Might have screwed up my future...help?

Relax.

Again, relax. You really aren’t messing up that bad and pretty much everyone who’s ever used email has screwed one up.

Now list the things you think you’ll need for applications, you probably know most of them. Work on getting them ready so you feel prepared. Have them handy and all in the same place.

List the schools you’re interested in and research them a little bit. Go over your list with someone else who will listen to you explain why you’d like to go to each and give you feedback. Jot down the reasons that you’ll give if someone from the school asks.

Find out how to apply to the ones you want to go to. Keep notes on your interactions. If you’re applying to several school the notes will help you remember where you are with each, who you spoke to, and what your next step is. People feel important and at ease when you remember them and what they said.

Read your emails before you send them, or send them to yourself first. if you have to fill out forms online, you can make a list of all your answers and then copy/paste them in if that makes you feel more prepared.

Consider the whole school selection and application process as your first college course. The first two years of classes are pretty much that same process.

Good luck.

I understand these feelings so well! It’s a lot of pressure – and a lot of mystery, not knowing what people will think when they receive the letters/packages that you’ve sent out with errors.

Recognize that what is done is done. Regrets aren’t going to change anything. So first – make a checklist (really, a list on paper) for all future applications. On the list, include everything that goes into the typical application for the program you want to study in.

-— One of the last things on that list is to write your cover email in a something like Word, then print it to read back to yourself. This will keep you from hitting “Send” before you are ready. Once you’ve proofread your email, copy it into your email browser and then send it.

—- As the penultimate item on the list, write “Remember how I felt when I sent out an incomplete application”. Shame is a powerful motivator.

—- The very last item, once you’re sure everything is perfect, is to ok the transmission of the application.

That takes care of future applications – you won’t make these mistakes again. Now… I’m not willing to believe that you can’t rescue some of your online applications. Have you tried logging back in to your session? What happened when you tried to do that?

IF you have can’t log back in, and you can no longer edit your incomplete applications, perhaps we can still do something about that. Maybe we can’t but, let’s try. You should be able to find out who the admissions administrators are at these schools. The name of the position will vary school by school, so this might take you a bit of time. We can try to offer help with this, if you can’t find them. You are looking for the person who receives the application, and will give it the first look.

Once you have that person’s contact info, write or call them to explain what happened, and ask how you can submit the missing information. I guarantee you will not be the first person to have done this. They will either be happy to explain how to fix it, or they will simply tell you it’s too late, and you can move on to other applications.

The bright side is that each school that you contact doesn’t have to know that you’ve made the same mistake at multiple schools.

Nah. You just screwed up.
Take the advice above and fix the current screw up.
The future’s still yours to make, this is barely a blip.

You have not screwed up your future… yet. The only way that you could do that after you make a mistake is to 1) ignore it or pretend that you didn’t make a mistake, or 2) fail to take ownership or responsibility for the error (blaming others always), or 3) realize that you made a mistake and simply run away from it out of embarrassment, shame or fear, or 4) fail to even acknowledge the possibility that you have made a mistake.

(I thought I made a mistake once, but I was wrong about that.)

Pencils have erasers. Drawings have revision numbers. Books come out in new editions all the time. One of the first things that we learn to say in English (and maybe in other languages, too, but I can’t say for certain) is “I’m sorry.” No one references software any more without also mentioning the version that’s being used. We don’t always get it right the first time; nearly anything done by humans can be done better.

Own your mistakes, take responsibility for them and do the best that you can to learn from and correct them in the simplest and least inconvenient way (for you as well as the person who has bad information) and move on. If even walking down the road looks like it was a mistake, even though the walk itself is flawless, then recognize that as soon as you can and take another path.

It’s not making mistakes that marks you for ultimate failure; it’s how you recover from them and what you do afterward that marks you as a success.

Don’t Panic.

Send Central Florida another application explaining your mistake in a few short sentences.

You can redo the Rowan and put a letter saying you learned a valuable lesson doing the application and hope they can overlook the mishap and review the attached application.

You might want to also add a couple of more schools to your list for safe measure. Maybe USF or UF if Florida is a state you want to be in. Do you live in FL? The very very worst that might happen is you go to community college and then transfer, but I can’t imagine it will come to that.

When I write a very important email I leave the To section blank while I write and edit, so it cant accidemtly go when I am not ready.

What major or you interested in?

@JLeslie I do not live in Florida (sadly Midwest bound, thank you snow) but I do wish to move somewhere warmer. As of my majors, International Law, Social Working, Biomedical Engineering/Art, or a Linguistics professor; I might want to pursue studying Portuguese and Spanish in college.

They’re all so different, and I really can’t decide, but so far all of the schools offer all of those.

I haven’t found any contact to fix the issues unfortunately, so I guess I’m just going to have to learn from it. :P thanks for all your help everyone.

Side bar: these applications were for college coaches for volleyball if I didn’t say so in the first details.

Well? With all those majors you probably should go where I went to school. Michigan State University. I’m pretty sure it has all those things you’re interested in and one of the best international programs. My roommate from college does the coordinating for students to study abroad for a semester. I loved going to school there.

A friend of mine is a biomedical engineer, I’m not sure where he went to school. He does very interesting work.

If you want the warm weather and Latin culture combined, I’m not sure if University of Miami in FL has the biomedical engineering, but you wouldn’t have to leave the campus to be surrounded by people who speak Spanish and Portuguese. The city of Miami is 70% Latin American. Or, maybe it’s the whole county? I don’t remember. English and Spanish are used almost equally in Miami, you hear both all day long.

@blueberry_kid Well, if they went to the coaches only, surely you can contact them and rectify the mistake?

@janbb yeah I thought so as well, but I can’t contact them directly. They won’t immediately respond.

Surely you can e-mail them?

No, I have. That’s the only way to contact them. I just don’t know if they’ve read it or not because coaches don’t normally respond quickly.

Well, then you’ll have to wait. I would send the correct info with a cover letter in the meantime.

Good thinking. I’ll get on it