7,000 law students got into Berkely?

Edward Tom, director of admissions at the University of California, Berkeley, law school, was training a office worker/demonstrating the e-mail software used by the school and was highlighting several features, including how the user can filter mail and set it to send messages to one recipient or many at the same time.

That’s when he chose what happened to be a standard congratulatory message on being admitted to the university’s prestigious law school and accidentally sent it to all 7,000 students who have applied for admission to the law school. The problem, which the school quickly admitted, is that all of the applicants won’t be admitted. In fact, there’s only room for 800 to 850 of them. The e-mail congratulated the applicants on their recent “admission” to the school and invited them to an annual reception co-hosted by alumni and several student organizations.

“I hit the Send button,” Tom said, describing the mistake. “Normally when we do [training] for real, I have another person on staff who’s an expert.” But that worker was not available when the new employee started last Friday.

After realizing what had happened, Tom sent out an apology e-mail to the applicant pool within 20 minutes. He sent another letter of apology the next day.

About 10 applicants who received the errant e-mail informed him that were very distraught after learning that it was a mistake. About 90 others sent notes to him offering their understanding and accepting his apology.

Nice work Tom. Made for a good story to tell everyone at the office... or the entire country. Article here.