I Did What?!? Hilarious Application Boo Boos

[Duckygirl]

---

Members do not see this ad.

I'm feel so darn down by the application process...I'm still finishing some up.
But I think it's always funny to hear about the big blunders people have made while applying...

I'll start with one (of many) I made this year:

I sent an envelope to one school with three letters of recommendation that were supposed to go to another school. Fortunately, I was able to contact the admissions people at both schools and mediate a deal to get my letters transferred from one side of the country to the other. It took about a week and a half, $33.00, twelve emails, and a lot of explaining and apologzing.

I was informed at one point that when my 3 letters arrived at the wrong school, they opened them all and stamped them received by their admissions office. I had to explain to the admissions people at the other school that the letters they would be receiving would be opened, without envelopes, and stamped by another university. It all got worked out, though. Bless the nice admissions people out there!

I know that within a matter of days I will go back through some of my essays and see big mistakes...but I've not come acrosss any yet!

 

[blindchaos]

This one wasn't on an application but in an e-mail to a potential POI...I called the prof by the wrong name (ie: calling Dr. Smith Dr. Anderson)

And in an essay that I really should have reviewed one more time, I ended with a statement about the school I was applying to...and didn't spell the school name correctly 😛 (left out one letter) *smacks self* doh!

 

[Ollie123]

Accidentally sent Miami the 2nd draft of my personal statement instead of the final.

The second one was a grammatical/spelling abomination since I didn't proofread for that until the end. School name and professor and was spelled correctly, but I think that was probably it.

I do school good, you should let me in and I do good school for you too.

No interview from there, despite the overwhelmingly positive initial contact with the professor. Wouldn't be surprised if it was my personal statement that did me in.

 

[JockNerd]

This one wasn't on an application but in an e-mail to a potential POI...I called the prof by the wrong name (ie: calling Dr. Smith Dr. Anderson)

Oh yeah, I did that. Got a funny "Thanks for accidently letting my know you're applying to (school X)!" I would guess it's not an uncommon error.

 

[deleted176373]

Personal statement to Texas A&M, I put the professors from Texas Tech in there. They offered me a spot in the program with out an interview, color me stupified!!!

Mark

 

[Duckygirl]

Personal statement to Texas A&M, I put the professors from Texas Tech in there. They offered me a spot in the program with out an interview, color me stupified!!!

Mark

Mark, you lie! How can it be??? Maybe I'll get that lucky. I'm fairly certain that one of the personal statements I sent out this week had a couple double paragraphs because I was piss-poor copying and pasting!

 

[socialcog]

😀

Personal statement to Texas A&M, I put the professors from Texas Tech in there. They offered me a spot in the program with out an interview, color me stupified!!!

Mark

You mentioned this in a previous post and I continue to be astonished. Didn't they call you early as well and give you an offer!?? Amazing.

I applied to A&M, sans mistakes, and if I get rejected then I drink a big mistletoe berry milkshake! (jk. no 5150 for me thanks.) 😀

My goof involved mistakingly naming another program in my PS. I remember submitting it online and cursing non-stop for a good 5 minutes. Then when I was finished (cursing), I let out a big sigh, whiped the sweat from my brow, shrugged my shoulders and said, "ah well, F### it." Luckily, the school is not at all a top choice. I don't expect any contact beyond the standard rejection letter.
😀

 

[joetro]

Nothing major, but a quarter into graduate school after 2 years of applications, I still find mistakes in my CV that got passed along to schools. I'm afraid to open it now.

 

[WaitingKills]

Last year when I was emailing prof's, I employed a POI at a different university.

She was really good about it at the time, as was actually quite humourous... but no interview.

Oh well.

So far this year, no mistakes that I know of... but I've only done 2 out of 12 applications(most are due on Jan 15th). Fingers crossed everything goes smoothly.

 

[deleted176373]

Mark, you lie! How can it be??? Maybe I'll get that lucky. I'm fairly certain that one of the personal statements I sent out this week had a couple double paragraphs because I was piss-poor copying and pasting!

I don't know... I had completely written off A&M, I was actually pretty upset about it. For the record, I had applied the year before and didn't hear jacksquat from them. I even tracked down some profs at SWAPA about it, I wanted to know what was wrong with my application.

All I can think is that my package otherwise looked pretty tasty. I was actually going to accept at A&M until USUHS fell in my lap on April 10th.

