The University at Buffalo let in a stampede of prospective students last Wednesday, as the state university accidentally sent out acceptance letters to more than 5,000 prospective students. For a few hours, at least.
Unfortunately for the students, they were not really accepted as of yet. Rather, the email was the result of the school accidentally utilizing an incorrect mailing list. The incident was confirmed by John DellaContrada, a university spokesman.
After a few hours, and after the error became apparent, the university quickly backtracked, sending out letters that explained the situation and apologized for the mistake.
"The University at Buffalo deeply regrets an error that occurred when an email intended to encourage you to fill out your FAFSA form mistakenly stated we had completed the review of your application materials," Lee H. Melvin, vice provost for enrollment management wrote.
Melvin, however, assured the students that the erroneous acceptance letters were in no way a sign that the people who received them did not make it into the school. Rather, the provost emphasized that the university is still in the process of reviewing all the applications.
"In fact, we are still reviewing your application for admission and haven't made a final decision on your acceptance to the university," Melvin said.
The provost further stated that students who applied for the university should expect the official results of the university's review process by April 22. Thus, students would need to wait for a couple of days more for the real results of their applications to be released.
Addressing the incident, the university issued a statement apologizing for the error.
"We know that this can be a stressful time for prospective students and their families. The University at Buffalo deeply regrets this unfortunate error in communication," the statement said.
Though the incident was quite an embarrassing gaffe for the University at Buffalo, such incidents have become increasingly common among the nation's educational institutions. Last year, Carnegie Mellon University committed a similar error, sending out acceptance messages to 800 prospective graduate students by mistake. And in 2014, Johns Hopkins University committed an even bigger error, sending out acceptance letters to 300 students who were actually rejected by the school.
The University at Buffalo's gaffe involves the largest number of students since 2009, when the University of California in San Diego sent out acceptance letters to 46,000 students, including the 28,000 that the school rejected.
