UCSD Welcome Sent by Mistake

BLUNDER: College invited rejected applicants to admitted students' day.

SAN DIEGO - The University of California, San Diego accidentally sent a welcome e-mail to about 29,000 applicants who had been rejected.

The e-mail sent Monday evening invited all 47,000 students who applied to an admitted students' day on campus.

UCSD Admissions Director Mae Brown apologized for the mistake Tuesday and explained that the e-mail was supposed to go to about 18,000 accepted students.

Less than two hours after the error, she sent out another mass e-mail apologizing for distress it may have caused to anxious applicants and their families, Brown told The Associated Press.

"In all humility, I ask that you please accept my apologies and those of the University of California, San Diego," she wrote.

The entire staff of the admissions office spent Tuesday taking calls and e-mails from distraught applicants, she said.

"We've been dealing with calls from parents, students and counselors, asking if our original decision to deny has been reversed," she said.

Applicants for the incoming fall and winter freshman classes were notified whether they got in to UCSD on March 14. Many have not yet decided where to attend in the fall.

High school senior Katie McCray received a rejection from UCSD two weeks ago and was confused by the e-mail inviting her to UCSD's Admit Day, her mother, Janet Robinson, told The San Diego Union-Tribune. McCray was admitted to other schools.