Admission Denied

Parents Forum
1

<p>I'm so angry at one of the colleges in my state.</p>

<p>My friend is one of the first people to go to college in her family and has had her eyes set on one of the state schools. She got into her second choice and waited and waited to hear from her first choice. </p>

<p>They sent her an acceptance letter. </p>

<p>She was absolutely ecstatic and came to school bubbling over. She told everyone, including her extended family, and they were all extremely proud of her. Her mum took her to dinner. Then, two days later she recieved another letter.</p>

<p>The school appologized, it had "made a mistake" and my friend was really waitlisted. </p>

<p>I can not for the life of me see how this is fair. They accidently sent her an acceptance letter with her name on it? That's THEIR problem. I don't think they should be allowed to waitlist someone in a situation like this. Her grades haven't slipped since her acceptance (how could they have?) and it now caused her the extreme embarassment of telling everyone who was so proud of her that she was not accepted after all.</p>

2

<p>Although I hate to use my law degree to bully anyone, this seems like an appropriate time for your friends family to visit a lawyer and demand that the school honor its "mistake."</p>

3

<p>How do you know your friend is telling the truth? One of the most shocking things about the whole college hunting experience was the number of fabricated, face-saving stories. It's a stressful time on young people.</p>

<p>Everybody happy about their letters at school. Somebody's feelin' left out:</p>

<p>"Yeah, I got mine, too! Yippeee"</p>

<p>Couple days later a letter does arrive bearing news of a waitlist (or maybe a rejection).</p>

<p>"Yeah, first they accepted me and then they say there was some kind of mistake."</p>

4

<p>Her mother was the one to call her with the news and she played the message for me. I really believe her on this one. :/ Plus, this girl is one of the most soft spoken, honest people I've ever met in my life. She's a real sweetie. </p>

<p>However, she is taking it in stride. She cried for a bit last night and then she and I talked about her second choice school and she started to get a little excited. </p>

<p>I told her she should at least contact the school, but she just wants to get past it now and focus on her second choice.</p>

5

<p>These kind of mix-ups are rare, but they do actually happen. There was a scandalous case a couple of years ago at UC Davis where a stack of apps meant for the reject pile got sent acceptance letters by mistake. A week or so later they sent out the real rejection letters. Some of the families hired lawyers and sued to force the school to honor the acceptance letters, but they lost.</p>

6

<p>I would suggest to her that she fight it- i would hate for her to wonder what her education would have been like if she had attended her 1st choice school.
Suggest to her that they are probably counting on her not standing up for herself, so that they can be sloppy enough for this to happen to more families, she needs to hold them accountable to benefit not only herself- but other students</p>

7

<p>Have her college counselor speak to the college.<br>
See what they say, explain how happy she was to be accepted, told her whole family etc.</p>

8

<p>


</p>

<p>On what theory? There's no detrimental reliance, unless she turned down other schools on the basis of the letter.</p>

9

<p>"How do you know she's telling the truth?" That'a a bit harsh, isn't it? I doubt they would have made such a big deal about it if it was a complete lie. I agree with the lawyer person about checking out that avenue. If it had went from "you've been admitted" to "you've been denied" it would have been harder to fathom. But waitlisted is still good enough to get in. Also, did others that applied to this college get similar letters, I wonder?</p>

10

<p>"How do you know she's telling the truth?" That'a a bit harsh, isn't it? </p>

<p>Maybe. All I know is that we encountered some pretty tall tales among D's classmates during the college application process.</p>

<p>I rather suspect there are more than a few tall tales posted here on CC, as well.</p>

<p>Kids feel a lot of "keeping up with the Jones" stress during the whole process and sometimes that manifests itself in strange ways. I don't think fictional college applications and acceptances are all that rare.</p>

11

<p>
[quote]
Although I hate to use my law degree to bully anyone, this seems like an appropriate time for your friends family to visit a lawyer and demand that the school honor its "mistake."

[/quote]

If the school quickly corrected its mistake, there is nothing to honor. Not every mistake in life can be fixed by lawyers.</p>

12

<p>There is a promise from the school to review the application and render a decision and there is consideration from the applicant in the form of an application fee. The school reneged on their end of the contract and the student suffered humiliation and emotional stress.</p>

<p>I am not a lawyer but the school had best hope I am not on the jury. The student did not contract for two contradictory decision. This is akin to going to the book store and buying a book for $5 and taking it home and then have the the store manager come knock on your door the next day and say sorry you have to give the book back I promised to another customer.</p>

<p>I hate tort lawyers but I could feel very generous when dealing with someone victimized by an industry that already practices price fixing and conspires to restrain competition. </p>

<p>Of course all of that depends on the facts being as they are presented by OP.</p>

