Tuesday – 4/7/09

“We accessed the wrong database. We recognize the incredible pain receiving this false encouragement caused. It was not our intent.”
University of California at San Diego admissions director Mae Brown, on the email sent to 28,000 applicants who had been rejected but then received an e-mail congratulating them on their acceptance, only to receive another notification admitting there was a mistake.
The e-mail, which began, “We’re thrilled that you’ve been admitted to UC San Diego, and we’re showcasing our beautiful campus on Admit Day,” was sent to the entire freshman applicant pool of more than 46,000 students, instead of just the 18,000 who had been admitted, Brown said.
Schools such as Cornell University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Northwestern University’s prestigious Kellogg School of Management have made similar admission notification blunders in the last five years, but UC San Diego’s mistake was by far the biggest.
(Read the story here.)