Error in personal statement

The error is a formatting one, and my personal statement has already been sent off to the universities I’m applying to (Cambridge, LSE,UCL for economics).

What I did was accidentally started a new line mid-sentence, it appeared normal on word and in the Apply section of UCAS (so my teachers didn’t notice it). However on UCAS Track the error is very clear, because the second line of the first paragraph only has two words, with a comma being at the end of the second line.

Is there anything I can do about it, and is it likely to impact my chances of being accepted? I know LSE and UCL can be very critical with personal statements.

This is what it looks like (this is not my actual personal statement):

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 1

Sinnoh

But it's still a complete grammatically correct sentence right? The only issue is how it looks?
I don't think that's something important to worry about. I've seen people miss out a word in their concluding sentence and it didn't affect them.

Reply 2

Jacob960

This is what it looks like, obviously this is not my actual personal statement

Reply 3

Jacob960

Original post by Sinnoh

I attached an image in a reply below of what it looks like. The sentence is grammatically correct, but I feel like it’s completely impossible to miss, unlike grammatical errors which you can just read correctly without even noticing them.

Do you know what universities those people applied to?

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 4

confuzzledteen

If the sentence is grammatically correct and the only issue is with how it's been formatted, I wouldn't worry too much. I kinda messed up the structure of mine as well & have received loads of reassurance from people here on TSR that it's ultimately the quality of the content that matters, less so things such as format/ structure.

Reply 5

Jacob960

Original post by confuzzledteen

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you mess up the structure of yours?

Reply 6

confuzzledteen

Original post by Jacob960

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you mess up the structure of yours?

Didn't use paragraphs; I ran it by 3 teachers & they were all fine with it, and never said anything about paragraphs etc.
Only found out on TSR that doing so is preferred.

Reply 7

Jacob960

Original post by confuzzledteen

Didn't use paragraphs; I ran it by 3 teachers & they were all fine with it, and never said anything about paragraphs etc.
Only found out on TSR that doing so is preferred.

I didn’t use paragraphs either, but my teachers told me that was fine. I attached an image of the error to the post.

Reply 8

confuzzledteen

Original post by Jacob960

If you don’t mind me asking, how did you mess up the structure of yours?

Oh, and as I'm applying for Economics, the first time I mentioned economics I didn't capitalize the E, but I did so at the end when I mentioned it again. They're about 3900 characters apart (as the only two times I mentioned the word was at the v. start of my PS & at the v. end), so hopefully it's not obvious lmao

Reply 9

confuzzledteen

Original post by Jacob960

I didn’t use paragraphs either, but my teachers told me that was fine. I attached an image of the error to the post.

Honestly yeah your error is no big deal & you won't be penalized for it. I'm sure that the admissions people will know that it was a formatting error, as it's not like it was a grammatical or factual error or anything. Not your fault tbh

Reply 10

Jacob960

The error is a formatting one, and my personal statement has already been sent off to the universities I’m applying to (Cambridge, LSE,UCL for economics).

What I did was accidentally started a new line mid-sentence, it appeared normal on word and in the Apply section of UCAS (so my teachers didn’t notice it). However on UCAS Track the error is very obvious, because the second line of the first paragraph only has two words, with a comma being at the end of the second line.

This is what it looks like (this is not my actual personal statement):

I feel that unlike a grammar error, it is completely impossible for this error to go unnoticed.
Is there anything I can do about it, and is it likely to impact my chances of being accepted? I know LSE and UCL can be very critical with personal statements.

(edited 3 years ago)

Reply 11

username5446306

I think it should be fine, since u have a comma between the two sentence segments.
also most unis know that UCAS can do weird formatting things, so they probably won't think anything of it

Reply 12

username5446306

Original post by Fionaanddonkey

I think it should be fine, since u have a comma between the two sentence segments.
also most unis know that UCAS can do weird formatting things, so they probably won't think anything of it

I think it'd make more of a difference if it was a grammar erro

Reply 13

Jacob960

Original post by Fionaanddonkey

I think it should be fine, since u have a comma between the two sentence segments.
also most unis know that UCAS can do weird formatting things, so they probably won't think anything of it