It was really a VERY VERY odd year. I thought I had U of Alabama locked up, since the PI I applied to work with helped me edit my personal statement, I took that as a strong sign of interest. (And I did get an interview there, only to be beat out by some girl from Cornell.) I had a good interview at some other schools as well.

I walked into my interview at USUHS and was greeted by Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and Batwoman. Yes, 5 superhero's... Seriously, I thought to myself, well I won't feel bad when I get beat out by this crowd. Impressive company. And I did, then Superman broke his knee (no, I didn't call Tonya Harding!) and I got the slot as second runner up. I had 3 days to get all my physical stuff done to get me qualified for USUHS (including a medical waiver for my lasik surgery!)

Later, University of Maine wanted to know if I was still available. I declined although that was an excellent program as well. All in all, my second year of applications was very interesting, I spent more money than I needed to. I went to way too many interviews, but I am happy that I got into the program I am in. Texas A&M was an excellent choice as well and I really miss Texas. I would have had more "fun" at A&M but I am better off in USUHS.

Mark

 

[bellecalle]

Great thread!

One school still has an older way of applications, in that their online-based application is just very basic, and just asks for demographic info and where you went to school, etc, and they ask you to mail a hard copy of the PS rather than uploading it..

I had all of my materials for this school ready to go, and ready to bring to the post office the following morning. For some reason, I was really bored that night, and decided I would look over the application, even though I had already sealed the envelope. Sure enough, I found a mistake on my PS in which the POI I mention is a man, but I call him a her! It's not tooo too big of a mistake really, considering that he does sort of have an ambiguous first name, but I'm very glad I caught the mistake!

 

[scienceisbeauty]

She sent in a work resume instead of a CV
She submitted her class assignment as evidence of publication
And she sent a personal statement saying she wanted to get into McGill to Queens university.
She said that she was really interested in research X by Prof A when Prof A has not much to do with research X
Oh, on top of that, she called the professor a Mr. when it was a Ms.

AND she sees there this as being absolutely non-problematic.
Yeah, she's still thinkng she's going to get in.....

Sad. But kind of ...sad Lol. I feel for her.

 

[WaitingKills]

She sent in a work resume instead of a CV
She submitted her class assignment as evidence of publication
And she sent a personal statement saying she wanted to get into McGill to Queens university.
She said that she was really interested in research X by Prof A when Prof A has not much to do with research X
Oh, on top of that, she called the professor a Mr. when it was a Ms.

AND she sees there this as being absolutely non-problematic.
Yeah, she's still thinkng she's going to get in.....

Sad. But kind of ...sad Lol. I feel for her.

Wow, most of those aren't small issues. I can't believe she doesn't see an issue with that!

On a side note, she's sent her application into Queens already!? It's not due till Jan 15... My anxiety/stress level just went wayyyy up.

 

[blindchaos]

This was an almost boo boo. Got all my supplemental materials together for School X last night, put everything together in a big envelope, licked the seal, decided to glance at my materials one more time 'just to be safe' and found that one piece included "...to gain admission into the clinical psychology doctoral program at School Y"...which was one seal away from being sent to School X. Thank goodness for gut instincts!

 

[socialcog]

She sent in a work resume instead of a CV
She submitted her class assignment as evidence of publication
And she sent a personal statement saying she wanted to get into McGill to Queens university.
She said that she was really interested in research X by Prof A when Prof A has not much to do with research X
Oh, on top of that, she called the professor a Mr. when it was a Ms.

AND she sees there this as being absolutely non-problematic.
Yeah, she's still thinkng she's going to get in.....

Sad. But kind of ...sad Lol. I feel for her.

Wow. um....just wow. totally speechless. (-waving 'bye-bye' to the application fee...).

Out of curiosity....what is it like for you and your friend to be going through this process together? Is there an implicit competition? -or a more collaborative/supportive relationship?

 

[scienceisbeauty]

I'm not going thru the app process right now - I'll be pplyin starting Sept '08 to start in Sept '09. So ..no competition...

But thinking about competition anyway, I think if I were applying w/ a friend, there would be competition but only if we were applying to the same prof, the same area...

The girl in question (who I wrote about) she is pplyin to a different area -- still clinical, but to something I wouldn't wanna at all do --

WK: She did send her stuff already, yup, but please don' let your stress level go up because of that. LOOK WHAT SHE DID. I don't think you should be stressed ...you have some time still; you can avoid her mistakes 🙂!

 

[WaitingKills]

WK: She did send her stuff already, yup, but please don' let your stress level go up because of that. LOOK WHAT SHE DID. I don't think you should be stressed ...you have some time still; you can avoid her mistakes 🙂!

