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CMU Accidentally Sends Out 800 Acceptance Letters To CS Program
- jrockway 12y agoAt least it wasn't for a software testing-focused master's degree.
- forgotX2 12y agoI thought the discipline was ironic too, but it was probably a secretary with a massive spreadsheet that messed up a formula or a mail merge.
- mad44 12y agoOnce in our CS department (not CMU), we had given PhD acceptance to a wrong student (call him Student2) since he carried the same name+surname with the candidate we intended to admit (call him Student1). Instead of rescinding the acceptance, we let Student2 join. Of course we also admitted Student1 to the department as well. It turned out that Student2 (the candidate we admitted by mistake) performed much better than Student1. :-) Regehr notes a similar observation. http://blog.regehr.org/archives/147 http://blog.regehr.org/archives/147
- CamperBob2 12y agoDid Student2 know he was given a pass due to the mistake?
- a3_nm 12y agoThis reminds me of the novel _Small World_ where the main character is a young researcher who got a position thanks to a mistake like this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_World:_An_Academic_Romance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_World:_An_Academic_Roman... In that story, however, Student1 didn't get the position.
- acjohnson55 12y agoAlso reminds me of the movie Orange County, where main character Shaun Brumder does not get admitted to Stanford because they mistakenly admit classmate and stoner Shane Brainard instead. Hilarity ensues.
- craigyk 12y agoI remember when I was applying to graduate schools I was waiting to go to my last (fourth) recruitment interview, but I was pretty sure I wanted to go to the third school I had visited. Well I wasn't back for more than a day from the last recruitment trip when I called up that third school to ask them when I should show up and what paperwork I needed to fill out... it wasn't until about two years later that I realized I couldn't remember receiving an official acceptance letter or phone call from them...
- Blackthorn 12y agoTo some of you reading this who haven't been to graduate school, this mistake is not as large as you might think. A lot of graduate schools have the policy of overadmitting and then pruning out during the oral exam (which usually 1-2 years into the program). I do not know if CMU is one of those schools (I attended one which did not have this policy; also, this policy can vary by department within the same school).
- chavesn 12y agoAs an aside -- I have always found this type of sentence formulation, common with software engineers, so mystifying. It would be just as easy to understand without the sentence variables -- it doesn't add clarity but it does add length. The alternative: > Once in our CS department (not CMU), we had given PhD acceptance to a wrong student, since he carried the same name+surname with the candidate we intended to admit. > Instead of rescinding the acceptance, we let both join. It turned out that the candidate we admitted by mistake performed much better than the other. :-)
- shrig94 12y agoIn support of the variables, the comments seem to leverage Student1 and Student2 to describe the students the commenters are referring too, which is a lot easier than having to reexplain who you're referring to. (edit: DRY principle)
- kszx 12y agoMy personal impression: Formulation 1 (with variables, short and concise sentences): easy to understand. Formulation 2 (without variables, long sentence): difficult to understand. ==> I prefer Formulation 1.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 12y agoIt's a style you also see quite frequently in legal documents where you first introduce the parties, give them a shorthand name and then use that name consistently throughout the document. I personally prefer that style over endless repetition of a description (with possible inconsistencies between the repetitions).
- qnaal 12y agoOne doesn't always know whether the structure of the prose they are about to produce will permit discernment of its subjects by context and description alone. That is to say, in informal communications, an intuitive notation such as "[class][index]" can easily map between an abstract thought and its textual representation, without a critical re-reading on the part of the author to ensure the subjects are properly differentiated, potentially followed by subtle sentence refactoring.
- stfu 12y agoWasn't there once some sort of experiment of admitting a random sample from a college application pool? Couldn't find it on the spot, but I think it had some similar results to the PhD admission experience. It also does make sense from a armchair psychologist standpoint: The one being admitted on weak grounds will probably put in a lot more effort to keep up with the class/competitors than the one having always some other, similar options to fall back on.
- xfr 12y agoI can't imagine what those applicants are going through.
- dorfsmay 12y agoBoth sad and ironic! Aren't those emails somehow legally binding?
- psychometry 12y agoNo, you usually need an offer on letterhead from the dean of the graduate school (or similar).
