Hearts were broken after York mistakenly admitted students to the university, only to tell them the admissions were in fact an error.
Five hundred potential York students were left in disappointment last Monday as the university mistakenly sent out offers of admission.
York cited the issue as a “processing error,” which resulted in the false email acceptances.
“This occurred immediately after the university had sent emails to acknowledge their applications had been received,” says Joanne Rider, York media.
“We contacted the affected individuals immediately to apologize and to explain that their applications are under consideration.”
The letter of apology stated, “You recently received an offer of admission email from York University. Please accept our apologies, we made a mistake…”
Although the university was quick to send out the follow-up apologies, the damage had already been done.
Zohaib Jailani, a high school student who applied to the Business Administration program at the Schulich School of Business, tweeted a picture of his letter of acceptance and his letter of apology side by side. He captioned his tweet with, “I hate university already :).”
“Initially, I felt a combination of two things, confusion and disappointment,” says Jailani.
“I was confused because I was sure I got in. I received the acceptance and I was on cloud nine.”
“I thought I got into university and didn’t have to worry about anything else. I honestly felt I was getting a joke pulled on me by one of my friends that I had told of my apparent acceptance.”
Jailani was disappointed because he could not believe an institution of higher education could slip up like this.
“I was just one applicant out of 500 who York mistakenly had given an acceptance. Some other people might have taken it a lot harder than I have, emotionally, which is why this cannot ever happen again.”
The experience changed Jailani’s perception of York. He heard about this happening to others, but never thought it would happen to him.
“We know this is an important decision point for students and families,” says Rider.
Rider also explains that in order for the university to send out offers of admission to high school students, marks have to be released.
“We will receive large distributions of grade data for these applicants later in the month of February, after the completion of the first high school semester and the high school exam period, which ends in late January to early February. This grade data will allow York to make additional offers of admission.”
If accepted by York, Jailani says the mishap won’t affect his future decision to attend the university.
“I’d be in one of the best schools for my program,” he says. “I wouldn’t let the mishap get in the way of my success.”
With files from Jenny Mao
Eulalee Lumsden, Deputy Copy Editor
Featured image via Twitter
