Congratulations! You've Been Accepted To...Just Teasin'

As if the generation that's now entering college hasn't already figured out just how fucked it is, it must now bear the brunt of cruel psychological torture by way of tantalizingly erroneous e-mail messages:

The e-mail, which began, "We're thrilled that you've been admitted to UC San Diego, and we're showcasing our beautiful campus on Admit Day," was sent to the entire freshman applicant pool of more than 46,000 students, instead of just the 18,000 who had been admitted, Brown said.

Oops! "Dear Timothy, sorry we momentarily implanted within you a sense of hope for your future. Our bad." But take heart; least some kids are appropriately cynical:

Aakash Agarwal of San Jose said UC San Diego had been among his top choices, but he was not surprised when he was rejected weeks ago because of the stiff competition. He said he laughed in surprise when he received the e-mail on Monday. "I was thinking maybe they changed their mind in terms of admitting me," said the 17-year-old senior at the private Harker School . But he checked the admissions website "and sure enough, I was still rejected."

That's the spirit, Aakash, that's the spirit.