- Alex3917 12y agoIf the email comes from a school employee then that may be enough to make it legally binding. But even if it isn't, if you threaten to sue the school will almost always let you in. This sort of thing happens all the time, e.g. from coaches who tell athletes they are accepted before the admissions committee officially makes a decision, and the reason you never hear about lawsuits is because the schools almost always let the candidates in if they complain in order to prevent bad publicity.
- SapphireSun 12y agoI don't understand, wouldn't the law account for honest mistakes if you corrected them in a timely fashion (e.g. before anyone relied upon the notification, resulting in actual harm)? Why would a mistake like this be legally binding? EDIT: Looks like someone further up the thread is in exactly this situation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9066942 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9066942
- srinivasupadhya 12y agoA third degree friend of mine resigned from her job as soon as she received acceptance mail. She received rejection mail in the morning & was devasted. As depressing as it could get.
- TylerE 12y agoMight want to consult with a lawyer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoppel > Estoppel occurs when a party "reasonably relies on the promise of another party, and because of the reliance is injured or damaged"
- SilasX 12y agoI thought that was just called, er, detrimental reliance?
- ocfx 12y agoHard lesson, but quitting your job like that is a bad move. Sucks though because its easy to make those type of not so good decisions when you are excited.
- hindsightbias 12y agoThe first thing I'd do after being accepted for a Fall 2015 Masters program would be to quite my job.
- mataug 12y agoThis scary, I got my admit to UW last week. I just hope they don't rescind it.
- whitewhim 12y agofor grad school, or undergrad? Either way congrats! I've spoken with a lot of the CS students and they're super bright.
- timothya 12y agoNote that "UW" is a very overloaded term: - University of Washington - University of Waterloo - University of Wisconsin - University of Wyoming etc.
- chris_va 12y agoBut we all know which UW is the right one :)
- acchow 12y agoCan't tell if this is clever sarcasm or you mean Waterloo...
- jcagalawan 12y agoAmericans will probably think of Washington first.
- timothya 12y agoThis is exactly what I'm talking about. No one knows what each other is talking about when saying "UW". Looking at chris_va's profile, it appears he was talking about the University of Washington. Most of the US probably thinks of UW that way, though in Silicon Valley I've met a lot more people from the University of Waterloo than from the University of Washington.
- pnathan 12y agoOh. My. That's going to be a mess. Some people will have quit their jobs, turned in notice, etc. CMU might want to be prepared to reaccept some of those people.
- therobot24 12y agowasn't the error corrected quickly though?
- pnathan 12y agoI am sure that someone got the email, yelled loudly, and then wrote their "I quit" email to their fine employer. Or perhaps turned down other graduate school offers...
- tedunangst 12y agoDon't burn your bridges until the chickens are hatched or something.
- llamataboot 12y agoYou can't reasonably expect to be rejected /after/ being accepted though. Resigning when you apply, chickens not hatched yet. Get a letter from the program you applied to informing you of your acceptance, that's a pretty hatched chicken.
- tedunangst 12y agoPerhaps I should have just said don't burn your bridges? It's not strictly necessary to quit in a way that can't be unquit immediately upon receipt of an acceptance letter.
- kbar13 12y agocan't reply to tedunangst but it doesn't matter how you do it, you can't "unquit" once your employer knows you've been applying elsewhere, no matter if it's for school or another job.
- simon_ 12y agoUgh, this apology seems lamely antiseptic. "We are reviewing our notification procedures" is not the level of self-abasement I would expect after a mistake this serious.
- javert 12y agoIt's CMU. I wouldn't expect them to admit a mistake at all, so this is pretty good.
- misiti3780 12y agowhy is that ?
- _qhtn 12y agoThey're the top ranked in CS, and also highly ranked in general. If you're the best or close to, you're allowed to make mistakes (See Linus' toxic remarks). God have mercy on you if you aren't.
- bradleypowers 12y agoGood ol' Robert'); DROP TABLE Rejects;--
- jsonau 12y agoI will put money that they use the incorrect email template (acceptance vs reject)
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- shekhar101 12y agoFlagged. This, of course, is totally fake.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- tdaltonm 12y agoAh, CMU.. it's certainly no Stanford.