You made an error in your MBA application – now what?

It’s the stuff nightmares are made of for any MBA hopeful. After months of hard work, you have submitted your MBA application. Then you suddenly realize there is an error in it. You left the wrong school name in an essay. You uploaded the wrong version of your resume. Or you accidentally chose the wrong answer from a dropdown menu.

I hope you never get to be an MBA applicant who has this terrifying moment at a time reserved for a sense of relief. But if you find yourself in this situation, don’t despair. It does happen and it doesn’t mean your MBA dream is doomed.

Here are the three things to keep in mind – and use to fix any post-submission errors in your MBA application.

1. Not all errors are created equal.

A typo or even two are not going to have any major impact on your admissions decision. Even leaving the wrong school name in an essay won’t automatically disqualify you.

While your first instinct may be to immediately email the admissions office, DO NOT. Typos are not something you should waste someone’s time to fix for you.

However terrifying realizing you have written Harvard in your Stanford MBA essay may be, if the same error isn’t all over your essays and if the essays are otherwise sufficiently tailored to the right school, you have a chance of getting away with it.

MBA application readers won’t like the fact you wrote about your love of Kellogg in your Wharton essay but they won’t stamp “deny” solely based on this. There is no hiding the fact this is a major error that should be avoided at all cost but it doesn’t mean you will be definitely rejected.

In some instances, you may be able to email the operations team and have them replace a file, especially when it was a PDF upload. That recently happened to a candidate I was working with. He realized he had left a hanging comment in the middle of his resume. He emailed the general admissions email account with the correct document and they replaced it for him. Something like this will not even get to the attention of the MBA adcom. But again, be thoughtful about what you ask. The time after a major MBA application deadline is a very busy time for any admissions office and exercising good judgement will show respect for their work.

Very importantly, if the error is of material nature – such as selecting the wrong citizenship status from a dropdown menu - then it’s actually imperative that you reach out to have it fixed. You don’t want the wrong information being used in rendering your MBA admissions decision. And you definitely don’t want this error to be viewed as potential misrepresentation in your MBA application.

2. Don’t assume the best person to email is a recruiter in the MBA admissions office.

Admissions offices typically have an operations team that processes the applications. They are usually the best people to reach out to. Most often, they can be reached through the general admissions account, which you should be able to find on the Contact Us page. But you should carefully read through the admissions pages first to see if there are any instructions that you should follow.

3. The way to minimize the likelihood of these mistakes is to have another, fresh set of eyes review your MBA materials before submitting.

It should go without saying. It’s a lesson I learned early on in my career, when I was working as an Account Director at a top global ad agency and a national campaign for one of my clients went into production – and even worse, to market! – with the wrong product price. At some point, after you have read a document dozens of times, you stop seeing the details. So have a friend or family member with good proofreading skills review your materials before submitting.