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12/23/2024 12:21:41 am

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Carnegie Mellon Congratulates 800 Passing Applicants, Then Rejects Them Within Hours

Carnegie Mellon University

(Photo : wikipedia.org) The Gates-Hillman Complex, home to Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science.

One of America's best Computer Science schools just experienced a technical problem that seemed to have broke the hearts of those who were excited to be accepted into the prestigious university.

Carnegie Mellon University sent out email acceptance letters to 800 applicants into the Master of Science program in Computer Science, telling the applicants they are in.

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But another email sent to the 800 applicants hours later said there was a mistake and that the 800 applicants had actually been rejected.

"Congratulations on your acceptance into the Master of Science program in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon," the email said. "You are one of the select few, less than 9% of the more than 1200 applicants, that we are inviting. ... Welcome to Carnegie Mellon!"

For those who have been toiling hard to enter Carnegie Mellon's prestigious Computer Science program, the email was a dream come true.

Hours later, however, those dreams were quashed by another email, from Carnegie Mellon, saying the acceptance letters were sent by mistake.

The email to the 800 applicants was supposed to be a rejection email but Carnegie Mellon, which was in a four-way tie for the best graduate program in computer science last year, made the colossal technical mistake.

The university's School of Computer Science said the error was the result of serious mistakes in its process for generating acceptance letters.

"We understand the disappointment created by this mistake, and deeply apologize to the applicants for this miscommunication. We are currently reviewing our notification process to help ensure this does not happen in the future."

One student said the mistake only makes it worst for those who did not make it. It also stains Carnegie Mellon's reputation as one of the best computer schools in the country.

According to rankings by US News & World Report, Carnegie joins Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University and University of California - Berkeley as the top computer science schools in the United States.

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