Nearly 900 high school seniors who thought they could tell family and friends they had earned a hard-won acceptance to the University of California, Los Angeles, have been told they received the wrong information. They were actually on a waiting list.
The 894 prospective students received an email about financial aid awards last weekend that included the phrase "congratulations on your admission to UCLA," The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
The problem occurred when updated notices of provisional financial aid were sent not just to the students who had been accepted to the institution in the Westwood neighborhood of the city, but those on the waiting list as well.
The email included a Web link where a form said correctly that they were on the waiting list, leaving students who thought they were future Bruins confused and the university flooded with calls.
The financial aid office sent out a message Monday to clarify that the students hadn't been admitted, and offered 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," said campus spokesman Ricardo Vazquez, who blamed the mistake on human error and told the Times that university officials are looking into exactly how it happened. "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."
In 2009, the University of California system saw a similar mistake on a bigger scale, when 47,000 rejected students received emails telling them they'd been accepted to UC San Diego. Within two hours, the school sent an email correcting the mistake and apologizing.
