In the past week, two interesting news stories have broken regarding lies and errors on the part of two prestigious schools.

In the first, Vassar College, an elite private school in New York, dashed the hopes of some 76 students by mistakenly issuing false acceptance letters. The admissions office had placed “test letters” as placeholders for the read admissions decisions in the files of its early application candidates. 122 students signed on to check their application status and saw the “test letter”, which informed the students that they had been accepted. Sadly, 76 of these students were notified hours later that they were actually not accepted. In response, Vassar has issued an apology, agreed to refund the affected students’ application fees, and offered to contact schools to explain the situation in the event that students had already withdrawn their other applications.

Cold comfort for students who have just fallen off the emotional roller coaster of a lifetime. What sounds like a minor technical error is in fact a devastating event for the 76 duped students. Imagine learning that you’ve been accepted at your dream college. Proud of your accomplishment, you tell everyone you know. Your parents call every distant relative in existence. And just as you finish notifying everyone about your miraculous good fortune, you find out that you have to call everyone back to tell them that you didn’t really get in. Just kidding. Whoops. Continue reading →