Carnegie Mellon University is the latest higher education institution to make a mistake concerning student applications.

The university accidentally sent acceptance messages to students who had been rejected.

Carnegie Mellon sent out 800 acceptance emails to applicants to the university's computer science graduate program, reports the Associated Press.

Seven hours after the faux pas, the university sent a second email apologizing and telling the applicants they had been rejected and they received the email because of a "serious mistake" in Carnegie Mellon's computer software.

"We understand the disappointment created by this mistake, and deeply apologize to the applicants for this miscommunication," said Carnegie Mellon spokesperson Kenneth Walters.

The university's computer system had "incorrectly flagged" applicants as accepted students.

Gawker received copies of both the "Welcome to Carnegie Mellon!" email and the subsequent rejection email. The email shared details about the program, claiming "less than 9% of the more than 1200 applicants" are accepted. It also praised the benefits of Pittsburg, where the university is located.

The second email, sent seven hours later, was titled "Correction of prior email/Revocation of offer of admission to MS in CS program."

The email, written like the first by president's professor of computer science and department head Frank Pfenning, apologized for the confusion.

"This was an error on our part. While we certainly appreciate your interest in our program, we regret that we are unable to offer you admission this year," he wrote. The email also asked for recipients to acknowledge the receipt.

The university apologized again in a news release, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"This error was the result of serious mistakes in our process for generating acceptance letters," the statement said. "Once the error was discovered, the university moved quickly to notify affected applicants."

However, the mistake had already crushed many prospective students' dreams.

This is not the first time a university has made a mistake with applications. In December, Johns Hopkins University sent acceptance emails to rejected undergraduate applicants.