Thanks for that 🙂. Well at least my app will look good compared to hers. Lol, is it horrible that I am now hoping we applied to the same person 😳. I'm trying not to get stressed but easier said than done. Just wait till next year and you will so know why most of us on here are sitting at the door of a psych ward just waiting to get called in lol.

 

[deleted176373]

She sent in a work resume instead of a CV
She submitted her class assignment as evidence of publication
And she sent a personal statement saying she wanted to get into McGill to Queens university.
She said that she was really interested in research X by Prof A when Prof A has not much to do with research X
Oh, on top of that, she called the professor a Mr. when it was a Ms.

AND she sees there this as being absolutely non-problematic.
Yeah, she's still thinkng she's going to get in.....

Sad. But kind of ...sad Lol. I feel for her.

Ummm, ya... I kinda doubt it. Try to top this Gem though.

I was dating (OPERATIVE WORD: WAS) a girl who was graduating from the same program as I was (without the honors thesis and research experience I had, although she did get some her last semester.)

She would lie, and lie, and lie some more. She was very secretive about her GPA and GRE scores but claimed a 1140 GRE and a 3.76 GPA. Then began lying about having interviews at U of Michigan, Argosy Chicago, Galludet, etc and actually left these weekends. LMAO, I am so happy I trusted my instincts and didn't trust her.

Anyway, she tried to make me feel bad for not getting into a program, while she was "considering offers" from these other programs. I nearly fell out of my chair when she said she had an interview at Michigan. Which she attributed to her being Hispanic and having an excellent GPA.

Here is the unfortunate truth... LOL, I had applied to Michigan, and knew that the interview weekend was 3 weeks earlier. It was priceless to get her caught up in her lies, yes, I toyed with her like a cat plays with a mouse.

The reality:

She had an 840 GRE (yes, combined!) 500 GRE subject, 2.4 GPA, very little research experience, no thesis, and VERY little research experience.

She never had an interview even at the lowest of the professional schools. Recently she started at University of Phoenix for an Masters in Human Resources. I, for one, am very happy that this woman will not be one of my colleagues.

 

[scienceisbeauty]

Mark that's def something.....

Oh ok, so my friend (the one that made all those mistakes)...I told her "Those mistakes are pretty big..."
She said "Oh, they'll understand; these things happen often and because I'm a minority applicant, they will want me and understand."
I said, "That's pretty insulting to 'minority applicants' - being from a disadvantaged population or group doesn't really allow you to get away with making those huge blunders"
She said, "Well at least they'll read my paper"
I said: "What paper -- you submitted a CLASS ASSIGNMENT!"
She said :: I CITED THE PROF SO SHE (remember she had called him a HE) WILL UNDERSTAND THAT I'M REALLY INTERESTED IN HER RESEARCH AND WILL THINK I'M ORIGINAL

Oh yah and in the class assignment my friend called the she a he as well.

Beat this conversation!

 

[RayneeDeigh]

I've done tons of stupid stuff while applying, including an absolutely *****ic question during a phone interview (the next day I heard I hadn't made the cut, unsurprisingly). Mistakes are all part of the process, they're what make us human. Plus, they make for hilarious threads later on. And it's also fun to know that mistakes never stop happening. Some of my profs have absolutely priceless stories about ironic typos in reports that ended up in court.

But I do wonder... is it necessary in this thread to talk about the mistakes OTHER people have made? I mean, if the woman MarkP is talking about happened to google this forum and come across a post that had her GRE scores in it, I'd feel pretty badly for her.

 

[scienceisbeauty]

Oh my friend is completely ok with me posting her mistake. She doesn't even think it such big mistake..

I had to ask her first! I said: (her name) I have to tell you that I go on this forum and I'm going to tell ppl what you did bc I find it so hilarious if thats okkkk with youuuuuuuuu

She said: (my name) whatever, it's like soo not a big mistake! And I dun care if ppl on the internet read it since they don't know my name. Plus I'll be laughing when I get into Queens and McGill and they don't (she thinks that sending a class assignment where she cites the prof is like the most novel and excellent thing ever)

 

[Ollie123]

To be fair, I would be surprised if the person Mark described knew how google worked, let alone spent her spare time googling psychology-related things😉

I'll let others decide for themselves, personally as long as it isn't identifiable I'm not too concerned.

