<p>“What if they did take them in… and track them over their college careers. I would hazard a guess that 4 years later they would be virtually indistinguishable from the students that were not accidentally accepted.”</p>
<p>Williams actually did an experiment like that in the 1970s, accepting 10% of the class with stats, etc. significantly below what they expected of other applicants. They found that they were indeed virtually indistinguishable four years later, except, as I remember, they were more likely to be “campus leaders” (student government, honor society, etc.)</p>
Because the admissions office messed up. No matter whose fault it was, the students didn’t get what they paid for (an accurate admission decision).</p>
<p>From an email received today, subject line “A Serious Mistake”</p>
<p>Dear alumnae/i and families,</p>
<p>We know how sensitive the process of acceptance to Vassar is. Over our long history we have protected that process and the applicants so that the moment of notification can be as wonderful as possible for accepted students and as least damaging as possible for those denied. We put 76 applicants in a terrible position on Friday. A “test” acceptance letter that was a placeholder on a special website for Early Decision applicants inadvertently was left in place. By the time the error was discovered, 30 minutes after the time students were told they could check decisions, 76 applicants had read that they had been accepted when in fact they had not been. Each of those students was informed of the error and received our deepest apologies.</p>
<p>We are full of regret and we will be making changes to our notification system. We apologize to these students and their families, to our alumnae/i, our students, our faculty, to Vassar’s community. </p>
<p>In '09, UC San Diego erroneously sent Admitted Students Weekend invites to thousands of students who had previously received rejected notices. For the better part of a day, a lot of HS seniors thought that UCSD had changed its mind, only to be crushed later by the “Oops!” email. I know a couple of students who suffered this, and it was devastating.</p>
<p>I do understand it’s not quite the same thing as being told you’re accepted, and then that you’re not, but being told twice by the same school that you’re rejected is pretty bad too. In both cases, it was an error that never should have happened and brought needless anguish to the students and their families.</p>
<p>Honestly, how many times does this sort of thing have to happen before colleges put some safeguards in place? I understand that IT errors can happen, but obvously there need to be multiple sets of eyes on those things before someone hits Send, including some eyes from the Admissions Dept. Colleges are now on notice that this can happen; from here on out, I don’t think it’s going to be fair to blame IT.</p>
<p>The only reasonable thing Vassar could do now is</p>
<p>a) Refund the application fees</p>
<p>b) Offer to contact colleges for students who withdrew their applications from other schools. </p>
<p>From their brochure: “The fact that best explains Vassar’s character is that the college was founded in defiance of conventional wisdom.” you got that right! :p</p>
<p>Graciously move on . . . . If adults set a good example about handling adversity with aplomb, the next generation will hopefully learn to do the same.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone is suggesting a refund for anyone who is ever denied admission! Who said anything like that? Someone has suggested that Vassar refund any application fee paid by someone who got the erroneous acceptance notice followed by the actual rejection. It would be a token gesture.</p>
<p>I personally think it would be a silly token, if it happened to my kid, $75 wouldn’t make up for her disappointment. I would help her realize it was an honest mistake, and she shouldn’t necessary think it is a reflection of the whole school. It Vassar was still her first choice, I would encourage her to write the adcom an email, let them know how happy and disappointed she was in a matter of few hours (a good essay could come out of it) and ask them what she could do to turn the deferment into an acceptance. If she was rejected, then I would encourage her to let it go instead of wasting more time on it.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that ED applicants have an obligation to attend if accepted. Vassar chose not to recognize their end of this agreement. Lasting shame on Vassar for this. </p>
<p>From now on, an ED acceptance to Vassar does not obligate either party.</p>
<p>Okay, then. I’m sure Vassar will get right on the job of modifying its policies. What?</p>
<p>
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<p>More or less agree. I’ve been surprised in the past to see that even a little bit of money means a lot to some people, even some people who don’t need the money. In this case, though, I can see how such a token it could be fuel on the fire.</p>
<p>This seriously made me emotional just reading it. The kids were so excited to get into their number one choice, just to have it immediately rescinded. I can’t imagine how furious I would be if something like this were to happen to me.</p>
<p>Vassar had no intention of admitting those students under ED II, it was a computer glitch, no different than if money was mistakenly deposited into someone’s account. Disappointing to the person who got the money taken back, but did that money belong to him? No. Vassar didn’t break any contract. They admitted their mistaken within hours after it happened. I am not a lawyer, but common sense tells me that there isn’t much for people to go after.</p>
<p>That doesn’t seem like a great analogy, oldfort. If you suddenly found that there was an additional $10K in your checking account you would know that there was some mistake, presumably. You wouldn’t think that it was somehow yours. These students had no reason to think there was a mistake. Unless of course they actually had GPA’s of 1.5 and SAT’s of 900. </p>
<p>That said, I agree there isn’t much one can do.</p>
<p>You are right that one would never know why someone would be admitted or not, only the adcom would know. If someone were to check adcom’s record, it would show that those students were not admitted.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what would have happened if one those students placed their deposit before they were rejected? Would that someone be equal to a contract so Vassar would have to give them a spot?</p>
<p>The deposit has to be mailed in and cassar found out rather quickly of the mistake. In any case a college would check to make sure the deposit comes from an actually admitted student (I hope)</p>