--- description: The Manhattan Ivy League school apologized and revoked the acceptances, which were to a Master's program in public health. title: Columbia University Just Accidentally Accepted 277 Students image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Newsfeed](/tag/time-section-newsfeed/) ## Newsfeed Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Columbia University Apologizes After Accidentally Accepting a Few Hundred Students  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 17, 2017 9:18 PM CUT  by [Raisa Bruner](/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Feb 17, 2017 9:18 PM CUT It’s been a rough week for the 277 prospective Columbia University students who thought they had been accepted at the Manhattan Ivy League institution—only to discover [it was all a mistake](https://www.yahoo.com/news/columbia-university-accidentally-sends-acceptance-notices-173741895.html "undefined"). The admissions office had erroneously sent out the acceptances, and then revoked them in a follow-up email a little more than an hour later, leaving some pretty heartbroken students in their wake [as the _New York Times_ reports.](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/nyregion/columbia-grad-school-acceptance-letters.html "undefined") The college in question was the School of Public Health’s Masters program. “We deeply apologize for this miscommunication,” [the second email read.](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/nyregion/columbia-grad-school-acceptance-letters.html "undefined") “We value the energy and enthusiasm that our applicants bring to the admissions process, and regret the stress and confusion caused by this mistake.” This is just the latest mishap in a long line of accidental acceptances, which have become [something of a time-honored tradition](http://time.com/3637980/college-admissions-mistakes-johnshopkins/ "undefined") at colleges across the country. Columbia joins the likes of Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA, UC Davis, Johns Hopkins, and more over the last few decades who have gotten kids’ hopes up only to ultimately dash their dreams. In 2009, UC San Diego mistakenly emailed a whopping 28,000 prospective students with good news that they’d been admitted. That good news, of course, was actually fake news. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4675446/columbia-accidental-acceptance/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4675446/columbia-accidental-acceptance/"},"headline":"Columbia University Apologizes After Accidentally Accepting a Few Hundred Students","datePublished":"2017-02-17T21:18:25.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:41:14.426Z","description":"They were applicants to a Master's program in public health.","url":"https://time.com/4675446/columbia-accidental-acceptance/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Education","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4675446/columbia-accidental-acceptance/","name":"Columbia University Apologizes After Accidentally Accepting a Few Hundred Students"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"The Right Way to Think About College Scholarships","description":"MONEY VIDEO","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/3k0T8F6b/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-11-01T19:38:29.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3k0T8F6b.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4675446/columbia-accidental-acceptance/","duration":"PT1M51S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4675446/columbia-accidental-acceptance/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```