"You are on this list because you are admitted to MIT! (/^▽^)/" at the end of an email

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1

<p>At the end of an email titled "Reminder: Financial Aid Documents Due February 15th!" that I just received from MIT, it says this in fine print:</p>

<br>


<br>

<p>This is a joke, right? I assume everyone got it?</p>

2

<p>I got it to. But I’m not sure what it means. We could always hope right!! Go to the bottom of the email and click why did I get this? And it takes you to a page titled EY 14 Admits so idk. Pm me if u find out anything</p>

3

<p>Also have this, but I was deferred early, and it also says “RA Applicants” in the header so. Yeah.</p>

4

<p>Well yeah, but it seems prety cruel. I mean I know it’s MITs style to joke around but it seems kinda cruel to say that and get our hopes up. I think we should still confirm</p>

5

<p>Anyone apply rd and get the email without the “You are on the list…” Or anyone apply rd and not get the email?</p>

6

<p>I received the same email. I wish this was true. Perhaps it is true.</p>

7

<p>i received it too, it’s probably a joke i think</p>

8

<p>It’s on the emails of EA accepted students too - my son just got it. Maybe that copyright line got included by mistake?</p>

9

<p>Probably as simple as the “accepted student” FA reminder form letter went to everyone by error.</p>

10

<p>So can we put this to rest? Did anyone out there NOT receive this email?</p>

11

<p>Decisions for RD applicants have not been made yet – no RD applicant has been selected or denied.</p>

<p>I don’t think it’s a joke, because I don’t believe the admissions office would joke about something so fraught. I’m sure it was a (really unfortunate) mistake.</p>

12

<p>

</p>

<p>It was. </p>

<p>Here’s what happened: earlier today, I was cleaning up and consolidating mailing lists. As you might imagine, we have a mailing list for early admitted students, and a mailing list for all people who are still active in the cycle (this means applicants who have not yet received their decision, <em>and</em> admits who still need to receive process updates, like today’s financial aid email). </p>

<p>I tried a technique to consolidate these lists to improve their quality (so that people who had opted out of one but not the other wouldn’t receive emails they didn’t want to receive, etc). It would appear that, in the process, the consolidation of the list members and preferences <em>also</em>, and unexpectedly, imported the copyright tagline from the (much smaller) admit list to the applicant/admit list. And I didn’t catch it. </p>

<p>I’m incredibly, incredibly sorry to everyone who received this and read it and felt the mixture of confusion/elation/frustration it must have engendered. We send out dozens of emails to hundreds of thousands of people and try to do it perfectly every time. We didn’t this time, and it’s my fault, and I hope you’ll forgive me. </p>

13

<p>Hey, mistakes happen, and the fact that you’re accepting responsibility and responding like you are says a lot to me. No hard feelings here.</p>

14

<p>I’ll forgive you if you accept me! :D</p>

15

<p>I blogged about it: <a href=“About That Email | MIT Admissions”>http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/about-that-email&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

16

<p>Shouldn’t the emoticon at the end of the email be (/^口口)/ instead of (/^▽^)/ ? My emoticon is different from what you posted.</p>

17

<p>@Jabba - (/^▽^)/ is in the sent folder and in copies I’ve gotten from other students. It’s probably just some slight mistranslation between different computer settings. </p>

18

<p>When I first saw the thread, I thought, “That’s a mistyped regular expression,” and assumed it was an inside joke for computer geeks.</p>

19

<p>It has hit the newswires:</p>

<p><a href=“Bloomberg - Are you a robot?”>Bloomberg - Are you a robot?;

20

<p>Oh God why. The comments are so harsh. :(</p>