Not just put in the “rejection” pile, but apparently totally overlooked. When I first joined this website in November, one of the things that surprised me to learn was number of applications that some of these institutions receive. Especially now that so many take the Common Application, I wondered how often this type of thing happened, and low and behold it happened to my daughter.
Last Friday was a decision day for one of the schools my daughter applied to. She is a very high functioning student, excellent candidate for this institution based on the school profile, and extremely conscientious. Her application was submitted long before the regular decision due date, she completed the extra essays for the merit scholarship supplement on time, and made sure that her mid-term report got to the school. She selected this school in part because of the merit scholarship opportunities, particularly a full-ride scholarship opportunity that now we suspect has been awarded and for which she now has no chance to be considered for.
As we are American’s living overseas, every decision day has has included the added stress of being an extra 12 or more hours long for her. She woke up early Saturday morning to check for her decision at this school and nothing had changed on her web portal. This continued all weekend. On Monday morning (Sunday night EST) she sent an e-mail to the admissions office, and she called this morning (Monday afternoon EST). First she was told that her e-mail had been forwarded to an admissions official and that person would be getting back to her. My husband called back and asked to speak to that admissions official. The admissions officer told him that she could see that my daughter’s application was complete well before the required deadlines, but could not offer an explanation of what happened. The admissions official apologized for the mistake and my daughter’s application will be reviewed, and she assured my husband that because the school made the mistake that she would still be considered for merit scholarships if accepted. Needless to say, this is very disappointing, and unfortunately for the school, this situation will certainly have an impact on our decision to send her there or not. And, five days after decision day (our time), my daughter still doesn’t have a decision.
Things happen. At least, it is not like the admission notices sent by mistakes by many top schools in the past.
http://time.com/3637980/college-admissions-mistakes-johnshopkins/
Hope that would cheer you up a bit. 
If the school is still one of your kid’s top choices, I would contact them again. Let them know it is your kid’s top choice, as she is hearing back from other schools, she would like a favorable decision from them. Try to be understanding on the phone/email, make them feel guilty about having messed up, but don’t be angry because it would be easy for them to turn your daughter down. Maybe they will feel bad enough to give your D a generous scholarship.
No, it will be unfortunate for your daughter if this is a school she’s genuinely interested in.
Keep in mind that this is the one and only time you’ll ever have to deal with the admissions office. There are some wonderful schools out there with absolutely awful admissions offices . . . but dealing with them is the price you pay to get into those wonderful schools!
@billcsho, @oldfort and @dodgersmom, Thanks for your supportive words. We do understand that these things do happen, but it is hard when it happens to your hard working kid who tried to do everything right to present herself in the best light possible. It is a third choice on the list at the moment, mostly because we can’t really do it financially without a merit scholarship, but it would have bubbled up with a large merit scholarship that we thought was a possibility. We shall see what happens. It was hard enough to wait from December until the end of March for the decision day, and now to have to wait a now unknown amount of time longer is challenging. Just wanted others to know that this can happen, and to follow up with the admissions offices when it does.
You know, some times when a store turned off the lights half an hour early, keeping you from getting that perfect gift for a birthday because you arrives 5 minutes before their purported closing time, it doesn’t mean that they don’t like you; it just means that they closed half an hour early.
I’d advise your kid to stop stressing over something they can’t control and do something else. A hobby, maybe?
Think of it this way: if they’re in, they’re in. If they’re not, they’re not. Finding out 4 hours early or 8 hours later won’t change the outcome.
@PurpleTitan My post has nothing to do with the school liking or not liking my daughter, and everything to do with totally dropping the ball and not doing their job as an admissions office. We totally understand that mistakes are made, and unfortunately it was made with my daughter’s application. However, when young people are applying to schools and their parents are about to spend 150,000 dollars or more at that school, it is not unreasonable to expect the admissions office to do their job as promised. And it is not unreasonable to be disappointed when they don’t.
Again, they closed the store early when they shouldn’t have.
And you’re not spending any money (besides the app fee) on them yet.
True. But that still doesn’t make it acceptable. And with so many applicants at all of these schools, they probably don’t really give a hoot. But, the people applying do. End of argument.
Crossing my fingers for you that she gets in with merit. These things happen, sure–but it doesn’t mean it’s easy for the poor kid who has been waiting all this time and your family’s upset is very understandable. The upset will probably go away when she gets a positive result!
I’m sorry this happened! I hope you and your daughter will at least be able to receive some type of explanation.
"she assured my husband that because the school made the mistake that she would still be considered for merit scholarships if accepted. "
Consider yourself very lucky. Something fairly similar happened to me this year and I was told continuously that I would NOT be considered for merit scholarships. So I definitely understand how you all must feel. Best of luck to your family. 
@redpoodles Thanks for your kind words.
@TheDidactic Sorry to hear that you had a similar experience, and that it hurt your chances for a merit scholarship. We will wait and see what happens. I don’t expect an explanation. They are in error, and there really isn’t a reasonable excuse for it. I only hope that the application gets reviewed and a final decision is made soon. Best of luck to you.