Congratulations You Just Failed

UC San Diego – a school for the smart ones, supposedly – mistakenly congratulated nearly 29,000 applicants on their acceptance, according to university officials.

Earlier this month, about 17,000 students were offered admission for the fall, leaving nearly 29,000 hopefuls out in the cold.

But on Tuesday, the school’s communications office said an e-mail was sent Monday afternoon to all 46,377 students who applied for admission – including the 29,000 rejects – welcoming them to the campus.

A half-hour later, school officials said, they realized their mistake. Almost two hours after the first note went out, a second e-mail was sent, apologizing to 28,889 freshmen applicants for the mistake.

“No member of this department is more acutely aware of the emotional roller-coaster that this could cause for our applicants,” Assistant Vice Chancellor Mae W. Brown said.

An anonymous parent told the  Los Angeles Times it was a “colossal screw-up.”

Similar incidents have happened at other schools – including Cornell in the recent past, the paper reported – but the UCSD incident was the biggest “screw-up”.

[Yahoo!]

I don't need another screwing.

This is such a ridiculously stupid fail moment for such a respected school to have. I’m sure every once in a while people generally commit some kind of atrocious faux pas that leaves them cringing in embarrassment for the next few years. Usually a year of hibernation, meditation and reflection (or a truckload of beer) would eventually allow the Embarrassed One  to crawl out of his hellhole and notice that nobody cares anymore anyway so life might as well resume with some semblance of normalcy.

But for an establishment of higher learning to screw it up this bad, seems so far-fetched as to be implausible. Imagine you’re checking your e-mail and there’s one in there saying: “Congratulations, you passed… blah blah blah”

So there you are feeling all good and happy and you’re savoring that moment when just a few minutes later just after you’re screaming stuff and all, you receive a second piece of mail saying:

Unfortunately, we screwed up big time. You didn’t actually pass but we thought you did so we take back what we said earlier. Please don’t feel too bad okay? Shit happens. Please think of this as some elaborate April Fool’s joke so you can live the rest of your life knowing you helped advance the essence of this wonderful holiday! Sincerely, UCSD.

P.S. Suicide is a sin and God would not be happy at all if you even start contemplating it. And we wish you all the luck in your other applications.

~ by Kevin on April 4, 2009.