13

<p>I think that if the facts are as stated are true the school act unethically--at least assuming there are not 500 kids who got acceptance letters who should have been wait listed and there would be no way in which the school could find room for all of them. (If that's what happened, there are good odds that someone in the group will sue.) </p>

<p>But the students shouldn't sue. If she does, everyone will find out about it. Even if she wins and gets into the school, the next 4 years would be hell on earth. Can you imagine being known as the kid who got in as a "mistake"? </p>

<p>If it's her first choice, I would call the school, say how devastating it was to get in and then find out it was a mistake, ask to stay on the wait list and POLITELY ask that if anyone gets in off the wait list the college take its error into account in deciding who will get off. I think there's a chance that a polite, mature approach like this might work--again, unless there are 500 people in the same boat...and maybe even then if 499 are threatening legal action.</p>

14

<p>I'm going to join the lawyers with this one - don't sue. Theoretically (and this is just me - feel free to correct if you want), but there IS contract. Detrimental reliance (and unjust enrichment) are used to enforce non-contracts. Application = offer, admission letter = acceptance. Perhaps it could be construed as an option contract (because the student is not bound at that point), but, nevertheless, there is an agreement and a contract present. If she sent in a deposit, there is certainly a contract (mailbox rule). These schools will think nothing of rejecting a student who backs out of an ED agreement (and then getting other schools to follow suit). In some respects then, it makes sense for the students to play the same game with them. </p>

<p>BUT - don't sue. Her BEST hope now, IMO, is to come off as a student whom the school really, really wants. Fine to say that she is disappointed; fine to say that she was escatic at getting an acceptance. Not fine is to complain about this. "I don't want to take this to court" can, for some people, actually show some maturity. If I were her, I would write a letter to them, along with the waitlist postcard, and emphasize a few things:
*That she was thrilled to receive the acceptance letter
*That she is very interested in staying on the waitlist, that she would certainly go if admitted, and will be sending additional materials shortly (then, of course, she should gather up recs, essays, list of awards she's won since sending in app 1, etc)
*that she is disappointed in receiving the waitlist, but again, very much wants to stay on it and hopes to hear from them soon.</p>

<p>I think that this, like many problems, is ill-suited to litigation. Even at the faintest whiff of a lawsuit, the school will make sure she never gets off the waitlist. If she sues and wins, first of all, it would take 18 months, on the average, to go through the system. Then you have the problem Jonri discussed. Unfortunately, as angry and upset as the friend is, she can't let on to the school if she wants to get in. Eager, happy, well-adjusted student is the way to go. Sure, if she gets off the WL and goes there in the fall, she can blast them for what they did to her. Until then, there isn't much she can say if she wants to get in.</p>

15

<p>Where is the contract?</p>

16

<p>There school made a promise to render a decision in return for the consideration of the application fee. A promise in return for consideration is a contract. The student had every right to rely on the school fullfilling its promise to make A decision not two or three or a hundred decisions or a maybe or a might or a I changed my mind.</p>

<p>If the student accepted the offer of admission and put a deposite in the mail that would be another contract - though that did not happen so far as we know thus saving the admission department from possible criminal federal mail fraud charges :-)</p>

<p>The school would not hesitate to collude with other institutions to deny the student admittance to those schools if that student backed out on an ED application - an act that is probably a violation of several federal statutes governing resttraint of trade and interstate commerce rather than seek redress through the courts.</p>

<p>Anyway as a practical matter I would not bother further with such an institution if I were the student. I don't lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do. Apparently the school does not have an honour code.</p>

17

<p>The school made an offer, which was rescinded prior to any other action being taken.</p>

18

<p>Thanks for your advice everyone. </p>

<p>This girl was so shot down by the whole thing that she no longer wants to go if she were taken off the waitlist. In fact, she's just plain tired of the mess and wants to look forward to attending her second choice school, one she's been getting considerably more excited about. So, I'm amazed by the stride she's taking it in and can understand why she doesn't want to persue the lesson any further. I have mentioned she should send a letter to a school explaining the harm the school's mistake caused her.</p>

<p>This was a large, public school by the way. :/</p>

19

<p>"The school made an offer, which was rescinded prior to any other action being taken." </p>

<p>If you are trying to argue law, I think you are out. There was other action taken - the student announced to all her family and friends that she was accepted. She suffered as a result. She acted, appopriately, based on their mistake. I can understand why she wants to forget the whole thing, because it would cause her additional pain. But the plain, obvious truth is, she was wronged, and the the school was wrong.</p>

20

<p>Ack. What's the point in fighting? The girl is probably so turned off by the school that even if accepted, and even if the decision was re-reversed and she was re-accepted, it would be pointless. She probably wouldn't ejoy it anymore, and that'd make for an awful strain between student and school.</p>

<p>Looking at this situation from a legal standpoint is pointless; no action needs to be taken. Just tell her to take it in stride and move on to somewhere else.</p>