Reapplicant - found discrepancies in hours/dates in activities - what should i do?

[meowki]

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I applied last year with wrong hours and dates for maybe 4-5 activities [for a couple hundred hours more or less and a couple months when I recalculated and checked a couple documents from the past]. What should I do? Should I just keep them the way they are? Should I change them to the correct hours and dates? If I change them to the correct dates and times, do I need to address the discrepancies if they compare the old and the new applications together? If so, how??? UGH! I don't know what the hell was up with me last application cycle, seems like I was drunk through it all.

 

[CorgiLoaf]

Did you "accidentally" bolster some activities by a hundred hours? One might be a mistake, but 4-5 looks suspicious. You're lucky adcoms didn't check last cycle.

I would leave the most egregious activities completely out and fill the spot with new ones.

 

[KnightDoc]

Did you "accidentally" bolster some activities by a hundred hours? One might be a mistake, but 4-5 looks suspicious. You're lucky adcoms didn't check last cycle.

I would leave the most egregious activities completely out and fill the spot with new ones.

Lucky?? He's a reapplicant - that's why nobody checked!

Whatever was going on last cycle, you have no excuse for not getting it right now, even if you might have to explain a discrepancy! Just put the correct information now. Don't call attention to it, since it's possible nobody will care. If it comes up, just explain that you noticed discrepancies when preparing this submission, and fixed them. What else is there to say?

 

[CorgiLoaf]

Lucky?? He's a reapplicant - that's why nobody checked!

Whatever was going on last cycle, you have no excuse for not getting it right now, even if you might have to explain a discrepancy! Just put the correct information now. Don't call attention to it, since it's possible nobody will care. If it comes up, just explain that you noticed discrepancies when preparing this submission, and fixed them. What else is there to say?

If they checked pre-II/acceptance and found major discrepancies in 4-5 activities, he could have gotten investigated by AAMC! Would have been hard to say those were an honest mistake

 

[KnightDoc]

If they checked pre-II/acceptance and found major discrepancies in 4-5 activities, he could have gotten investigated by AAMC! Would have been hard to say those were an honest mistake

Yes, of course. But he never made it that far. I'm just saying that being a reapplicant would not be consdered lucky by most, although I see what you're saying. Definitely not a good idea to have major discrepancies.

I'd still advise OP to fix it rather than dropping the offending activities. That in itself would invite questions from anyone comparing the two applications.

 

[meowki]

Did you "accidentally" bolster some activities by a hundred hours? One might be a mistake, but 4-5 looks suspicious. You're lucky adcoms didn't check last cycle.

I would leave the most egregious activities completely out and fill the spot with new ones.

I swear to you, no I didn't. I actually low balled most of them by a couple hundred hours. Idk why I dug a stupid hole for no reason :/

 

[meowki]

If they checked pre-II/acceptance and found major discrepancies in 4-5 activities, he could have gotten investigated by AAMC! Would have been hard to say those were an honest mistake

That's my issue... I dug myself a hole that didn't need to be there. so just wondering how I can move forward without it being too big of a slap. No excuse for them but definitely need to make the right move next time. I can probably find a way to back myself up for the discrepancies if they asked, but also don't want to be called into question.

 

[KnightDoc]

That's my issue... I dug myself a hole that didn't need to be there. so just wondering how I can move forward without it being too big of a slap. No excuse for them but definitely need to make the right move next time. I can probably find a way to back myself up for the discrepancies if they asked, but also don't want to be called into question.

Just fix it. It's a new application. You didn't dig a hole. You made a few careless mistakes on a prior application that led to no acceptances. Forget it, and just be prepared to explain it if asked. Seriously, what else can you do? Those hours are not going to make you or break you this cycle. It's not like you forgot to disclose a felony conviction or something.

 

[SleepingPillow]

Were you a few hundred off for each of those activities or is that the total amount for all 5 activities?

In the latter case, that would mean you were off by thousands. Adcoms could've done simple math and felt that it was unlikely you did those hours and just tossed your app out. Dr. Gray went through a few of these examples of people having thousands of hours in a short time frame.

Either way, I think if you just fix those hours it should be fine.

 

[KnightDoc]

Were you a few hundred off for each of those activities or is that the total amount for all 5 activities?

In the latter case, that would mean you were off by thousands. Adcoms could've done simple math and felt that it was unlikely you did those hours and just tossed your app out. Dr. Gray went through a few of these examples of people having thousands of hours in a short time frame.

Either way, I think if you just fix those hours it should be fine.

Go back and read from the beginning. Apparently, he was low, not high, and is now afraid adjusting up will be problematic. Either way, he just has to fix it now that he found the problem.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Do schools compare new and old applications?

 

[KnightDoc]

Do schools compare new and old applications?

Apparently, yes. They look to see improvements, or if you were lazy and didn't change things like the PS and secondaries.

But that's not the issue, since you are not a reapplicant at schools you have not applied to before. What the numbers say, and why they are important, is that the process is NOT nearly as random as some here make it out to be. The proof is that the accept rate for applicants who have previously applied (anywhere, not to one specific school) are materially lower than that for first time candidates. The difference between 61% and 71%, or between 48% and 38%, is a pretty big deal.

 

[EdgeTrimmer]

Apparently, yes. They look to see improvements, or if you were lazy and didn't change things like the PS and secondaries.

But that's not the issue, since you are not a reapplicant at schools you have not applied to before. What the numbers say, and why they are important, is that the process is NOT nearly as random as some here make it out to be. The proof is that the accept rate for applicants who have previously applied (anywhere, not to one specific school) are materially lower than that for first time candidates. The difference between 61% and 71%, or between 48% and 38%, is a pretty big deal.

seems like you mixed up two threads

 

[KnightDoc]

seems like you mixed up two threads

Yup!!

 

[KnightDoc]

seems like you mixed up two threads

So, the answer to the question in this thread is yes, they compare applications, but are they actually going to compare the number of hours, and then question the difference? They might, but that is not a reason to not correct a prior mistake. OP is concerned that a large jump in numbers, for several activities, over the same time period will look suspicious. He's right -- it might, assuming they catch it. But that's still not a reason not to fix it.

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Dude, if you lowballed, just fix it next time around. It's not like you padded things or were trying to gain an unfair advantage - you made an honest mistake that could only have hurt you. Nobody's really going to care. That's not the type of discrepancy people are hunting for.