UCLA Apologizes for Mistakenly Sending Acceptance Letters to 894 Applicants

UCLA officials are apologizing for telling 894 high school seniors that they were accepted to the highly competitive college, when, in fact, they were still on the wait-list, reported Time Magazine. The mistake happened when the university emailed provisional financial packages to both admitted students and students on the waiting list last Saturday and Sunday. The e-mail included the line: Once again 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, which led prospective students to believe that they had been officially accepted to the school.

In addition to the misleading line, the email told the students to follow an online link to a more detailed financial aid letter that then stated they were on the waiting list, reported the Los Angeles Times. After confused students called administrators for clarification, UCLA's offices send another message on Monday, confirming that the students were in fact not admitted, and attached an apology.

We realize this is a particularly anxious and stressful time for students and their families as they try to make decisions about college admissions, campus spokesman Ricardo Vazquez told the Los Angeles Times. We sincerely apologize for this mistake that may have led some of them to think they were admitted when they remain on the waiting lists.

The university has yet to determine exactly how the mistake was made, but attributes it to a human error, the Daily News reported. The falsely accepted students still remain on the waitlist of the selective college, which has a 25 percent admission rate for fall semester freshmen.

UCLA now joins many other universities who have mistakenly led hopeful students to believe that they were in. Vassar College accidentally sent acceptance letters to 76 rejected students in January. In 2009, the University of San Diego sent the letters to all 46,000 applicants, including at least half of that number who had actually been rejected. New York University accidentally congratulated 489 rejected graduate students on April Fools Day in 2009.