 

[deleted176373]

To be fair, I would be surprised if the person Mark described knew how google worked, let alone spent her spare time googling psychology-related things😉

I'll let others decide for themselves, personally as long as it isn't identifiable I'm not too concerned.

I didn't post anything individually identifying, especially considering the school I attended boasted a 50% Hispanic population. Considering that she has posted far more questionable content on the Internet, I doubt that she would care about anything I have posted.

I believe that you could narrow it down, if you knew me personally, you might even know what college I did my undergrad at. Considering we had several thousand graduates in that year alone you would be hard pressed to identify her based on 4 key pieces of information, A. she was Hispanic, B. She was female, C. She went to the same school as I did, and D. She dated me. That could describe a lot of women. 😉 We'll call her, Harold, for this discussion. (Harold was our last case study in class.)

Mark

PS - Yes, Google would be a stretch at times for her.

 

[Xararsis]

So I'm debating whether or not to recontact some schools either by email or phone about some errors on my cv. They are the following:

-List graduate GPA as 3.8 rather than 3.81
-Lists undergrad psych GPA as 3.7 or 3.70 rather than 3.74
-Is missing a stupid freaking comma for one of my presentations in APA style
-My primary undergraduate mentor is missing her office phone in my reference list. Mind you, every other person on the list has the office phone on there but hers. However, I do have everyone's email addresses listed.

Am I sweating the small stuff? I'm worried admissions will notice some of these things.. especially my main LOR being the only one sans a phone number. What do you guys think I should do? Should I try to resend an updated CV by email?

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

You gotta relax! I am sure they have seen way worse. Though some of the posts above...yikes!! 😉 Back when the APPI was on paper, people would post the MOST RANDOM questions about etiquette and random syntax stuff. My favorite asked if the color and quality of her paper for her materials was a big deal? Dr. Keilin was a saint when responding to all of the very anxious applicants. He usually just reposts his response every year, but now it is a bit outdated since everything went electronic. My biggest concern was not blowing deadlines, God only knows how many errors I submitted....even after multiple people reviewed my stuff.

 

[deleted176373]

So I'm debating whether or not to recontact some schools either by email or phone about some errors on my cv. They are the following:

Am I sweating the small stuff? I'm worried admissions will notice some of these things.. especially my main LOR being the only one sans a phone number. What do you guys think I should do? Should I try to resend an updated CV by email?

See above!

 

[Ollie123]

Ahhh, this thread takes me back.

APA completely borked the last edition of the publication manual to the point they had to release oodles of corrections. Apparently the manual for how to obsessively copy-edit papers in ridiculously unimportant and often nonsensical ways was apparently not copy-edited. I'm not sure psychologists are in a position to deny people admission to graduate school for misplaced commas right now.

 

[somedude14]

So I'm debating whether or not to recontact some schools either by email or phone about some errors on my cv. They are the following:

-List graduate GPA as 3.8 rather than 3.81
-Lists undergrad psych GPA as 3.7 or 3.70 rather than 3.74
-Is missing a stupid freaking comma for one of my presentations in APA style
-My primary undergraduate mentor is missing her office phone in my reference list. Mind you, every other person on the list has the office phone on there but hers. However, I do have everyone's email addresses listed.

Am I sweating the small stuff? I'm worried admissions will notice some of these things.. especially my main LOR being the only one sans a phone number. What do you guys think I should do? Should I try to resend an updated CV by email?

Those made me laugh lol. I'm stressing over my applications too but I'm not that bad 🙂

 

[somedude14]

Ahhh, this thread takes me back.

APA completely borked the last edition of the publication manual to the point they had to release oodles of corrections. Apparently the manual for how to obsessively copy-edit papers in ridiculously unimportant and often nonsensical ways was apparently not copy-edited. I'm not sure psychologists are in a position to deny people admission to graduate school for misplaced commas right now.

I remember that. That was one of the books for my research methods class and everyone had to reorder theirs lol

 

[deadmau5]

So I'm debating whether or not to recontact some schools either by email or phone about some errors on my cv. They are the following:

-List graduate GPA as 3.8 rather than 3.81
-Lists undergrad psych GPA as 3.7 or 3.70 rather than 3.74
-Is missing a stupid freaking comma for one of my presentations in APA style
-My primary undergraduate mentor is missing her office phone in my reference list. Mind you, every other person on the list has the office phone on there but hers. However, I do have everyone's email addresses listed.

