Oakland University (OU), located in a northern suburb of Metro Detroit, has recently made headlines for a rather unsavory reason: mistakenly telling 5,500 incoming students that they had received a massive scholarship award.

The students—who had all applied for smaller scholarships—were informed that they had received the Platinum Presidential Scholar Award, which provides OU students with $12K a year for four years. Once school officials discovered the mistake, they released a statement informing the recipients of the news.

"Unfortunately, due to a human error, the email was inadvertently sent to you and others who had not received Presidential Scholar awards. Please know we take this unfortunate mistake very seriously and would like to sincerely apologize," a joint statement by Shane Lewis and Dawn Aubry the university's Undergraduate Admissions Director and VP of enrollment management, read.

"We know the college application process is an extremely stressful time, and we are sorry for the added confusion and disappointment this email has caused," they continued. "While we know that this message will not make up for our mistake, we wanted to share our deep regret that this error occurred and our deep compassion toward all those affected."

"I don't think it would be feasible to grant those 5,500 full scholarships," added OU spokesman Brian Bierley. "We're just trying to work through Oakland's situation."

While this news is devastating by itself, further insult to injury was added due to another Michigan college's recent handling of a similar, smaller-scale mistake. Earlier this year, Central Michigan University (CMU) accidentally informed 58 students that they had received full-ride scholarships, though the institution ultimately decided to honor their commitment as a way to "make it right."

Resultingly, Oakland University has come under fire by those affected by mistake. Carnell Poindexter said her son received the erroneous scholarship email.

"It's disheartening. CMU is willing to own their mistake and not just own it, but right it. OU's like: 'Oh, yeah, we made a mistake. Deal with it,'" Gwen Poindexter said. "It has not soured Carnell [on Oakland University], but it has soured me."

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