(Newser) – Some 28,000 applicants were rejected from the University of California, San Diego weeks ago—and all of them received emails from the school on Monday applauding their acceptance, the Los Angeles Times reports. A few hours later, the admissions office sent out a follow-up email apologizing for the mistake, but not before fueling hopes. “It was really thrilling for a few hours; now he's crushed,” said one student’s mother.



It was a second let-down for many students in a tough year for college admission: Decisions had been available online for weeks, and some thought the university had reversed their rejections. Others hadn't been aware they’d been rejected. Similar missteps have occurred at schools like Cornell and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, but this was the biggest such error. “This is a source of constant worry at colleges,” said the head of an admissions association.

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