Am I sweating the small stuff? I'm worried admissions will notice some of these things.. especially my main LOR being the only one sans a phone number. What do you guys think I should do? Should I try to resend an updated CV by email?

to be honest, they will probably recalculate everyone's grades anyways... every school compiles their information a different way. there's a ton of ways to average your gpa.

those other issues are pretty small... i just messed up a statement... i submitted an older version online that doesn't flow as nicely as the one I've redone... i'm going to mail the newer one with a note to discard the one uploaded! grr..

 

[Existenz]

I see nothing wrong with rounding up your GPA to the nearest whole number. Decimal points are confusing 😀

 

[Xararsis]

Thanks for keeping me grounded guys 🙂

 

[Born2rumble1st]

The first time I applied to Ph.D. programs was four years ago, and I had just turned 21 when I submitted my last application. Being so young and foolish, I thought it would be a BRILLIANT idea to start my personal statement with a Robert Frost quote....
To be specific, THIS quote:
"They cannot scare me with their empty spaces/Between stars—on stars where no human race is./I have it in me so much nearer home/To scare myself with my own desert places.”
I kid you not. That was the first sentence in EVERY SINGLE ONE of my personal statements. When I started pulling together my materials for this application cycle, I came across it by accident and almost died laughing. No wonder I didn't get in! I wouldn't have admitted me.

 

[krisrox]

What a great idea for a thread. These are some hilarious stories.

Let's see... I, too, called my POI by the wrong name in an email. Like, completely wrong; her name was hyphenated and the name I called her by wasn't and started with a different letter. It was my first choice school and I ended up getting an interview anyway!

I uploaded a different personal statement onto the same school's website than what I sent in the mail. I still have no idea which one they got. Remember, I still got an interview and it was my top choice!

I had a phone chat with a POI with a school in a different time zone. She scheduled it for 9am. I woke up at 8:30 with a missed call from her. I didn't take into consideration the time difference 🙁 We kinda both laughed it off. I ended up not applying there.

Everyone makes mistakes. Even once you get to grad school. It's relieving!

 

[erg923]

Years ago a friend of mine was applying and wanted to write that she had a passion for working with "underserved" populations. However, all hers program essays actually said, I have a passion for working with "undeserved" populations.

 

[Xararsis]

I literally just double checked my PSs for this after reading your post lol

 

[blindchaos]

This isn't from an application but from a conversation between a DT and an internship applicant (per the DT's report) *during a phone interview* (from when applications were still sent in by snail mail). When the applicant was asked why he/she (honestly don't remember if it was a he or a she) was applying to that specific site, he/she said a few things about the site and then stated many MANY things he/she liked about the geographic region, including all the nearby beaches along the ocean, the fresh seafood, warm temps, etc.

...The ocean is a minimum of 7 hours away from the site, on the opposite side of a neighboring state. Either his/her geography was really messed up or they forgot which state the site was in (it's fairly central in the state, not close to any state border). The only seafood you can find around here is at Red Lobster or Long John Silver's and is generally not "fresh".

Made me feel a lot better about my chances of matching if there are still people like this getting interviews

 

[TheOverachiever]

Years ago a friend of mine was applying and wanted to write that she had a passion for working with "underserved" populations. However, all hers program essays actually said, I have a passion for working with "undeserved" populations.

:: panic:: I need to go double check my PS before I can laugh at this post!


Ok, I'm good! I had underserved. Haha, it's so funny how one letter can have an entirely different implication.

 

[TheOverachiever]

I just noticed some APA style errors in some of the PS I've already sent in...ughhh

E.g. Italicizing the title of journal articles instead of putting it in quotes 😳

 

[AcronymAllergy]

What a great idea for a thread. These are some hilarious stories.

Let's see... I, too, called my POI by the wrong name in an email. Like, completely wrong; her name was hyphenated and the name I called her by wasn't and started with a different letter. It was my first choice school and I ended up getting an interview anyway!

I uploaded a different personal statement onto the same school's website than what I sent in the mail. I still have no idea which one they got. Remember, I still got an interview and it was my top choice!

I had a phone chat with a POI with a school in a different time zone. She scheduled it for 9am. I woke up at 8:30 with a missed call from her. I didn't take into consideration the time difference 🙁 We kinda both laughed it off. I ended up not applying there.

Everyone makes mistakes. Even once you get to grad school. It's relieving!

Chock up another one for the "wrote the wrong name in an application letter" list. Even though I'd included the correct name at the beginning of the letter (i.e., the addressee), the "Dear Dr. XXXXX" part was completely wrong. I noticed it immediately after I'd sent the letter off. Good times.