Washington post: Some 3,100 students accepted as freshman by the University of Florida for the fall got a big surprise along with their congratulations notices.

They were told that the acceptance was contingent on their agreement to spend their first year taking classes online as part of a new program designed to attract more freshmen to the flagship public university.

The 3,118 applicants accepted this way to the university did not apply to the online program, above and beyond the approximately 12,000 students offered traditional freshman slots. Nor were they told that there was a chance that they would be accepted with the online caveat. They wound up as part of an admissions experiment.