A few months back Vassar thoroughly embarrassed itself when a ‘technical glitch’ delivered 70 acceptance letters to high school seniors the world over–by mistake. Now U.C.L.A. has been struck by the same mysterious case of the stupids. If anything, the California school’s boo-boo was worse, since this time 894 high school students had their hopes raised, then dashed:
In an email about financial aid awards, UCLA told 894 high school seniors last weekend that they were admitted to the highly competitive campus. Those students actually remain on the waiting list for the Westwood school.
To its credit, U.C.L.A. was pretty apologetic about the mess, saying in their mea culpa that the school understood that “this is a particularly anxious and stressful time for students and their families as they try to make decisions about college admissions.”
Apparently the mistake happened last weekend when financial aid notices were sent to students who had been admitted as well as students on a waiting list. This line unfortunately made the cut in the letter to wait-listed seniors: “…congratulations on your admission to UCLA, we hope that this information will assist you in making your decision to join the Bruin Family in the fall.”
Campus spokesman Ricardo Vasquez admitted the mistake was ‘human error.’
For a look at how a similar human error impacted students hoping to attend Vassar, read this.
