Stupid typos in AMCAS. So, so mad at myself

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Lol. There are students breaking their wrists to rush and submit at the first second and for the next two weeks posts like this are endless. What was the advantage of submitting day 1 instead of maybe day 3 after you’ve proofread with fresh eyes?

I don’t know if these errors will hurt much, but I wouldn’t withdraw the app. If you do, that means you can’t apply again until next year. Oh, and AMCAS won’t fix your spelling and grammar mistakes. That’s why the app warns you that there are very few things you can edit after you submit.
 
Tryrosine said:
Hi all,

I submitted my AMCAS on June first after proofreading it many times. Despite my efforts I noticed 6 typos throughout my application. They are as follows:

I threw a random “how” in an activity that has no place being there.

I wrote “sciences courses” instead of "science courses" at the end of one of my most meaningful activities essays

I forgot to put a period at the end of the paragraph on another meaningful essay

I wrote “completed list of” instead of “completed a list of” in the IA section (minor IA)

I wrote “parents that undergoing” instead of “parents that are undergoing”

I wrote "I would witnessed" in a clinical description.

Luckily there are none in my personal statement, which is really well written.

This is killing me. How much will this hurt me? Can I contact AMCAS or withdraw my application before verification?
Click to expand...
It will hurt.

Did you have anyone else proofread your essays?
 
ciestar said:
This isn’t worth withdrawing over, IMO. You’ll be a reapplicant at every school you put on your primary. Just roll with the punches and make sure your secondaries are perfect.
Click to expand...

They won’t be an reapplicant if they withdraw before they are verified.




Again, I don’t think you should withdraw.
 
I noticed a typo after submitting my app as well. You are not alone and these things happen. I say just roll with it and make sure this doesn't happen on your secondaries.

Random question, but if your application does not get verified (for a transcript error or some other reason), do you have the option to edit anything else?
 
I had typos in my app and even in secondaries and had no issues with my cycle. Your whole app is reviewed, yes the grammar mistakes may cause an eyebrow raise but if the rest of your app is good you will at least get interviews. The whole AMCAS is just a resume to get the interview. The resume doesn't get you an acceptance, the interview and how well you represent yourself to your interviewers does. Be more careful on secondaries and have your interview skills up to snuff and you'll still be able to salvage it (as long as your stats ans ECs are good of course).
 
Tips for proofreading: do it on printed paper, not a screen.
Read out loud, not in your head.

Bonus if you have the time and patience (you should): for spelling errors, NOT grammar/syntax, read your entire essay out loud but word for word backwards. Your brain will not automatically correct the spelling mistakes and you’ll actually notice them. By backwards I mean: ‘The cat in the hat’ read it as ‘hat the in cat the’ NOT ‘eht tac ni eht tah’ of course. Spellcheck doesn’t always catch these.

I’ve been using these for over a decade- I had an amazing high school english teacher who was an editor of a local paper and passed these tools along. They work like a charm.
 
Please come back a year from now and tell us how things worked out for you. It will help the next cycle of applicants understand the implications. (Not saying you will or will not be successful-- but if you are it could be an encouragement to the distraught person who comes along next year with the same situation-- and yes, it happens to the best of applicants.)
 
In one of my secondaries, I wrote about an experience I had while shadowing "Dr. Smith" The first paragraph I wrote the name "Dr. Smith" when referring to the physician I shadowed. For some reason halfway through the essay, I started referring to her as another Dr. I shadowed "Dr. Sam" I had pretty much assumed my cycle was over as well. Many acceptances later, I realize it doesn't matter. To be honest, I doubt they are reading the apps that closely anyways. There are too many! Your mistakes are minor.

I don't know how adcoms think but, I really think you'll be fine.
 
Don't withdraw. Another n=1. But I had around 3 grammatical errors on my diversity and adversity essays. Still was successful.
 
Tryrosine said:
I submitted my AMCAS on June first after proofreading it many times. Despite my efforts I noticed 6 typos throughout my application. They are as follows:

I threw a random “how” in an activity that has no place being there.

I wrote “sciences courses” instead of "science courses" at the end of one of my most meaningful activities essays

I forgot to put a period at the end of the paragraph on another meaningful essay

I wrote “completed list of” instead of “completed a list of” in the IA section (minor IA)

I wrote “parents that undergoing” instead of “parents that are undergoing”

I wrote "I would witnessed" in a clinical description.

Luckily there are none in my personal statement, which is really well written.

This is killing me. How much will this hurt me? Can I contact AMCAS or withdraw my application before verification?
Click to expand...
Just as your brain "autocorrected" what you were reading, so shall it be, for some of them, in adcomm brains. Especially if they are speed reading/skimming. From a count of six, practically, you're probably facing the more noticeable two. That they aren't in your PS is a big plus.
 
To be honest, I had to re-read some of your examples to spot the error. Your brain is pretty good at editing in what it's "supposed" to say, especially when you're reading fast - as evidenced by the fact that this was missed by you and your proofreader(s). Although it's obviously preferable to have 0 errors, this is certainly not something to withdraw over.
 
I had three minor grammar errors in my personal statement (one was an instance where I repeated the word "how" twice in a row for no reason, I can't remember what the others were anymore). I'm sure it didn't help me, but it also didn't seem to hurt me that much either since I still ended my application cycle last year with a good number of interviews, and 6 accepts. 4 of those accepts came from schools within the top 10 too, and you would figure if any of the schools see this as a dealbreaker, it would be those.

I honestly didn't even notice these errors at all during the application process despite re-reading my personal statement more times than I can count. 4 people reviewed my personal statement on top of this too, and they all missed these errors as well. I only really caught them well after I had committed to the school i'll be attending, when I decided to revisit my application one last time before archiving it away - it makes you wonder how many other people out there have unknowingly made similar mistakes, but just never ended up realizing it.
 
Tryrosine said:
Hi all,

I submitted my AMCAS on June first after proofreading it many times. Despite my efforts I noticed 6 typos throughout my application. They are as follows:

I threw a random “how” in an activity that has no place being there.

I wrote “sciences courses” instead of "science courses" at the end of one of my most meaningful activities essays

I forgot to put a period at the end of the paragraph on another meaningful essay

I wrote “completed list of” instead of “completed a list of” in the IA section (minor IA)

I wrote “parents that undergoing” instead of “parents that are undergoing”

I wrote "I would witnessed" in a clinical description.

Luckily there are none in my personal statement, which is really well written.

This is killing me. How much will this hurt me? Can I contact AMCAS or withdraw my application before verification?
Click to expand...
Matthew9Thirtyfive said:
That’s cold blooded.
Click to expand...
shet
 
ahhhsomanyquestions said:
@Tryrosine this just happened to me...I idiotically said “form” instead of “from” in the last sentence of my PS. How did you fare?
Click to expand...
The OP hasn't been back to SDN in over a year, but their posting history shows acceptances to multiple med schools. If six typos didn't hold them back, you have little to worry about.
 
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