Applicant’s Remorse
Discovered errors after you submitted your UC Application? Be careful of the conflicting information the UCs are giving out on how to update/correct the application. Below is what I know and I’ve noted any conflicts I observed.
You may log back into the application and update/correct the following information:
- Personal information
- Release authorization
- AP, IB, and international exams/scores
- Add a campus (if available)
- Freshman applicants – ACT, SAT, SAT Subject, TOEFL, and IELTS tests/scores
You may also:
- Pay for your application online
- Review your submitted application
- Check your application status (to find out if your UC Application has been forwarded to the individual UC campuses; freshman applicants – find out if you are ELC)
- Transfer applicants – update your application in January
For all other corrections, such as for the “Academic history,” “Activities & awards,” and/or the “Personal insight” sections, you must submit those AFTER you have set up an applicant account with each UC campus (this is the information given out by the representatives, but the automated recording is still saying to send corrections to the UC Application Center).
Also keep in mind that:
Freshman applicants are expected to report schedule/grade errors in 9th through 11th grades, 12th grade school/schedule changes, and/or non-passing (D or F) grades in 12th grade courses to each UC campus through the applicant account.
Transfer applicants should use the Transfer Academic Update to make changes to Fall schedule/grades and/or Winter/Spring schedule in January. Errors in previous terms must be reported to each UC campus through the applicant account.
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90 Comments
Join the discussion and tell us your opinion.
Will making a mistake on your academic history negatively impact your admission decision? My high school counselor recommended that I not add a class I took one semester of online, so I didn’t… just found out I was supposed to. It’s not on my local high school’s official transcript, but it is on my online school one, so I’m stressed that this will reflect badly on me.
Report the missing course after you have set up your applicant portal with each UC campus.
Will making a mistake on your academic history negatively impact your admission decision? I accidently put the wrong year I took a course, the grade is corrrect its just the year is wrong
You should send a correction to the UC campuses that will accept it just to CYA. Depending on which year you incorrectly added the course, it may also affect your GPA.
While using an unofficial transcript, I did not list a single unit lab class from one of my previous colleges. What should I do?
If the course was UC-transferable and taken before Fall 2020, then you need to send a correction to each UC campus through your applicant account. If it wasn’t UC-transferable, then I wouldn’t worry about it. If you are taking it for Fall 2020 or later, you can add it when you complete the Transfer Academic Update in January.
I just checked my application information and found a mistake with my 10th grade courses. I filled wrong honors level for my Honors Algebra II course. I filled “HL” in the system, but actually this course is a “NH” courses. How do I fix this mistake? Will this influence my application?
I wouldn’t worry about that too much. It’s technically correct (your school calls it “Honors”) so it’s up to the UCs to catch and correct the mistake for the GPA calculation (although, based on what I have heard, I’m not sure the UCs actually do that). You wouldn’t be penalized for something like that.
I accidentally put English 9 AB instead of H English 9 AB. I was wondering if I should send each UC campus an email to inform them about the mistake since neither one of the classes are considered “HL”.
I don’t think it’s going to matter much in the grand scheme of things, but you may want to submit a correction just in case.
My activities didn’t get saved/submitted. Can is fix that? How would I go about doing so?
If the entire section is missing, you should contact each UC campus through your applicant portal to explain there was likely a system error and request to send the information for consideration. If only parts of section is missing, you should do the same, but some campuses may choose not to accept the information.
Find instructions here under “After submitting a UC admission application.”
I submitted one of my personal insight essays under the wrong prompt on accident. Is this something that I can even correct? Would making a correction negatively impact my chances of admission?
That is unlikely to matter since the application readers are often focused on the content of the information you provided and not necessarily scrutinizing whether you had “correctly” answered the question; there is no such thing as right or wrong when you are discussing your personal achievements and/or circumstances.
If you really want to submit a correction, you could do that through your applicant portal. But I doubt the campuses would care (or make a big deal out of it).
I misreported a course in my 9th grade year cause I took AVID 1-2 (9th grade avid) but I put AVID 12 because I misread. I reported it but one of the UCs I am applying to said they couldn’t make changes and make a decision until they get official transcripts. Is there a high chance I will get denied?
After you receive an admission offer, your applicant portal should update with a correction form and you can send the update then.
I missed adding some courses I took on my UC application, how do I go to my portal and change that?
Find instructions here under “After submitting a UC admission application.”
Using the unofficial transcript, I listed shortened versions of my 12th grade courses. Ex) I put History HL instead of IB DP History HL II and Business HL instead of IB DP Business HL II. What should I do?
