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TAMUCC nursing student frustrated after receiving incorrect acceptance letter

Posted at 4:31 PM, Oct 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-24 19:59:20-04

An e-mail was sent to 252 applicants to a Texas A&M Corpus Christi nursing program last week telling them they had been accepted to the program.

In reality, it was true for only 133 of the applicants.

Larissa Zimmerman, a junior pre-nursing student at TAMUCC, says she had  been waiting months to find out if she had been accepted into the nursing program. She is now among 119 students who are having to start their application process again after being told their acceptance letter was a mistake.

“It’s disappointing because you thought you worked so hard for something,” Zimmermann said about originally receiving her acceptance letter on Friday and then learning later it was in error. “And then you actually didn’t get in.”

Official notice: Around 3:20 p.m. Friday, Oct. 19, all 252 applicants to the spring 2019 pre-licensure nursing program…

Posted by Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi on Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Zimmerman received two back-to-back conditional acceptance letters via email Friday afternoon.

“I got my acceptance letter, and you know, you feel a rush of emotions,” Zimmerman said.

Then she got another email the same day, saying she had not been accepted. After that, she got another email that was an apology from the university, saying the emails had been sent out incorrectly.

“I just thought it was kind of disappointing,” Zimmerman said. “Seeing another email saying, disregard everything, and that they made a mistake.”

Clarenda Phillips, the TAMUCC provost and vice president of academic affairs, says it was a human error made by a new administrative assistant.

“It was a significant mistake,” Phillips said. “I cannot imagine how our students feel, and so I apologize for the error.”

However, Zimmerman believes the error could have been prevented.

“There are so many applicants,” Zimmermann said. “They could have double-checked or triple-checked our applications before sending out the final answer.”

She also says the students deserve more than just an apology.

“It’s not fair to us,” Zimmerman said. “I feel like just saying sorry wouldn’t have been enough to some students.”

TAMUCC says it is making changes to its approval process. In the future, several people will review acceptance letters before they are sent out.