dear All,

After sending in my app, I realized that I accidentally wrote affective where I should have written effective. If you stretch the meaning of affective it could work, but it's not what I meant.

I feel like I may be under higher scrutiny because I'm applying after termination. Should I send in a corrected PS? Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

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Thank you very much Shan and Maja for your responses.

 

[shan564]

There is a small minority of the population with a powerful obsession over the misuse of there/their/they're, effective/affective, you're/your, etc... My guess is the majority of the rest of the population will read over your misuse and say to themselves "aww man I do that all the time." I really wouldn't worry at all about it.

FWIW, I'm one of those people with that "powerful obsession." If I were a PD and somebody mixed up "you're" and "your", I probably wouldn't bother interviewing them unless they were an exceptional candidate otherwise.

 

[majahops]

I would most certainly not be welcome at you're program. 🙂

FWIW, I'm one of those people with that "powerful obsession." If I were a PD and somebody mixed up "you're" and "your", I probably wouldn't bother interviewing them unless they were an exceptional candidate otherwise.

 

[thecampuslegend]

I honestly don't think "those people" are in the minority. I am one of those people that obsess over proper usage of words and grammar and it gets to me when others don't take it seriously. I am pretty sure there are plenty others out there as well.

Honestly, this is one of the most important periods of your life - you should be quadruple checking your work. With that being said, I noticed I had misspelled a word on my ERAS app, even though I had reviewed it 15+ times. Thankfully I noticed it a couple seconds before pressing the "sign and submit" button on my app. Everyone makes mistakes, and you could have reviewed your app a dozen times and after the 4th time everything just becomes one big blob and you will most likely miss something. If you can replace your current PS with a corrected one, I think that would be ideal. But I too would be as anxious as you if I had made that mistake. If you are sure that is your only mistake, then maybe it won't be that bad. Misspelled words, run on sentences and incorrect contractions are the top 3 killers in personal statements.

P.S I found my old AAMCAS application to medical school lying around last year and I noticed that I had used the word "assess" multiple times in my activities section and PS.....but instead of the word "assess" somehow every word said "ASSES." Yeah...