Just when we thought it would never happen in our admissions office…

…it does.

We occasionally read stories of other colleges inadvertently sending letters of admission to students who had, in fact, been denied admission. College admissions folks like us feel the sympathetic shiver down our spines that accompanies these extremely awkward, even painful moments, and, wiping our collective brow, whisper to ourselves, “Thank goodness we haven’t done something like that.”

And then we do.

We did not inadvertently send letters of admission to students who had, in fact, been denied admission—our official decision letters go through the kind of intense pre-flight scrutiny that accompanies rocket launches. (In other words, if you have received an admission decision letter from us, rest assured that your letter is correct.)

However, we did send a “congratulations on your admission to Lawrence” letter on behalf of one of our alumni to a small handful of students who had, on the contrary, not been offered admission to Lawrence University. We are embarrassed by it, and are reaching out to those students to clear up the confusion.

Now our admissions colleagues at other colleges get to feel that sympathetic shiver down their spines, and whisper to themselves, “Thank goodness we haven’t done that.”

May it ever be so.