Typos on secondary = rejection?

[skijumpbump]

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After submitting my Tulane secondary I went back and realized that I had made 3 typos. I had ommitted the word "the" I spelled wonderful as "wondecal" and after the word have I placed the letters "ve" for some unknown reason. I have seen people saying that a typo is no big deal, but what about for an average or below average applicant (30 MCAT, 3.6 GPA)? Is this an automatic rejection? I have been told that my essays need to be great and this obviously detracts from that. I have sent a letter to Tulane telling them my problem, but did I just waste $130. I am pretty pissed about this.

 

[copperfrog09]

Yes, definitely. Didn't you read the thread where the ADCOM member told us that next to GPA and MCAT, typing skills are most important? 🙄

Really, though. There's nothing we can tell you one way or the other, I'm sure they have seen typos before. In addition, you can't do anything about it at this point, so why does it matter what anyone says in this thread?

Relax.

 

[LucidSplash]

This is one of those "unknown" factors that you'll never get a good answer to. It all depends on the person who's reading your app and if they are a stickler for that sort of thing. Are they having a bad day? Are you a borderline candidate in their eyes to begin with and then "and anyway they can't even use spellcheck!" Or do they really enjoy your app and think you're an interesting person and don't give a damn that you didn't spellcheck?

Who knows. No use worrying about it if you can't change it. Just focus on the rest of your secondaries and try not to submit anymore apps with things like this to keep you up at night.

 

[UVAbme2009]

Did you really send $130? Added an extra $30 donation?

 

[LucidSplash]

Did you really send $130? Added an extra $30 donation?

$30 primary + $100 secondary is my guess.

 

[phillySASer08]

Echo the thought that you'll hear lots of different things. I tend to air on the 'no big deal side' if it was only three typos in a decent-sized essay that their reading thousands of (I had a couple in my PS that I realized when I went to go to interviews , but still managed to get a few acceptances). Not sure I would have sent them a letter about it though, no need to draw attention to something they may very well have not noticed in the first place.

 

[UVAbme2009]

$30 primary + $100 secondary is my guess.

Didn't think about that. Tulane is weird. They leave a box for you to enter how much you're paying. Nor do they tell you on the page how much to pay.

 

[Adam Smasher]

My entire outlook on this is that the reason why they make us do secondaries, aside from generating revenue for the school, is to learn more detailed facts about the student. Obviously, you want to look like you cared about grammar and spelling, but I suspect they'll be forgiving. Furthermore, I doubt they read all the essays in so much depth that they notice every typo.

 

[phillySASer08]

Didn't think about that. Tulane is weird. They leave a box for you to enter how much you're paying. Nor do they tell you on the page how much to pay.

wow.... soliciting bribes much?

 

[skijumpbump]

you want to look like you cared about grammar and spelling, but I suspect they'll be forgiving. Furthermore, I doubt they read all the essays in so much depth that they notice every typo.

This seems to be the case. As an update I am very exctied to be interviewing at Tulane next week. It looks like a few minor typos in your secondary won't completley sink your application.

 

[NTF]

There's really no way to tell. But if it helps any, I found two typos on one of the secondary essays I wrote for a school I got accepted at.

 

[funkydrmonkey]

The Dean of Admissions at SLU who interviewed me caught a typo in my PS. I was accepted!

 

[Bibbed]

I have at least three typos on my primary. I didnt rush through it either, and read each part of numerous times. My mind just tends to fill in blanks when it reads and I don't always notice them.

Four interviews so far though, so I don't think it's a big deal.

 

[Dulcina]

i had typos and grammar-o's (where you change the sentence structure but forget to go back and correct the conjugation of a verb) in my secondaries. Got accepted to 2 schools where i had typo errors!

 

[Loon]

I have three typos on my primary (all of them on the same EC, if I recall). 4 interviews so far. So it's probably not a big deal, unless you misspelled "help people" and "club seals".

 

[Fibroblastman]

Unfortunately, I noticed a type when reviewing my secondaries the night before two interviews. I was like... Hmmm, oops. I guess they glanced it over it quickly enough or just shrugged it off. *phew*

 

[chad5871]

Unfortunately, I noticed a type when reviewing my secondaries the night before two interviews. I was like... Hmmm, oops. I guess they glanced it over it quickly enough or just shrugged it off. *phew*

How coincidental.

 

[magikdoc]

just to stereotype... physicians in general are definitely not the best writers and have infamously bad hand writing. I can't see them bringing this up during the application review that "so and so had 3 grammar errors... so thats minus 1 point!". Come on man, I think this ranks among the bottom 1% of important things for applicants to worry about.

 

[rowerlauren]

I had typos on my TMDSAS application (lets just say that the program needs to be rewritten REALLY REALLY BADLY) that cut out words, cut off the end of words, etc... and I forgot to fix them before submitting.

Less than 2 hrs ago I got accepted to both of the TMDSAS schools I applied to.

 

[funkydrmonkey]

I had typos on my TMDSAS application (lets just say that the program needs to be rewritten REALLY REALLY BADLY) that cut out words, cut off the end of words, etc... and I forgot to fix them before submitting.

Less than 2 hrs ago I got accepted to both of the TMDSAS schools I applied to.

TMDSAS cut off two of my essays leaving awkward sentences, and I also got accepted to two of the TX schools I applied to!

Rowerlauren, I agree. The TMDSAS site looks like it should belong in a museum chronicling early 70's computer programs, not something for people in 2008 to apply to medical school with...

 

[ChePibe]

I believe I had typos on both primary and some secondaries. I still did fine last cycle. Bear in mind, that I think I only had one missed 'the' somewhere if I remember correctly, which is not easily caught by the word editor. 🙄😳

 

[supergirl87]

hmm, i had a couple 'doh!' moments after i submitted my amcas app when i saw some of the typos in my activites section. i thought i proofread it like a billion times, but i might have been lax when reading it over bc i felt like i read it so many times. most of my typos was leaving out a word like 'the' or 'a'. but our eyes tend to pass over missed words bc we unconsciously connect the dots in a sentence and read it as if the missing word is actually there. anyhoo, long story short, i'm doing just fine with one acceptance so far. i don't think the interviewers are given ample time to actually pore over our applications. they probably read it once over and jot down notes. my kaplan teacher was a student interviewer for the med school he went to and he said that's how it normally works.