About 2,500 anxious applicants received a financial aid notice email, stating, “Congratulations once again on your admission to Fordham University,” two days before a decision was expected to be made. But, just a few hours later, the excitement was over. The school sent a follow up email stating the acceptance emails had been sent in error. Five hundred of the students that received the acceptance emails were actually denied admission, while the other 2000 were deferred. The mix-up was caused a data transfer error by Student Aid Services contractor, according to the university. There were about 2,500 total early admission applicants who received financial aid notices that mistakenly told them they were admitted, the university said.
The applicants received the letters from a third-party contractor on Wednesday congratulating them. In a follow-up email a few hours later, the school told students that the notices had been sent in error and did not reflect their status. Craig V. Carroll, the chief executive of Student Aid Services, asked students for forgiveness in a statement on Thursday.“We are devastated by the error that has occurred,” the chief executive of S.A.S said in a statement to PIX 11.
The New York Times reported that “Fordham and its undergraduate admissions staff are acutely aware of the high hopes prospective students and their families have regarding college acceptances,” the school said. “The University deeply regrets that some applicants were misled by the financial aid notice.”
According to the Fordham’s application policy, the early applicants who were deferred must wait until April 1 for a decision. The rejected applicants may also apply for regular admission.
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