<p>Actually, I’m bad at math. That’s about a third of my house, to clarify.</p>
<p>If Vassar offered places to the 76, probably only a fraction of those affected would chose to attend Vassar. I’m guessing perhaps 30 or so. Just once I would like to see a college do the right thing in this case-it was VASSAR’s mistake after all, so they ought to make room for all 76 if need be. In this case it does not appear that people withdrew other applications in reliance on Vassar’s acceptances, if that were the case it would seem to me that a successful lawsuit might be maintained.</p>
<p>I want to get this straight… </p>
<p>Some of the 76 were actually deferred vs rejected?</p>
<p>Basically, it was about an hour between being notified of acceptance and actual rejection/deferral?</p>
<p>Sucks to be sure, but none of these kids expected admission when they applied. They hoped for it, they might have planned for it. But you dont just “get in” to Vassar, regardless of your credentials. And if the school has offered to contact schools where a student might have pulled their applications (within the hour?!?), I don’t see how they can do much more than apologize. Threats of legal action seems a bit extreme, even in a litigious society as ours.</p>
<p>On The View today, apparently Elisabeth Hasslebeck called Vassar to suggest a deferred admissions for those rejected and I just dont agree. If you are rejected, you weren’t even deferred to begin with! It’s not like students went weeks thinking they had gotten in. It was an hour! Surely our young adults are more resilient than this! And surely their parents can help buoy them through an unfortunate event. </p>
<p>While I feel horribly for those students caught in the milieu, I would have to go with “it is what it is” and hopefully there are other great schools to which you applied.</p>
<p>The students were not qualified for admission. Why on earth should we lower our standards to accept students who were not up to the standards of the school? It would cheapen the education of those accepted on their own grounds, and making room for 76 students, which is around 11% of the incoming class, is unfair to the rest of the student body. We should never take spots away from more qualified students because of a mistake.</p>
<p>Also, have you ever been to the campus or tried to sit in on a class, especially science classes? Because if you haven’t, you have no business saying how the school should be able to accommodate them. I had to jump through hoops to get into a bio class I needed for my major. Adding students (as opposed to taking spots away from more qualified RD students, which is in itself a horrible idea) would just make more problems.</p>
<p>I’ll say again, as I did on the other thread–just to clarify, some of those 76 who were wrongly accepted due to the computer glitch were actually DEFERRED, not rejected, which means that Vassar indeed considered them to be likely candidates, just not accepted in the ED round.</p>
<p>@avergaesnarker</p>
<p>“Qualified” is a loaded word here. I think most, if not all people who applied Early Decision would thrive at Vassar; at that point it’s mostly a matter of Vassar looking at the less tangible aspects of their application, and deciding who seems the most unique/interesting/whatever.</p>
<p>But it sounds to me like Vassar was the truly unqualified one here, unqualified in using their own system, by telling these students they were accepted. They should suck it up and accept the 76, probably 30 would enroll.</p>
<p>If you have a hard time getting into a required Bio class, Vassar needs to address that, too. You pay enough, and a good school needs to provide the necessary classes and access to them.</p>
<p>No. Even if thirty enroll, that is either taking thirty spots away from more qualified (and I will continue to use the word) or better suited students in the RD round, or it would unnecessarily increase 2016’s class size. There is no reason to punish current students and students who were actually accepted because of a mistake on the administration’s part. </p>
<p>Also, I had trouble getting into the bio class because too many people wanted to take the class. I got in by working out a solution. And, in fact, to address this issue, the school is opening up four more sections next fall. Please do not make assumptions about how the school is run because of one mistake. </p>
<p>And, might I add, that this problem has happened at various other schools, and the instance at Vassar has had one of the smallest number of affected students.</p>
<p>This actually happens more often than one would think. According to the Washington Post *<a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/vassar-college-accidentally-accepts-students/2012/01/30/gIQAMou3eQ_blog.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/campus-overload/post/vassar-college-accidentally-accepts-students/2012/01/30/gIQAMou3eQ_blog.html</a>) in their coverage of this: </p>
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<p>76 (of whom some were actually deferred to RD round) isn’t as bad as it could be, for sure. This stuff happens, but giving students a prize of acceptance for being caught in a glitch is really beyond the scope of any kind of deservedness. And actually cheapens the entire class. Would you like to be a great student who got in EDII purely on your own (grades, stats etc) but still have everyone wonder if you were one of the ones handed a golden ticket?</p>
<p>If they did admit them, imagine the nasty guessing game that could go on on campus for 4 years: “I bet he’s one of the 76, don’t you think?”</p>
<p>My deepest sympathies go to those 76. Deferral and rejection feel terrible in any situation. But to go from euphoria to being told your acceptance was a mistake must be especially hard.
