SALT LAKE CITY — The University of Utah accidentally sent out letters to hundreds of medical school hopefuls this week implying they’d been accepted into the state’s premier program.
The erroneous emails seemed like good news: It directed students to apply for financial aid to help with the cost of attendance.
The problem? Most hadn’t actually been accepted — and won’t be.
“We are truly sorry this happened and are working to get to the bottom of what went wrong,” said Kathy Wilets, the spokesperson for the U.’s health care system that includes both a campus hospital and medical teaching program.
The letters were sent to 1,200 students who had applied to the medical school at the state’s flagship institution. Some of those messages went to applicants who had already received rejections this year. And others went out to students in cases where an admissions decision had not yet been made, Wilets said.
The school sends out rejections and acceptances in waves, and the process isn’t finished until March 15.
One parent in Washington D.C. told The Salt Lake Tribune that his daughter-in-law received one of the emails and said he feels the error caused “a wave of confusion, sadness and frustration.”
Wilets acknowledged that hurt and said the school is working to ensure the issue won’t happen again. She said the U. has also emailed a correction to the larger pool including all applicants — “to ensure we didn’t miss anyone.”
That message reads: “You may have received an email in error yesterday (2/4/25) from our financial aid office. We regret to inform you that this email was mistakenly sent by our automated system. Decisions about admissions have already been communicated or will be communicated at a later date. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience and confusion that this email may have caused. Please disregard the email from yesterday and reach out to us if you have any questions.”
The email on financial aid, she said, is sent to students when they are accepted into the program to instruct them on how they can apply for assistance. It was meant to only go out to a small group.
In recent years, the number of students applying to the U.’s program has grown dramatically.
For the class that started this fall, the U. had 2,500 applicants — about 300 more than the previous year. Of those, 2,082 met the minimum requirements (with GPA and entrance exam scores).
Ultimately, 360 were interviewed. And admission was offered to 170, Wilets has previously told The Tribune. (Not all who are accepted will attend, as some students get admitted to multiple schools). That’s an acceptance rate of 6.8%, which is fairly standard for medical schools.
The number of students who can enroll in the U.’s medical classes each year is capped by the Utah Legislature.
The school relies on taxpayer funding and can afford to have 122 students in an entering class, under legislation first passed in 2013 that annually allocates $10 million. Idaho funds two additional positions, and there is one slot for a MD-PhD-combined position. That brings the total to 125, and the admission rate to 5%.
The U. has the only public medical school program in the state and recently named a new senior vice president to oversee both operations and academics.
There are two others that are private: Noorda College of Osteopathic Medicine in Provo and a branch of Rocky Vista University College of Osteopathic Medicine near St. George.
Brigham Young University, which is also private,is looking to add a medical school in the coming years, but has not provided a specific opening date.
The U. is also partnering with Utah Tech University to open a satellite medical program in St. George. The two schools have requested $10 million in funding from the Legislature this session to start that. It’s expected that 10 medical students a year will be able to enroll once it launches.
