Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 mistake crushes hopes of 800 applicants
There鈥檚 nothing worse than not getting accepted to the school of your choice 鈥� except getting accepted and then finding out it was an error.
On Monday, Carnegie Mellon University鈥檚 admissions office incorrectly sent an email to roughly 800 applicants to the school鈥檚 computer science master鈥檚 program.
鈥淲e understand the disappointment created by this mistake, and deeply apologize to the applicants for this miscommunication,鈥� university spokesperson Ken Walters said to . 鈥淲e are currently reviewing our notification process to help ensure this does not happen in the future.鈥�
, congratulates students on their acceptance, and continues to offer them 鈥渂ragging points鈥� for their success:
鈥淵ou are one of the select few, less than 9 percent of the more than 1,200 applicants, that we are inviting. We鈥檙e convinced this is the right place for you. Welcome to Carnegie Mellon!鈥�
About seven hours later, students received a follow-up email with the less celebratory subject line, 鈥淐ORRECTION OF PRIOR EMAIL / REVOCATION OF OFFER OF ADMISSION TO MS IN CS PROGRAM.鈥澛�
While seven hours may seem like a short amount of time, it was just enough time for some 鈥渁ccepted鈥� students to celebrate. Ben Leibowitz, one of the 800 to receive the false email, alerted his relatives to his acceptance to what the ranks the country鈥檚 No. 1 graduate computer science program. He also celebrated over dinner with his parents before receiving the news.
鈥淚t was brutal. I didn鈥檛 get much sleep last night,鈥� Leibowitz . 鈥淣ow I have to clean up the mess. I鈥檓 calling all my relatives, I鈥檓 going, 'I鈥檓 sorry it鈥檚 not happening.'"
This is not the first time a major university has blundered in this manner. in December, John Hopkins University accidentally sent almost 300 undergraduate students 鈥渨elcome messages鈥� in spite of their rejections or deferments. In February 2014, MIT sent out false information about financial aid to thousands of students, informing them they would be receiving information due to their acceptance (which they did not receive). In 2009, the University of California at San Diego 鈥渁ccepted鈥� all 46,000 applicants, including the 28,000 who were rejected.
Clerical errors have become all too frequent, especially with the development of automated acceptance systems in the early 2000s. Katy Steinmetz of it has become an almost annual 鈥渞ite of college admissions,鈥� with one of its earliest offenses occurring in 1995 when 45 students received fat early acceptance envelopes from Cornell, only to receive a thin rejection letter soon after.
: 鈥淏ut 鈥� while there is a special irony to this mistaken mass email coming from officials at the school ranked #1 in computer science 鈥� this kind of spirit-crushing mixup is sadly common.鈥�
