This School Just Sent 500 False Acceptance Letters

Even though I went through the college admissions process a while ago, I'll never forget how stressful it was — from the personal essays, to the waiting game, to the inevitable rejections, it was pretty crappy all around. But at least I was never rejected twice by the same school, unlike prospective students to Drexel University, which sent out 500 acceptance letters in error, and then had to email students that, nope, they were still being rejected after all. Oof, talk about rubbing salt in a wound.

Last week, hundreds of students got letters informing them they'd been accepted into Drexel University for the upcoming fall. The catch? These students had either already been rejected, or had incomplete applications. When the admissions office realized their mistake, they sent out a follow-up "whoops" email that informed the kids of the mistake and that their initial rejection still stood, as well as a brief apology for the "confusion" the error may have caused. Understandably, students are upset about a whole lot more than just the "confusion," like, for instance, the fact that they got all stoked to attend Drexel, told their family and friends, and the fact that it took a whole seven hours for Drexel to realize and correct its mistake. What.

I feel like I'm usually pretty understanding when people make mistakes, but seriously? Five hundred emails got sent to the wrong people? It really shouldn't be that hard to not send an email to the wrong person, what with all the technology and programs we have available now. For instance, you could keep separate Excel spreadsheets of who got accepted and who was rejected. You could send out an email using Mailchimp and organize students by acceptance status on different lists. You can even set your Gmail up so that you can undo an email within 30 seconds of hitting "send." Or you can, you know, double-check your recipients list and make sure you're not making a huge screw-up? Drexel Admissions, you had one job. One!

As much as I'm hating on Drexel right now, they're not the first college to send out erroneous acceptances, and they probably won't be the last. Let's take a nostalgic look back at the other guilty offenders.

1. Carnegie Mellon University

Back in February, Carnegie Mellon accepted 800 students by mistake, to their master's in computer science program, no less. It's so ironic it's almost funny, accept for the fact that they got a bunch of students all pumped to attend and were then like, "JK, wait, no." This happened only a few months ago, so you'd think other colleges would have learned from their mistake and be extra cautious, but no.

2. Johns Hopkins University

293 prospective freshman to Johns Hopkins who had previously been deferred or rejected though the Early Decision process opened their inboxes to an "Embrace the YES!" email last December. The cheesy subject line is almost as heinous as the mistake itself.

3. Kean University

Exactly two months ago today, Kean University in New Jersey sent out 3,000 acceptance letters that were a mistake. Three thousand! Let me just repeat that one more time: three thousand. According to Twitter, they sent out acceptance letters to students who hadn't even applied, which takes a special level of mess-up to achieve. To their credit, though, they realized and attempted to correct the mistake within the hour, which is a lot quicker than the other schools on this list.

Come on, colleges. This really isn't that hard. Do better!

Images: Tom Ipri / Flickr; Giphy