However, I do not think those 76 should be offered places to make up for hurt feelings. 76 students really would be a big difference to such a small student body. That would really just mess up the RD round, and there’s no reason to continue allowing this error to impact admissions.</p>
<p>This just goes to show that you shouldn’t **** off people who just wrote a bunch of college essays :P</p>
<p>I agree that this was a horrible, horrible mistake, but it would be insane to admit those students because of a computer error. And it’s also a mistake to assume that, because they applied ED, that they were qualified for admission. The only person “vetting” them would have been their guidance counselor, and who’s to say that that individual would try to discourage a student with, say, borderline qualifications to “pursue their dream” of attending Vassar?</p>
<p>However, I also have to disagree with the parent above who said this is just a “blip” in those students’ college admissions process and they should just get over it. An Early Decision choice is no “blip.” You even have to sign a statement pledging that, should you be accepted, you will definitely attend that college, and I’m told that, if you don’t comply with that, you might be blacklisted from other colleges you’ve applied to. So ED is something that families take <em>very</em> seriously. (My student got into Vassar last year EDII and, even though he definitely wanted to go there, my stomach did a little flip when it came time to sign that contract.)</p>
<p>Catherine Hill’s latest letter to alumni and parents says that the school is refunding those applicants’ admission fee. I know, big deal, but I’m sure that the administrators feel absolutely horrible about this. On the other hand, I really don’t blame the school. An IT department anywhere can make a mistake, and whoever above said that this is why snail mail decision letters shouldn’t be discounted is absolutely correct.</p>
<p>And my sympathies to any of the affected students reading this. It does suck very very much.</p>
<p>DMel… I am fully aware of the ED commitment. My S did the same to another school a few years back. What I am saying is that OVERALL… this event, while disappointing, is just a blip in the grand scheme of life. It does not determine worth or worthiness. Sucks to be sure, disappointing certainly… crushing? I don’t think so. While there is wild hope one will be accepted, there is never a guarantee. And I know for a fact that S’s credentials were right in line with the 75% of who is typically accepted by the ED school to which he applied. And he was flat out rejected. And this came after everyone, including most of his teachers, believed him to be a shoe-in. At these schools on top of the food chain, they could easily fill two classes with qualified students through their overall application pool. But it is what it is… and disappointing as it is, in the grand scheme of life it is an absolute blip. If it’s not, priorities and goals need reassessed. No one school is going to make or break you in life.</p>
<p>LOL I love that Gawker article. It’s not stereotyping when there are many examples of the truth in this very thread. I loved the delicious tears of the students typing away about how they aren’t stuck up or feel entitled but “AT LEAST GIVE ME MY APP FEE, OR ILL SUE YOU”</p>
<p>Here’s the thing–I know what you’re all getting at with the entitlement and “stuck up” business, and I can agree with you to an extent. And yes, those of us who are grownups know it’s a blip–yup, that’s true. But think about it–in the business world, imagine a junior executive going into a meeting and telling the room that yes, his company is ready to sign a contract, and in fact he hands out a paper committing to that contract, and then his superior enters and says “wait! there’s been a terrible mistake! We’re not signing this contract at all!” … don’t you think that the other folks in the room would have good reason to be upset? They wouldn’t be being stuck up or entitled–they would just very reasonably say “what the heck is going on? is this a bait and switch, or are you guys just incompetent?”
So that’s what I think. ;)</p>
<p>Should this thread be merged with the one in the parents forum? same conversation.
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1282072-vassar-hands-out-wrong-admissions-results-here-we-go-again.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1282072-vassar-hands-out-wrong-admissions-results-here-we-go-again.html</a></p>
<p>I believe what Vassar must do here is demonstrate how they intend to clean up the problem. It may be wise to suspend further email notification of admission decisions for the remainder of this year. A personal outreach to applicants would also be helpful, as part of a response to prevent a decrease in applicants for future years. If administrators were not immediately available to answer telephone calls, when the error was first noticed and the corrected message went out, that’s being negligent. You are as good as the information that you decide to put, or parade out. Somebody missed some key details, and I’m sorry, but that person, and any people who back the person up, need to go. This would go a long way to demonstrate the integrity / fidelity of the schools admission process. Otherwise, you are taking this years applicants, and future applicants for granted. Respectfully, Mr. VC</p>
<p>As a student who is not one of applicants applying to Vassar, I know I don’t have a right to say something about it. But I think school should reconsider these students’ files and gives them a chance. I do agree with CC members above that school could not admit them all. But if they do so, the college just have a bigger first year class(the college does not need to use other students’ seat to fill it up, admiting another 20 or 30 students is not that difficult.) Anyway, these students have already suffered a lot, just give one more glance to their files. Defer to RD or waitlist rather than rejection, at least make them feel better. I am waiting for decision in two months. I can imagine how disappointed and unhappy students will be when they get admitted at 4 and rejected at 5. Be nice.</p>
<p>^To just shift these applicants over to RD and allege to give them another chance is disrespectful to the student, and the process. The process was completed, the applicant, rejected per the decision of the college. Then the college went and did not execute the communication. Correct that, and remove those who were involved in the egregious error.
Have you ever been in a professional position to select a finalist for a job? I have. You get your qualified applicants. You narrow your field down to semifinalists. You then caucus to determine your finalists. You have an agreement to select 4 finalists. However, when you do your final ranking, you find that there are 3 very strong candidates, and the 4th is far behind. An also ran. Do you still include that candidate, knowing that they have no chance - and frankly that the consensus of the group does not see the candidate as someone that they would select for doing the job. No. You do not jerk that candidate through the process, and get their hopes up. You go with 3 finalists. Especially if all of these candidates are professionals, have been vetted, and at the top of their game. </p>
<p>In this instance your college admin. are professionals, well paid, and there to have a process that is based on integrity, which is appreciative of having applicants. To reject someone, then pat them on the head because and error was made, and put them back into the mix to make a decision on later is just jerking that person around. Remove those people who were involved in the error. Then, if the college so chooses - do something meaningful for those applicants that have been rejected. Until you do, and show people how you intend to clean up the problem / mistake, you have no integrity and merit no investment of trust regarding your admissions process. The trustees and or board of directors of this school need to make a statement. Respectfully, Mr VC</p>