Eton mistakenly offers 400 boys conditional place, regrets

In an embarrassing gaffe, Britain's prestigious Eton College due to an IT glitch mistakenly told hundreds of families that their sons had won a conditional place at the school.
The mistake prompted an apology and the launching of an internal probe by the school which boasts of 19 British prime ministers, including David Cameron, among its alumni.
Eton said an email intended for nine families saying their sons had gained conditional places for the September 2017 intake was mistakenly sent to another 400 applicants' families. A "systems error" was to blame, it said.
"This error was discovered within minutes and each family was immediately contacted to notify them that it should be disregarded," a college spokesman was quoted as saying by BBC.

"We take this type of incident very seriously indeed so a thorough investigation, overseen by the head master Tony Little and led by the tutor for admissions, is being carried out to find out exactly what went wrong and to ensure it cannot happen again," he said.
"Eton College offers its sincere apologies to those boys concerned and their families. We deeply regret the confusion and upset this must have caused," he added.

Entry to the Berkshire boarding school is via a highly competitive assessment system.
The process begins at age 11 with an interview, a report from the applicant's current school and a reasoning test.

Some boys are then offered a conditional place, which can be taken up if they pass the qualification exam, known as the Common Entrance, aged 13. About one in four applicants is successful.
Former pupils at the school include Prince William and Prince Harry.