MIT Joins the Club of Schools That Have Mistakenly Told Applicants They Have Been Admiited

Parents Forum
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<p><a href=“MIT Mistakenly Tells Some Applicants They’ve Been Admitted - Bloomberg”>http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-12/mit-mistakenly-tells-prospective-students-they-ve-been-admitted.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Are the people responsible for this screwup MIT graduates? Regardless, it’s unbelievably sloppy and careless and you’d think that given the recent history of other schools similar mistakes being highly publicized, high profile schools like MIT would routinely go over any correspondence with applicants with a fine-toothed comb.</p>

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<p>That it’s MIT is obviously the icing on the cake of irony.</p>

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<p>My son got this email. It was super tiny print at the bottom after boilerplate gibberish. He never saw that line. I bet very very few kids even noticed. In my experience, MIT admissions department ranks #1 in quality, transparency and accessibility. They are good people that made an honest mistake. </p>

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<p>There is already a thread in the MIT forum on this.
<a href=“"You are on this list because you are admitted to MIT! (/^▽^)/" at the end of an email - Massachusetts Institute of Technology - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-institute-technology/1612586-you-are-on-this-list-because-you-are-admitted-to-mit-at-the-end-of-an-email-p1.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>That thread also contains responses from Chris Peterson, the Admissions Counselor for Web Communications at MIT who made the mistake. </p>

<p>He also links to his blog post.
<a href=“http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/profile/chrispeterson”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/profile/chrispeterson&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Funny how computers also help us make our mistakes faster too.</p>

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<p>Luckily most MIT applicants seem to have been smart enough to realize it was probably a mistake.</p>

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<p>It’s not 3.14 yet. Fortunately the mistake was not so bad compared the mistake that MIT made in the last decade.</p>

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<p>This is not nearly as bad as what Vassar did, in my opinion. Still, this is the one thing that absolutely cannot happen. I can’t believe that another college let this happen.</p>

<p>Edited to add: just read the other thread. The apology was classy and hearfelt, and I would accept it if I were an applicant. It’s not like what happened at Vassar, where actual acceptance notices went out to the wrong people. Still, I hope all colleges will learn from this that they need to have procedures in place (include four eyes, at least) to make sure this doesn’t occur.</p>

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<p>UC Davis is also one of those that sent actual acceptance letters to the wrong applicants some years ago. Some of the parents were so upset about their kid having been first thrilled and then devastated that they sued to force UC Davis to honor the first notice and admit them. They did not win their suit.</p>