In fact, decisions on the applications from those students have not yet been made, and the students were not expecting an answer until March 31, according to the school.

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions said two simultaneous human errors involving e-mail messages were to blame for the errant messages, and admissions staff began apologizing to applicants the next day. "We are still mortified that this happened," Stephen Farmer, assistant provost and director of undergraduate admissions, said in the statement Thursday. "I hate that it happened. We try to make sure the candidates under our care are treated fairly and humanely, and it's heartbreaking in this case there were 2,700 students we've failed."

Farmer said that he had heard from about 100 of the students and that the majority had been "just amazingly gracious -- almost all said they understood it was an error."

According to an explanation posted on the admissions office Web site, at 3:50 p.m. on Jan. 23 the office mistakenly sent e-mails requesting mid-year grades from applicants. However, the e-mail also said, "Congratulations again on your admission to the University."

Apparently a staff member used the wrong distribution list for the mid-year grade request, Farmer said in the statement. Within a span of five minutes, another staffer, apparently independently, modified the original message to include congratulations on acceptance.