Over the weekend, the department of biology accidentally sent congratulatory e-mails to 30 regular decision applicants who have not been officially accepted to Georgetown University for the undergraduate Class of 2014.

The error occurred when the Office of Undergraduate Admissions sent to the biology department a list of students who had been accepted under the early action admissions cycle and indicated an interest in majoring in biology, according to Senior Associate Director of Admissions Melissa Costanzi. Unintentionally included in this list were the names of 30 students who had not applied during the early action cycle, but had been flagged by the admissions office as likely to be accepted.

The biology department sends e-mails to students accepted to the university through early action each year to congratulate them on their acceptance, detail the offerings of the biology department and encourage them to come to GAAP weekends, according to Steven Singer, chair of the biology department.

The Georgetown Office of Undergraduate Admissions does not inform students of application results online or via e-mail, relying solely on letters. These e-mails were only meant to be sent to students who had already received their letter of admission, Singer said.

In response to the accidental congratulatory e-mails, the admissions office sent out a second e-mail to the 30 students explaining that while they had not officially been accepted yet, they had been sent the e-mail because they were likely to be admitted at the end of March.

“We saw this as a perfect opportunity to give these highly qualified students a `heads-up’ about their decisions,” Costanzi said in an e-mail. “While we don’t normally send out these types of `likely’ admit letters, many of our colleagues at other schools, including some of the Ivies, regularly send them out.”

The students are not guaranteed admission, despite the e-mails.

“Students who receive likely letters are told they have a 95 percent chance of being accepted, and we would like them to know that now,” Costanzi said. “They are not guaranteed because something could happen between now and April 1 that could change this, such as a disciplinary issue or decline in academic performance.”

Singer expressed concern about the situation, but said that the admissions office had responded appropriately.

“I asked the admissions office to let us know the fates of these students. We will contact those who are admitted,” Singer said. “I will encourage the admissions office to contact those who are rejected, if there are any, to explain the situation and circumstances.”

Singer was hopeful that if the students affected by the e-mail are accepted, they will consider Georgetown’s response to the mishap in their decision.

“I hope Georgetown’s speedy way of dealing with this in a positive manner will end up influencing them in a positive way, but it will probably have little impact on their final decision: that will depend more upon financial aid and their results from other schools,” Singer said.

Costanzi said that while applicants who received the e-mail initially showed confusion, they were pleased with the way Georgetown handled the situation.

“Best news of all is that we have received many happy and excited e-mails and phone calls from these applicants and their parents thanking us for clarifying the situation in such a positive manner,” Costanzi said.

According to Singer, there was no precedent for such an error in the biology department. He was unable to comment on any such incident in other academic departments, but said it was unlikely that such an error had occurred in undergraduate admissions before. In 2007, the McDonough School of Business’s MBA admissions office accidentally sent out an e-mail to all applicants telling them that they had been waitlisted. Over 300 of those applicants had already received an admissions decision.

Similar errors have also occurred at other universities nationwide. In February, The George Washington University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions accidentally sent congratulatory e-mails to all prospective students who applied to the early decision II program. According to The GW Hatchet, the early decision II applicants numbered over 800 students. Last spring, the University of California, San Diego’s admissions office accidentally sent acceptance e-mails to all of its 46,000 applicants.

[Read the original Saxaspeak post here.](https://saxaspeak.thehoya.com/2010/03/01/biology-department-mistakenly-congratulates-about-thirty-applicants/)”