On February 15th, 277 applicants to Columbia's Public Health program learned their fate. Waiting for a response from any college is stressful enough, but when you finally get an email from your dream school, your anxiety hits an all-time high. As these hopeful students opened their emails to find out if they'll be attending the college in the fall, it seemed as if all their prayers were answered. 277 hopefuls were accepted into the elite program and were eager to spread the good news.
75 minutes later, their tears were no longer filled with joy
A second email then went out confirming that the emails were indeed sent in error and the students were declined.
The second email claimed that the acceptance was sent out "in human error," but did not go into any other detail about the incident. The university stated that they are working to make sure this issue does not occur again. The school also stated that they "deeply apologize for the miscommunication," and they "value the energy and enthusiasm applicants bring to the process."
This error is a lot more common than it should be
While it would be easy to say that Columbia is the only school to administer such a mix up, that isn't the case whatsoever. Last year, the University at Buffalo sent out over 5,000 acceptance letters to the wrong students, claiming it was an "unfortunate error in communication." Another school to have made the same kind of mistake was Carnegie Melon University.
The school sent out 800 acceptances last year to a graduate computer science program just to tell them in the same day that the acceptance was an error. Other schools to have had such errors include Tulane last year, as well and Fordham in 2013. However, one of the largest mishaps known occurred in 2009 when the University of California, San Diego sent out 28,000 false acceptances.
Clearly this mistake happens more than anyone would like it to. So, maybe it's time to start checking over those emails and letters that are to be distributed more thoroughly before they're sent.