I think the UCs can probably figure that out if you previously completed History HL I and Business HL I. But you may want to send corrections just in case.
What should I do if I listed an abbreviated version of the course names instead of what actually shows up in my transcript for all my 12th grade year courses? Ex) I wrote down History HL when I should’ve written IB DP History HL II and so on?
If you previously completed History HL I or you have two separate entries for History HL (one before 12th and one during 12th), then the UCs will probably figure out that the one for 12th grade is HL II. But you may want to send corrections just in case.
I mistakenly filled in a NH course as an AP course. Should I send a correction email to each campus or to UC Application Center?
Find instructions on how to submit corrections here, under “After submitting a UC admission application.”
I am a transfer applicant and I accidentally put the same English class at two different colleges and I put that I got an A in both, I need to delete one of them but I cannot go back and change academic history. What can I do and does this affect admissions?
Find instructions on how to submit corrections here, under “After submitting a UC admission application.”
My AP Macroecon class was only 1 semester and for the 2nd semester I was supposed to be taking H Democracy. But during the UC application period I had no idea what class would replace my econ class so I just put “Planned to take” next to econ instead of adding another course: “H democracy.” would fixing it be necessary since they would be looking at my transcript? Also, I accidentally requested my mid year transcript to be sent to UCs even when it wasnt requested. Would the UCs just disregard it?
I’m not entirely sure what you mean. Do you mean you only added one semester of AP Macroecon and the H Democracy is missing entirely or do you mean you added two semesters of AP Macroecon to use that as placeholder for H Democracy?
If the H Democracy is missing entirely, that means you are short one semester of A-G (compared to the actual count you have) and that could disadvantage you.
If you used AP Macroecon as a placeholder, that means the A-G count should be accurate but the course count is off and UCs have the option to nitpick something like that.
Admission evaluation is based entirely on your self-reported information (coursework and grades reported in your application is used to determine whether to admit or reject you). The UCs only look at the transcript in July, AFTER you have been admitted and is committed to enroll (if the UCs did not specifically request a transcript from you prior to July, transcript you elect to send will be disregarded). The only function the transcript serves is to verify that the information in your application is accurate (discrepancies can be deemed to invalidate your application). Your best bet is to send a correction to the UCs because not correcting the issue could create problems for you.
UCs will disregard midyear reports.
So I take a dual enrollment English course offered by a local community college. Last semester, I took English 1A – Freshman Composition as a course, however I didn’t realize that the course I would take for this semester actually goes by a different name (English 1C – Critical Thinking). I thought that I would be taking English 1A the whole year and didn’t realize that the course name would change halfway through. I already reported that I planned on taking English 1A for both first and second semester. Even though English 1C is technically the same as English 1A, would I need to report this change to the UC’s?
You should submit a correction because it’s actually two courses instead of one (so you are taking one more than what you actually reported). Follow the instructions here, under “After submitting a UC admission application.”
I sent UCSD an academic history correction through their portal, but I never received a confirmation email. I took a screenshot of the “Thank you” screen after I submitted the form. Should I submit the form again?
I don’t think UCSD is in the habit of sending confirmation emails for corrections. But I do remember they will respond to email inquiries (I think there is an email or link at the bottom of your portal) so you can send a follow up message to make sure the correction was received and processed.
My school is out of state for UC’s and I know they don’t count honors the same. Every class I reported is honors or advanced on my transcript but I selected everything as honors level. I just realized uC doesn’t count out of state honors like they do for in state. Since they say honors on my own application will this be ok or will it hurt my chances and should I notify the mistake to them?
You should be fine. UCs supposedly “clean” the applications to get an accurate GPA, although no one has ever been able to explain the mechanism by which that is accomplished (for hundreds of thousands of applications). From what I can gather, UCs will not penalize students for the kind of mistake you mentioned (because you technically reported the courses exactly as they appear on your transcript) and, if anything, that kind of mistake would make your profile more favorable (I have one anecdote of this, which is complicated to explain and not exactly applicable to your situation, suffice to say that, if the UCs don’t “clean” the application, you’ll likely gain an advantage).
I was recently admitted to 3 UCs and waiting for the rest. I just noticed that I made 2 mistakes on my self-reported grades. For one class I put B instead of A, and another class I put A instead of B. I know that UCs take accuracy very seriously. Do I need to contact each campus directly with this information or the main UC application center? Will this have a negative impact on my admit status?
