As was the case with my own column published in The Durango Herald on April 20, “College admissions process proves to be lesson in life.”

Almost a month earlier before sitting down to write the column, I happened across an article by Suzy Lee Weiss in The Wall Street Journal, which also discussed a similar vision of the college admissions process.

Cleverly, in an attempt to avoid any goof-up like Doris Kearns Goodwin’s, or Jane Goodall’s recent scandals, I stayed purposefully clear of Weiss’s article while writing my own column for the Herald. Almost ironically, this double-edged sword also prevented me from seeing just how appallingly similar our writing turned out to be.

Still, the fact that the similarities between Weiss’s writing and my own were completely unintentional does not make the gravity and consequence of my mistake any less potent. The fact that the same oversight has happened before is no excuse for it to happen again. I must accept full responsibility for the blunder.

In an attempt to put the event behind me, I would like to make several things clear: First, the undeniable similarities between my own writing and Weiss’s were, in every respect, completely accidental – I had no intention of passing off anyone’s ideas as my own.

And lastly, I offer my sincerest apologies to The Durango Herald, The Wall Street Journal and, of course, Weiss, for my mistake.

Levi Kurlander

Durango