"My heart literally sank" when UC Irvine rescinded admission offer

Barely two months before classes begin, the University of California, Irvine, is apologizing to nearly 500 students whose admission offers were revoked. 

Emily Roche said she was shocked to learn UC Irvine had withdrawn her offer of admission.

"My heart literally sank, like, right when I like first saw it," Roche said.

The university told her it didn't receive her transcripts, reports CBS News correspondent Tony Dokoupil. 

"I didn't really understand exactly why they would do this to me, because I fulfilled all the requirements. I turned in everything on time," Roche said. 

The school accepted around 40,000 first-year and transfer students. More than 7,000 said they would enroll as freshmen. That is hundreds more than the university had planned on. 

The vice chancellor of admissions said in a statement: "For those who felt ignored or mistreated, I sincerely apologize."

Irvine said it can withdraw admissions offers for a variety of reasons including not maintaining a 3.0 senior year GPA, getting a "D" or "F" in a class, or missing deadlines for submitting test scores and transcripts.

"There is no student who has been admitted, and has met all the requirements, that is not being accommodated this fall," UC Irvine's Thomas Parham said.

Parham, the vice chancellor in charge of admissions, said the university took a harder line this year enforcing its deadlines. He admits the high demand for spots in the incoming class was likely a factor.

UC Irvine, ranked No. 9 on U.S. News & World Report's list of top public schools, received a record 104,000 admission applications this year. The incoming class is about 800 students larger than it expected. 

"We certainly want to be able to examine how the numbers played out, and whether or not we could have been more forthcoming in our communications," Parham said.

In all, Irvine rescinded 499 admissions offers. Parham encouraged those who thought they were revoked erroneously to appeal. Less than 100 have been reinstated so far. Roche hopes she will soon join them.

"It's just an unfortunate situation to be in, and like, no one deserves that. Not even my greatest enemies," Roche said.

There have been admissions issues at other University of California campuses in the past. In 2009, UC San Diego mistakenly sent "welcome" emails to about 29,000 students who had been rejected. 

Earlier this year, Harvard revoked admission to at least 10 students who shared vulgar messages on Facebook.