Rensselaer Medal Email Error: What Happened and How It's Being Addressed

[TheRyan]

I was wondering if anyone else here received a notification by email telling them they won the Rensselaer Medal, only to receive another email shortly afterwards to receive another saying the email being sent to you was a mistake? I was one of these people, and here is a copy of the email I got last night after sending in a complaint about the "erroneous email" as they called it:

Dear Ryan,
Please accept my sincerest apology for the School of Engineering email sent to you in error last Friday regarding the Rensselaer Medal. At this time of high stress for high school students, the last thing we would ever intentionally do is add angst to your college search process. We take our role in counseling students through the admissions process very seriously and I am disappointed if Rensselaer did not communicate the level of concern and regret that this situation warranted. We do have multiple checks in our process for interacting with students but a staff member made a significant mistake. We are adding additional processes to ensure that something like this NEVER happens again.

Several of you asked for clarification regarding the medal award. The Rensselaer Medal is an award given in the spring of the junior year to an outstanding student in mathematics and science. The medal recipient is selected by the high school guidance department and the notification to the student is usually made before the end of the junior year. This award is just one of the ways we recognize outstanding students.

I understand the disappointment felt by those of you who have considered Rensselaer to be one of your top-choice schools or who had hoped to receive the medal and did not. For this reason, I have allocated additional funds to our financial aid office in an effort to provide some relief to those of you most affected by our error. Any student who received the erroneous email, who applies under one of our early programs and who is admitted to Rensselaer, will be guaranteed a four-year $60,000 (15,000 per year) Leadership Scholarship (as a replacement scholarship that actually is offered to our medalists). Since medalists are chosen by each local high school, we cannot give out additional medals. I hope that this scholarship guarantee will help those students who were most disappointed in hearing that the e-mail was a mistake. We remain committed to you and the many families we work with each and every day.

Again, my sincerest apologies and I wish you a productive senior year.


James Nondorf
Dean of Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

So I guess I will be getting a substitute scholarship of equal value if I apply early decision. I wasn't surprised to see the first email, not to be a braggart or anything but I've had good grades and extra curricular activities throughout high school. Ideas about this big mistake?

 

[cristo]

Well, it sounds like you've got a $60,000 scholarship anyway, so I think you should just be pleased with that!

 

[TheRyan]

Yes, I am very pleased with it! If I choose to apply early decision it will be to my advantage, otherwise I guess it won't apply to me. Rensselaer is one of my top choice colleges, so I'm more likely to get use out of it than if it was some lesser-known school.

 

[DefaultName]

They're just going to cross-check you with the e-mail listserv and not admit you into the school. 60k per student is a lot of money.

 

[TheRyan]

Yes it is a lot of money to pay for a big mistake, and if they deny me admissions, I'm applying to other schools as well, ones I like a lot better than RPI to begin with. Hopefully I'll get into one of those schools, I've got several backup plans.

 

[Stevedye56]

Hey, I got the same thing. I don't really understand how such a mistake could be made on such a large scale. It seems to me that someone would have to at least check the email to make sure it was going to the right list.

 

[TheRyan]

That's definitely true. The gist I got was that somewhere in the line of checks between choosing winners and sending the notifications someone made a mistake, and I would not want to be that person right now.

Steve, I searched on Google and found the College Confidential topic on this, with you and I it's at least 6 people who got the message, there's no telling how many there were in all.

 

[Stevedye56]

It was a mistake on a huge scale. I know of a few people in my school that got the message! What I heard is that someone sent the medals to the wrong list of people. I think that it may have been a list of those who went to an open house or something. Although, I home a I am completely wrong. At least they honored their mistake and are leaving the option open!

 

[Yowhatsupt]

I got into RPI but didn't go. They are pretty generous with financial aid. I'd seriously consider going there if you are considering engineering.

 

[Stevedye56]

I realize that it is an exceptional school, however, when we went on the tour no one in the visitor's center knew that there was even going to be a tour that day. Also the fact the fact that the campus line was outlined by crime didn't give me the best feeling.

 

[TheRyan]

Steve, I've heard the same thing. Many have said Troy isn't the best place to go walking around at night (many say just stay on campus). Personally, I'd like to be able to walk around the area, not feeling like I'm going into dangerous territory outside the school, which is one of the reasons I'm not sure if I'd like to go there or not.