UCLA Mistakenly ‘Admits’ 894 Students on Waiting List

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The campus at the University of California, Los Angeles

In an email sent last weekend, the University of California at Los Angeles informed 894 students that they had gained places at the highly competitive college. The only problem was, they hadn’t. UCLA mistakenly sent the email to students on the waiting list.

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The mixup occurred when the university sent out provisional financial aid packages to admitted students and students on the waiting list. The message to wait-listed students 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.” This gave some students false hope that they would be spending the next four years on the Brentwood campus.

UCLA says it’s sorry for the error, which it corrected by email on Monday, but it won’t be admitting anyone from the waiting list just yet. “We realize this is a particularly anxious and stressful time for students and their families as they try to make decisions about college admissions. 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,” a campus spokesman told the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, the university is looking into the cause of the mistake, which it attributes to human error.

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