By Anna Bryson
“Mom, I got into my dream school!”
Sike.
USF St. Petersburg sent out about 430 acceptance emails over the weekend to high school seniors. An hour later, a follow-up email was sent stating that it was “a system error” and to disregard the acceptance letter.
The university issued the following statement:
“We were dismayed to learn that about 430 acceptance emails were mistakenly sent on Saturday due to human error. As educators, we understand the disappointment and distress such a mistake can cause.
“We apologize to all of the affected students and their families and are taking immediate steps to ensure this never happens again. We will reach out to every individual student who received the incorrect email to discuss possible pathways for admission to USF St. Petersburg in the future.”
According to a spokesperson for the university, a member of the staff was working from a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and thought it was properly sorted when it was not. A total of about 680 emails were sent. Of those, about 250 students were accepted. The remaining 430 received the acceptance email by mistake, either because their application was still under review, was incomplete or they were not selected for admission at this time.
The university is still working to determine the breakdown and will contact each student who received a false acceptance to update them on their status.
