California college sends scholarship acceptance email by mistake to hundreds of potential students

Many incoming students took to Reddit to express their frustration and voice concerns about Claremont McKenna College email.

Sophie Flay Image
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
300 potential students get college scholarship email error
Many incoming students took to Reddit to express their frustration and voice concerns about how Claremont McKenna College handled the situation.

CLAREMONT, Calif. -- A Southern California college is dealing with the backlash of accidentally sending out scholarship acceptance emails to hundreds of potential students, many of whom just got their initial admissions acceptance last week.

"The following day, there was an email sent that said there was an accident with the system and that the scholarship has been detracted from my admission," said an incoming freshman student at Claremont McKenna College, who did not want to share their name.

According to the email, the Podlich Scholarship would have awarded these students $10,000, plus a $5,000 summer experience award.

Many incoming students took to Reddit to express their frustration and voice concerns.

The forum has more than 100 comments with students saying this will affect their ability to afford the school.

According to U.S. News and World Report, 44% of full-time undergraduate students at Claremont McKenna College receive some kind of need-based financial aid.

Claremont McKenna College released this statement to our sister station in Los Angeles, KABC-TV:

"Last Thursday, a computer code error in our regular decision admission letters erroneously offered an additional $10,000 scholarship and first summer experience award. This particular scholarship - just one of many we offer each year - was intended for a total of eight admitted applicants. We have reached out to apologize to each affected student and family. Most students, while disappointed, have been understanding and are appreciative of our outreach. During individual calls, we are highlighting that all first-year students remain eligible for summer experiential support through our robust Sponsored Internship and Experiences program. We are evaluating the technical cause of this error so that this never happens again."

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