Page 1 of 1

Eton offer places in error

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 6:45 am
by patricia
Oh dear...

http://www.theguardian.com/education/20 ... s-400-boys" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Patricia

Re: Eton offer places in error

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 8:30 am
by kenyancowgirl
Ouch! Someone will be for the high jump....sometimes good old fashioned letters really are the way forward - they would have noticed that the physical pile of paper coming out of the printer and the number of stamps they had to buy was a whole lot more than 9....

Re: Eton offer places in error

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:31 am
by neveragainmum
They should be made to honour their offers, must be some type of legal bound to do so since it was made in writing. That would be really funny :lol:

Re: Eton offer places in error

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:42 am
by loobylou
neveragainmum wrote:They should be made to honour their offers, must be some type of legal bound to do so since it was made in writing. That would be really funny :lol:
I wonder if anyone will try it!

Re: Eton offer places in error

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 11:52 am
by neveragainmum
Well nothing to lose, since only nine of 400 made it through. I certainly would try if not for anything else but to ruffle their feathers, heads must really be rolling right now, and I imagine many of the type of parents applying to a school like Eton will definitely take it further being further stressed out by all this.

Re: Eton offer places in error

Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2015 2:40 pm
by LoveIsBeautiful
In fact I think it was more than 9 of those contacted that got in. The letter was sent to us, but it was intended for overseas applicants. We also got an offer, but I think sadly some others didn't. So I would guess it went out to a random selection of applicants or something.

We had already spoken to the school and from what they had said we knew we had a place, but when we got the retraction email my heart sank. I'd already told my son, and suddenly it was very confusing. I was confident that all was well, but there's always that fear...

You've got to feel for the person that made that mistake. One click of a button... The tutor worked all weekend through the night to try to contact everyone, and when I spoke to him on Monday (I delayed it as I thought he was probably having a bad enough weekend) he was sounding quite faint. We had a long chat with the admissions tutor who was very reassuring and did a good job of putting it right. Must have been horrendous for those for whom the news was bad though.

But yes, I agree there must be a better way.