UCLA mistakenly sends acceptance letters to almost 900 applicants

Photo: Chris Radcliff

Hundreds of high school seniors had their dreams dashed after finding out emails they received implying their acceptance at the University of California, Los Angeles were sent out in error.

“Once again congratulations on your admission to UCLA,” a mass email about financial aid stated over the weekend. “We hope that this information will assist you in making your decision to join the Bruin Family in the fall.”

The problem, however, was that the email was not only sent to accepted students, but also to 894 students that were simply on a waiting list.

“We realize this is a particularly anxious and stressful time for students and their families as they try to make decisions about college admissions,” UCLA spokesman Ricardo Vazquez told the Los Angeles Times.

The email to the wait-listed students also contained a link to a financial aid letter that stated they were on the waiting list, leading to UCLA being bombarded with phone calls from students inquiring if they had indeed been accepted.

Vazquez called the emails a “human error,” and a corrected email went out to the students on Monday.

Despite the large scale mistake, the University of California, San Diego has UCLA beat by a long shot. According to the Times the school sent out in error almost 28,000 acceptance letters to rejected students. UC San Diego’s entire undergraduate enrollment is only 23,000.

UCLA is known as one of the most highly selective schools in the country, only accepting 25.29% of the 61,566 freshman applicants in 2011. The school has reportedly received 72,626 applications for the fall of 2012.