The mistakes seem to balance each other out so you should be ok (assuming both classes are the same level; i.e., both are regular or both are AP). But I would recommend that you submit a correction through the your applicant portal (there should be a correction form or contact form for the admissions office you can use) just to cover your bases.
I have already been accepted to UCLA. However, I realized that I put the wrong language arts class for my 9th grade courses on my UC application, I put honors lang on accident even though I took normal lang, they are both considered “NH” so do I need to worry ab the transcript discrepancy cancelling my decision?
You should be ok, but I would recommend sending a correction by following the UCLA instructions here.
I inputed some of my AP courses as trimesters instead of semesters. My school is on the trimester system and I forgot to fix them when I put this down. We have two trimesters of the actual AP course and seminar during the last trimester – which is not an actual course to put on UC applications. One of the courses has the third trimester (seminar) grade as credit because of Covid-19 and the rest are courses for my senior year so no grades have been inputed yet. How should I fix this? I’ve already received acceptances from a few schools, so how will that affect them?
That’s fine. UCs generally know about this kind of quirks and I’ve had students who had input issues who got admitted and enrolled without problems. If you are concerned, you can contact the admissions office through your portal and explain that you are not sure you inputted your courses correctly given the type of term your school uses, and ask if you should send an unofficial transcript now just to make sure.
I recently got accepted into UCR and realized i forgot to input a biology class that i failed before entering high school and retook with the rest of my class during my freshman year (i was taking it to get ahead but failed the class with a D). I retook the class during the 9th grade year and reported the grade i got in it but i forgot to report that i took the class the summer before 9th grade as well and didn’t pass. I also forgot to input that i got an A in health the summer going into 10th grade. I emailed UCR about the mistake but do you think this will affect my admission decision?
as a side note the only reason i forgot to add health was because it wasn’t an A-G course and it was just a class i needed to graduate so i wasn’t exactly sure if i was supposed to put it. Furthermore the reason why i didn’t include me taking and not passing biology the summer before 9th grade was because it was before the regular schedule that students take the class and before i entered the high school, so i was unsure.
So was it a health class or a biology class? You wouldn’t need to report it if it was a health class because that’s typically not A-G approved.
it was both, they were 2 seperate classes i forgot to put down
You don’t need to worry about the health class if it’s not A-G approved. For the biology class, it depends on how your high school notated it on your transcript. If it was listed under “middle school” or “8th grade” on your transcript, then you are not required to report it (because the UC Application is set up in such way that you cannot report that). If it was listed under 9th grade, then you are required to report it.
Yes, it was listed under 9th grade summer (summer before 9th) on my transcripts. I emailed them about the issue after i was accepted and told them about the error. However, my question was whether or not that would affect my admission decision given that i failed to report a class that i failed during high school, even though they accepted me on the basis of the grade that i got after i retook the class.
Generally I don’t think that is going to be an issue (based on how the UC Application is set up and the kind of information UCs want from students), but it really depends on the campus (UCR has final say). Since you already emailed them, just wait for an answer and then go from there.
Hello,
I’ve indicated that I’d be taking the AP Calculus AB and AP literature exam on my UC application. However, I wont be taking them. Can my acceptance be withdrawn if I fail to report these AP exams?
Review your Provisional Admission Contract/Conditions of Admission that came with your admission offer to see if there are requirements specific to skipping AP exams.
Yes, I’ve reviewed it and it only says report the scores by July 15.
In that case, skipping the exams should be fine (generally, the UCs that care about you skipping exams will have a separate stipulation for you to report any exams you are skipping).
I put the wrong term date for a class on my TAU and now it won’t let me change it? How would I update or change that? Will this affect college decisions?
If it’s not too far off (by a month or two), I wouldn’t worry about that. If it’s completely wrong (you put spring when you meant winter), then you should send a correction through your applicant portal at each UC campus.
So basically I took AP Macro Economics, and I didn’t realize until after I got accepted that it’s listed as a one semester class not a two semester class. I am taking Principles of American Democracy right now even though it’s literally AP Macro Economics. How heavily will this impact me when I contact the admission office for the UC’s?
This is a pretty common mistake and I doubt the UCs will cancel your admission offer for this. But you should submit a schedule correction to each UC campus where you have been admitted (log into your applicant portal to look for a correction/update form). Some UCs may give you a definitive answer but others may say something vague like “we can’t determine how this will affect your admission offer until we have received and reviewed your transcript(s).”
On my UC applications, I accidently put down that I had taken AP Calculus AB, even though I took AP Calculus AB. What should I do or how can I fix that?
