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Thousands of students admitted to Oakland University in Michigan received an email saying they were awarded a $48,000 scholarship. Unfortunately, it turns out the email was sent out by mistake.
The Platinum Presidential Scholarship is available to any incoming freshman who had a high school GPA of 3.90 or higher and a score of 1450 or higher on the SAT or an ACT composite score of 33 or higher.
While the students who received the email were not eligible for the school's highest scholarship, they were awarded smaller scholarships.
"Those 5,500 students, made up of incoming freshmen and transfer students, have been offered varying levels of scholarships, but did not qualify for the Platinum Presidential Scholarship, and had also not yet accepted their scholarship award in their student portal," Bierley said. "They were intended to receive a different message about the awards they qualified for," Brian Bierley, Director of Media Relations at Oakland University, told CNN.
"While the emails were sent in error, OU notifies students of scholarship awards through official scholarship award letters sent to students via United States mail," he added.
The news was disappointing to several students who thought they were receiving a scholarship to attend the school, which costs $58,000 in tuition over four years for in-state students. In addition, the cost of room and board is an additional $12,000 per year.
"He was extremely disappointed, embarrassed, even frustrated because he put in a lot of hard work," the mother of one of the students told the New York Times.
This is the second time this month that a college in Michigan accidentally told students they were receiving a scholarship. Central Michigan University told 58 high school seniors they were awarded the university's Centralis Scholar Award, which covered the total cost of tuition, fees, and room and board for four years plus $5,000 to cover the cost of studying abroad. The school told students they would still receive a full scholarship but would not receive the other benefits.