University of Georgia, Berkeley send out acceptance letters in errorThis month, the University of Georgia and the law school at the University of California, Berkeley did what all competitive colleges and graduate schools do: they sent out acceptance letters.
The only problem? Those letters were not supposed to be mailed.
About two weeks ago, more than 100 high school students who applied to UGA received a congratulatory acceptance letter and a red UGA banner from the school, according to Associated Press reports. But a week later, those same students received a follow-up letter telling them they had not been accepted after all.
"Basically, someone picked up the wrong file and sent the wrong letter," UGA spokesman Tom Jackson told the AP. "It was a mistake, and we are very, very sorry."
The students were supposed to receive a notice thanking them for applying. They can still be admitted to the university in April.
In a similar story, UC Berkeley's law school, the prestigious Boalt Hall, sent thousands of e-mails Friday inviting applicants to an event for accepted students, according to the Oakland Tribune. Edward Tom, the school's director of admissions, suspects the e-mail may have reached about half of the 7,000 applicants for the fall, but he added that it could have reached all of them.
The e-mail read, in part: "I am writing to congratulate you once more on your recent admission to Boalt and I cordially invite you to one more social event."
Tom told the Tribune the error occurred while he was trying to show a new employee how to use the e-mail system. He was trying to send an invitation for a private, alumni-sponsored event to about 500 students who had been granted early admission to Boalt, but a misguided mouse click sent invitations to the list of applicants for the fall.
"I sat there and realized what I had done, and it was one of those 'Oh my God' moments," Tom said. "I would say within three minutes the phone started ringing off the hook."
Tom said he immediately composed an e-mail explaining the mistake.
Prospective Seton Hall students directed to "hot, horny girls"International students intending to call Seton Hall University for admissions information instead reached "hot, horny girls," thanks to a misprinted phone number on the Catholic university's admissions application.
According to a Jan. 26 Newark Star Ledger article, tens of thousands of applications for the South Orange, N.J. university erroneously listed a 1-800 number that overseas students were to call to get their high school transcripts approved. But instead, they got an invitation to "spark up their days and nights with stimulating talk" with "students, housewives and working girls."
Embarrassed Seton Hall officials told the Star Ledger that two numbers were accidentally swapped on the applications for both undergraduate and transfer admissions.
"We did 973 instead of 937. As you can see, it's an easy mistake," said Thomas White, a Seton Hall spokesman.
White said the typo may go back several years.
Penn student's murder case ends in mistrialThe murder case of a University of Pennsylvania undergraduate ended in a mistrial last week, with the jury voting 11-1 in favor of acquittal on Feb. 13.
Irina Malinovskaya, a 22-year-old student at Penn's Wharton School, is charged with the murder of Temple University student Irina Zlotnikov, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian, Penn's student newspaper. At the time of her death, Zlotnikov was dating Malinovskaya's ex-boyfriend, Robert Bondar.
Zlotnikov was found bludgeoned to death in Bondar's Delaware apartment in December 2004.
Delaware state prosecutors told the Pennsylvanian that they intend to retry the case instead of dropping it, though they have not made a final decision. Malinovskaya's lawyer said any retrial would likely occur in the early summer.
After the mistrial, a group of Malinovskaya's friends released a statement supporting her.
"Acquitted by the vast majority of the jury, she should not have to suffer in prison for an undetermined period of time," the statement said. "We are confident, however, that in the long run, (Malinovskaya) will be acquitted."
-Stu Woo
