 |
Vassar College computer glitch wrongly tells students they’re accepted
 |
By Jordan Chittley | Daily Buzz
For a little more than two hours, dozens of high school seniors thought they had been accepted to Vassar College in New York State when in reality they were actually rejected.
The liberal arts school in Poughkeepsie, New York experienced a "computer error" so when students logged on Friday afternoon to see if they got in, the site told everyone they were accepted. The problem of the non-personalized placeholder was fixed about 30 minutes later, but in that time 122 students had logged onto the site of which, 46 saw the correct message meaning numerous students were jumping for joy for no reason.
"She told everyone, she put it as her Facebook status, she was really happy," said Matt Geline, a current Vassar student and friend of a misinformed applicant, to the TWEAN News Channel of Albany. "But then when she checked three hours later, she discovered that there was a glitch and she was just distraught."
"We are terribly sorry about the confusion and disappointment the erroneous information posted online caused the students," said president Catharine Hill in a statement. "Our admissions process is a careful deliberation over several months, so it is so unfortunate to have this communication error happen at the end of that process for some of our early decision candidates.
Another hopeful student, Megan Curiel saw the good news on her iPhone and sobbed, according to the New York Times. Her father called the relatives, she ordered two sweatshirts and they opened a bottle of bubbly.
"I was in...for about three hours," she told the Times. At least she listened to her father and decided to delay withdrawing the rest of her applications to other schools until the next day.
Vassar took about two hours to figure out which students had read the incorrect message and emailed them to apologize.
"We understand how very upsetting this is for those students who viewed the inaccurate decisions that we posted online," said Hill. "We are very sorry to have added to the overall stress of the college admissions process for these students and their families."
Vassar isn't the first university to experience such a problem. In March, 61 applicants received an incorrect acceptance to the University of Delaware and similar errors occurred at the University of California, San Diego and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
While many students are distraught over the issue, one is looking on the bright side and thinking this glitch may have been a good thing.
"I want to major in computer science," said Kareen Troussard in a New York Times article. "And Vassar doesn't even know how to use a computer on the biggest day of our lives."
531 page views
|
|
|
|