Hundreds of students who applied for admission at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg received happy news over the weekend after receiving acceptance emails from the institution.
However, that happiness was short-lived after many of the students received a follow-up email saying, “There was an error in the system. Please disregard the previous email.”
According to ABC News, the university sent 430 incorrect acceptance letters to students on Saturday that officials have since attributed to “human error.”
“All of us work in higher education because we care about students, and we understand the confusion and distress a mistake like this can cause,” the school statement to ABC reads.
“As soon as we found out about the situation, we immediately reviewed our process for communicating with prospective students and have changed our procedures to prevent this from happening again.”
Alexandria Rizzotto was one of the applicants to receive the incorrect acceptance letter. While she was jubilant at first, that emotion quickly shifted to disappointed after receiving the follow-up email.
“My mom and I were over the moon excited. We were like jumping up and down, shouting really loud,” Rizzotto told Local news 8. “I was so disappointed. I was very, very let down because I’ve been waiting for a final decision from them since November now.”