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Johns Hopkins Mistakenly Welcomes Wrong Students

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Heartache and disappointment for hundreds of college applicants after Johns Hopkins mistakenly told them they were accepted when they were actually rejected from admission.

Denise Koch has more.

Johns Hopkins is one of the nation's premier universities and more than 1,800 students applied early decision to the school back in November, hoping to get in. Only 539 were lucky enough to be accepted.

One New Jersey senior was not among them. He received an email giving him the bad news. But just 48 hours later...

"They sent me this email that said, `Embrace the yes,'" he said.

The email welcomed him to the class of 2019. He had no way of knowing he was one of 293 rejected students who were mistakenly sent the same email.

"To think they would just do something like this, send out a misleading email like that; you don't expect something like that to happen," he said. "It was just a whole roller coaster of emotions."

"I'd start crying if that happened to me. I can't imagine; I'd just be so heartbroken," said a student.

Hopkins is blaming the mistake on human error. It sent out apology emails to the denied applicants titled "Apology for email error." In it, the school says, "We regret having added to the disappointment felt by a group of hardworking students."

"You would hope that when they're releasing things as important as final decisions on admissions that they'd be a little more careful," said the senior.

Despite his disappointment, the senior says he's moved on and is waiting to hear back from other schools he's applied to.

Hopkins is not alone. In March, Goucher College accidentally sent acceptance emails to 60 students who were not admitted. Nationally, Vassar, Fordham, MIT and UCLA have made the same mistake.

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