Wednesday, October 04, 2006

app #1 - out and ouch!

After going through the online form numerous times, checking and uploading the essays multiple times, I finally submitted the application for a Tier A school. Pressing the "Submit Application" button was really a nervous event, for you know that there is no going back. No more checking and vetting. No room for errors.

But error there was. As Murphy says, "If anything can go wrong, it will". Within minutes of submitting the app, I noticed a typo in one of my essay. It must have happened when I was trying to save the doc. Instead of Ctrl + S, I might have only pressed the S before I converted it into pdf. Ouch. Although the extra "S" didn't change the context of the point that I was making, a typo is still a typo.

It hurts. Firstly, it is the first application that I am submitting. Secondly, I have done checks after checks for each of the essays. For me to make the typo error just before submitting the app, all my previous efforts have gone down the drain. Thirdly, this is a submission to a Tier A school. Silly as it may sound, if the school doesn't admit me in a few months' time, I am sure I will be questioning myself "Is it because of the 'S'? Is it?"

Anyway, I'm trying to see if I can update the essay thru the school's PhD office.

[Update, 7 Oct: The PhD office allows me to update the essay through them. Thank God! It is not the end of the world, yet.]

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

congratulations on your first step.

And I am really curious about how you balance your work and your application. It seems you have worked for many years and your work should be very busy.

I myself suffered a lot because of the conflict between work and applicaiton. And my process is far behind you now, - I only complete a v2.0 of SOP, still a long way to go.