Ruh roh...trouble in paradise..........
Mayo Clinic Medical School accidentally sends out acceptance emails to prospective students
Thursday was a confusing roller coaster for students applying to the Rochester's Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine.
Students who had been interviewed by Mayo Clinic all received emails saying they had been accepted into the program. The good news caused many of the recipients to start celebrating and even to withdraw their names from consideration at other medical schools.
Then more than three hours later, another Mayo Clinic email notifying them of a glitch and that the first message was a mistake changed their jubilation to disappointment.
"... Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine erroneously emailed 364 letters of acceptance to talented, engaging individuals seeking an appointment to the medical school. Soon after the emails were sent, a technical error was discovered and the letters of acceptance were withdrawn by e-mail," wrote Mayo Clinic Spokeswoman Heather Carlson Kehren in statement late Thursday night. "All affected applicants have been contacted by phone. We deeply regret having caused disappointment to these applicants, and we are continuing to investigate the issue."
The confusing situation spurred much discussion among the students in the "2019-2020 Mayo Clinic (Alix), Minnesota" online forum on the Student Doctor Network.
They posted the second email from Mayo Clinic that stated, "Due to a technical error the appointment letter was sent to you in error, and Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine hereby withdraws the offer to appoint you to the medical school. We regret that this occurred."
That message did not impress many of the upset students, who felt Mayo Clinic was not very contrite about the mistake.
"In my head, I thought there would be way more apologizing," wrote one poster. Another wrote, "Looking at their 'apology' email it's obvious that the plan is to sweep this under the rug." "it's despicable".
One Twin Cities student contacted the Post Bulletin to discuss the issue on the condition that their identity would remain anonymous.
"... The power imbalance between medical schools and applicants is egregious and this error only serves to highlight that. Applying to medical school is increasingly getting worse and worse (secondary app fees, flying out to interview costs, the time it takes to be notified of acceptances/waitlists/rejections)," the student wrote. "The least that one can ask for in this process is respect, and even that is a low priority for medical school admissions."
The discontent over the error spread to a discussion on reddit.com and other social sites, where the students organized a petition "to ship 500 boxes of expired mayonnaise to Mayo Clinic in honor of the 500 interviewees whose ‘Appointments’ (admissions) have expired."