A email accidentally sent by the law school admissions director for the University of California at Berkeley comically ruined the lives of thousands of applicants this week. Edward Tom was training a new staff member when he attempted to send an email to 500 students who had gained early admission, inviting them to a reception on April 6. Somehow he managed to send it to all applicants, many of whom, of course, are complete losers who were not even close to getting into a school like Berkeley.
(Disclaimer: Your reporter didn’t get into Berkeley, either — although I’m sure it was pretty close, probably — and had to settle for lame-ass Georgetown.)
Apparently the message got to about half of the 7,000 applicants before the mail server failed. Still, the phones started ringing almost immediately as confused applicants who had never gotten acceptance letters — and some who never will — called to figure out what was going on.
Berkeley says it plans to notify all applicants of their acceptance status by early March, and Mr. Tom, who continues to insist on having two first names, says he plans to let somebody else handle the mass mailings from now on.