50 failed school applicants told accepted

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EVANSTON, Ill., Dec. 18 (UPI) -- Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management in Evanston, Ill., said about 50 rejected applicants were mistakenly sent an acceptance e-mail.

Northwestern spokeswoman Megan Washburn said a "technological glitch" in Kellogg's system caused acceptance letters to be e-mailed to the rejected applicants, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

"It was not human error," she said. "It has never happened before. Our systems have been in place for years. We have never experienced a problem."

Washburn said Beth Flye, Kellogg's director of admissions and financial aid, began Tuesday to contact the rejected applicants who received the mistaken e-mails. She said the affected applicants will be reimbursed for their $235 application fee.

"Certainly we're very, very sorry," Washburn said. "It's an isolated incident and something we definitely have corrected and will work to ensure it never happens again."