Do you mean you took AB and put down BC, or vice versa? Log into your applicant portal and look for a correction/update or contact form to send the correction to the admissions office.
I saw your comment earlier about UCs responding with “we can’t determine how this will affect your admission offer until we have received and reviewed your transcript(s).” If this was the response after I sent a email about some changes should I be worried?
There isn’t much you can do. Depending on what caused that response, you may want to look for a backup option just in case.
Hi, so I accidentally marked three courses that were semester courses as full term courses in the academic history section. One of these was taken during my sophomore year, one during junior year, and one during senior year. The funny thing is that this mistake actually hurt my UC gpa, so my UC gpa is actually higher than what I put on my UC app. Because of this I doubt UC Berkeley will rescind me because the mistake was clearly unintentional and I’m actually a better applicant than the one they accepted. I also mentioned that these courses were half year in the additional info section on the UC app, so I have two solid pieces of evidence this wasn’t intentional. Do I have a chance at getting rescinded and who should I reach out to, to discuss this mistake.
Follow the instructions I have here to report corrections to the UCs.
I made a minor mistake in the 12th grade section when inputting my planned courses on the UC Application. At my school Economics and AP Government are one semester long, but on my application, I did not know there was a “NO” option for when the class ends for the off semester, so I put “PL” in replacement for it. However, I want to make it clear that I am still taking BOTH courses and am on track in passing them. I contacted the UC Application center about this issue and a woman named, Catherine Reed, said it was fine for me to explain it once I receive an offer of admission. And so I contacted them recently, but I have already accepted and paid the deposit. Will this minor error affect my admissions offer at all? It truly an accident.
That’s a pretty common error and unlikely to affect your admission offer. Make sure you use whatever correction/update form for your UC campus to report this.
I applied for UCI through the TAG program with my intended major which is Psychological Science, but on the actual UC application I accidentally chose Psychology B.A. If I contact admissions will they allow the change or will my application be completely denied?
The UCs have said in the past that your TAG major has to match your UC Application major, otherwise your TAG is voided. You can contact the campus and explain your situation, and see what happens.
I completely forgot that I had taken a course at one community college and therefore I forgot to report it in my original application. I received a B in a foreign language class at that school.
I reported the all community college courses I took at the 2 other schools but forgot the one course from this school. Am I at significant risk of getting my admission rescinded?
Send a correction to all of the UCs using your applicant portal (you may need to wait until after you have received admission offers because some have stopped taking updates). Remember to explain that you recently realized you omitted a course and the error was unintentional. I don’t think this is going to get your admission offers canceled, but you need to report the information.
I am a transfer that got into a UC for social sciences. I entirely forgot a class that I took years ago (almost a decade) online, I couldn’t even remember the name of the college because I had extenuating circumstances at the time; I thought I entirely dropped before classes were past drop period but it turns out after some digging I had an F in that class. I had originally thought it was only a technical program, not a credit program, but I remembered incorrectly. I am going to see about getting academic renewal for it from the cc. I am afraid that this will be seen as dishonest now that I am accepted even though that was not my intention, I intend to report it now that I am aware of it. Will this cause my offer to be rescinded? What should I do?
Send a correction to all of the UCs using your applicant portal; for campuses where you are still waiting for decisions, you may need to wait until after you have received an admission offer (some have stopped taking updates). Remember to explain that you recently realized you omitted a course and the error was unintentional, and you are taking steps to file for academic renewal, which you expect will go through. UCs may ask you to submit proof of academic renewal when it goes through. Whether any of the UCs will cancel your admission offer is difficult to gauge. If you had taken an equivalent course since then, it will count as having been repeated (you should point this out as part of your explanation) and the damage should be minor.
Thank you, looks like I am taking the best next steps. The class was a cc level computer programming/networking class, and that was how I found out how I don’t have the aptitude for programming. It isn’t applicable to the social sciences degree I am getting whatsoever so I don’t have any intention of repeating it. I have a 3.9 and one of my other grades was an F due to extenuating health issues and they accepted my explanation.
Double check to see if the computer programming class is UC-transferable. You don’t need to report if it is not (look at Assist.org for the year that the course was taken – sometimes UC-transferability will change as community colleges modify the curriculum and gain/lose approval).
If you do need to report it, make sure to also indicate the year you took it and how it is not a reflection of your ability as a student now (because it was so long ago).
