Johns Hopkins University Sends Acceptance Letters to Nearly 300 Rejected Applicants
One of the most prestigious universities in the nation made a mistake over the weekend that doubly crushed hundreds of prospective students’ hopes.
Because of an accident, the university’s undergraduate admission office sent acceptance emails to students who had been rejected.
According to ABC News, Johns Hopkins began sending out answers to their Early Decision applicants on Friday Dec. 12. Students rejected from the school received a letter telling them so; however, on Sunday 294 rejected applicants received emails welcoming them to the Baltimore university. Johns Hopkins quickly did damage control, sending emails telling the rejected students they were indeed rejected.
However, some recipients took to Twitter to show the correspondence from Johns Hopkins.
The university attributed the mistake to a contractor hired by the undergraduate admissions office. Dennis O’Shea from Johns Hopkins’ media relations department explained the acceptance emails were sent "due to a human error at a vendor working for our undergraduate admissions office.”
“When the problem was discovered, we quickly sent out a correction to those who had received the message by mistake," he said. "We sincerely apologize to the students affected and to their families. This was an unacceptable error and we are working to ensure it does not happen again."
The Washington Post obtained some of the correspondence sent out by Johns Hopkins. Following the rejection letter, the rejected students received an email titled “Embrace the YES!” The email congratulated the applicant and encouraged him or her to buy Johns Hopkins paraphernalia and use social media, including the hashtag #JHU2019 to share the news.
However, soon after, the rejected students received another email titled “Apology for Email Error.” The email said to disregard the previous email.
“The decision posted on the decision site reflects the accurate result of your Early Decision application,” it explained. “We regret this technical mistake and any confusion it may have caused.”
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