COLUMBIA, Mo.
More than 200 graduate school applicants at the University of Missouri-Columbia have received errant e-mails wrongly offering acceptance to 15 different academic programs.
The 233 students received premature acceptance letters on Sept. 27 but were told the next day that their acceptance had been withdrawn because academic programs were still reviewing applications.
Terrence Grus, director of graduate admissions and records, called the error a “technical glitch.” The e-mails were intended to be sent out after acceptance, he said.
“We apologize for this error and for any inconvenience this may have caused,” Grus told the students in a follow-up e-mail.
The university’s graduate admissions office has since added “several layers of protection” to prevent similar mistakes, Grus said.
Hirotsugu Mizuno, a 34-year-old Japanese man hoping to study journalism at Missouri, wants the university to honor its agreement, however brief.
“Once a university makes a decision, they should not cancel it easily, like if you buy a stock or a house or a car,” he said. “The university should take some responsibility to the student or compensate them in some way.”
— Associated Press
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