The admissions office of the University of California at San Diego accidentally e-mailed letters of congratulation and welcome to its entire undergraduate applicant pool, including 28,000 students who had been rejected earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported. Campus officials blamed the mistake on an “administrative error” that involved selecting the wrong database of recipients.
The letters congratulated the students on their admission to the university and invited them to attend an event for admitted students.
“We recognized the incredible pain receiving this false encouragement caused. It was not our intent,” said Mae Brown, the campus’s admissions director. Ms. Brown said she had been answering e-mail from disappointed students and parents.
San Diego joins a list of campuses that have made similar mistakes. They include Cornell University, the University of California at Davis, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Northwestern University’s business school. —Josh Keller
Correction (4/1): This post originally and erroneously described the admissions office’s messages as “acceptance letters.” As noted below by one of the commenters, the letters were invitations to attend an event for admitted students.
