Or Yale
Part of their reply on Reddit:
The schools marketing scheme was either too effective or I got too personally involved. Maybe a bit of both. Imagine if you applied for a job, got an interview, and than got a personal letter from a current employee telling you how excited they were about you wanting to come work at their company? What if you were also actively in contact with many people working at the company, including your potential managers, but all of a sudden the unrelated hiring department says they are on the fence about you?
Yes, it is marketing. And BTW the analogy with the job search is very similar. In the job recruiting process, one often gets positive feedback from HR, current employees, department heads, etc. and still not get an offer.