It’s definitely UC Transferrable and I took it in 2014. I’m hoping they’ll take things into account with my explanation. I appreciate you clearing this up. I’ll follow up with the cc counselor on Monday for academic renewal. Thanks so much Ms. Sun!
My best wishes to you and good luck!
Hi, I recently submitted my SIR to a UC. When reviewing I my UC app, I realized I forgot to enter the name of a second high school where I only took a summer PE class. All my other classes were completed at my primary high school. Is this going to be a problem? Do I need to contact the specific UC by email and explain or try to submit a correction on their portal?
Because PE is not A-G approved, UCs generally don’t care about those. I wouldn’t bother with sending a correction.
Thank you. Since my transcripts show the name of that other school with the PE class grade I just wanted to make sure that wouldn’t cause an issue.
You are fine. I wouldn’t worry about that. The transcript verification that happens in July is for academic courses (A-G, AP, Honors, community college, IB, etc.). PE is not an academic course.
I applied to UCSB and was rejected. My PIQ’s were heavily centered around wanting to major in Psychology and I even mentioned “… which is why I am majoring in Psychology at the University of California”. However I just checked my initial application and I had accidentally put down Physiology instead of Psychology as my major which contradicts my essays. I had also written an appeal for rejection, detailing an extenuating circumstance during the initial application process that had strengthened my desire to major in psychology. If I had caught this mistake earlier I could have incorporated this in my appeal, however now what do you recommend I do?
Try to get in touch with a UCSB transfer admission officer to explain the situation and ask if anything can be done about correcting your major.
I would be an incoming freshman not a transfer student, do you think I should still contact them? Both majors are in the College of Letters and Science. Someone else said not to contact them as to not cause any confusion, but do you think it would be worthwhile. Also do you think this mistake would be a big deal? I’m trying to gage how detrimental it would be in terms of consideration of my appeal. Thank you so much.
I would suggesting contacting the admissions office to clarify this, but it’s up to you whether you do. It’s impossible to know whether this will have any negative impact on your appeal, which is why I think it’s better to clarify.
My school splits the year into quarters and reports grade every quarter. However, they only report one final grade (the average of the four quarter grades) per class on transcripts. When I applied, I reported my senior year’s first quarter grades even though they wouldn’t show up on my final transcript, only my final grade will. I also accidentally reported that I got an 100 in a Spanish class when I actually got a 96. Am I in danger of getting rescinded, and should I contact admissions?
You should contact admissions to explain the situation (what you said to me works just fine) but I doubt your admission offer will get canceled over something minor like this.
Thanks for the advice! I contacted admissions and followed their instructions to report it on my admissions portal.
You are very welcome.
Hi, When I fill out the UC application form, I thought I had one year (2 semesters) of dual enrollment with a community college and I reported so. I got admitted to UCLA and have requested the college to send the transcript to UCLA. However, UCLA told me the transcript is deemed preliminary because the transcript only has the grade of the fall semester. (I looked it up at the time of application and it showed 2018FA but I totally didn’t think that it meant FALL ONLY.) It doesn’t show that I was enrolled in the spring semester, nor does it have a grade for spring. What should I do? The high school teacher who taught these courses no longer teaches at my high school. Will my admission be canceled?
You need to send a “change report” to UCLA (follow the instructions here) and say that you mistakenly thought a semester-long course is year-long. Explain that the course was taught at your high school campus and took up the entire academic year, which is why you thought the course was year-long, but you discovered that, on the community college transcript, the course is noted as “Fall” (one-semester). Say that it was an honest mistake (misunderstanding) and unintentional, and you hope it will not affect your admission offer.
Thank you very much for the advice.
My best wishes to you and good luck!
Ms. Sun, I took Spanish 3 in summer after 9th grade from an online school and my school put the course on my transcript under that school’s name. When entering the classes on UC app, do I need to make a separate entry for the online school and list Spanish 3 or can I enter it under 10th grade summer under my high school.
Similarly, took Math 1(listed as Math9 on my middle school transcript) in 8th grade and Spanih1 from online school in 8th grade. My high school let me register for Math2 and Spanish 2 in 9th. DO I need to list them under middle school on UC app? Do I need to list the schools names? The thirs one is, attended ATDP in my summer prior to 9th, can I list it uner 9th grade educational prep program on the UC app? Thanks for your help!
You can put Math 1 and Spanish 1 in “Academic history” under the section “7th & 8th grade”; that section does not ask for school names. If your school offers the same Spanish 2 class as the one offered at your online school and the course is listed on your school transcript, you can just list it under your school. Listing ATDP for 9th grade should be fine.