Georgia State University officials have spent the last few days apologizing to people who erroneously received notices suggesting they were accepted as grad school students.

The 1,330 applicants were not accepted into the program and initially received notices explaining they did not make the cut. However, a Georgia State employee earlier this week mistakenly sent notices to those applicants that made them believe they were accepted after all, with information about the next steps in the enrollment process.

Georgia State sent notices to those applicants explaining the error. Many were confused. Several were upset, airing their frustrations on social media.

“Georgia State is terribly sorry about this,” Lisa Armistead, the university’s associate provost for graduate programs, said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon.

Armistead said officials are contacting the angry applicants to discuss options, advice and information about why they weren’t accepted. There were about 8,550 grad school applicants. Nearly 3,300 were accepted, Armistead said. The bulk of students who received the errant message applied to GSU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

The employee who made the mistake is being retrained and Georgia State is reviewing the system it uses to send notices to examine ways to avoid future errors.

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Yemaya Lyles (right) wipes away tears during a news conference in front of the Rockdale County Public Schools administration building on Tuesday, Dec. 19, 2023. Lyles' son, Antonio, was assaulted by a paraprofessional, who has since been fired and charged with battery. Lyles says her case against the school district has dragged on since then. (Miguel Martinez/AJC 2023)

Credit: Miguel Martinez