On Friday April 8, 2022, high school senior Praneeth Kolichalla was greeted by the following message in his inbox: “an update has been posted to your application.”

Though usually nerve-racking, this notification did not perturb Praneeth. He had already been admitted to Stanford a week ago and was overjoyed he wouldn’t have to consider going to Berkeley. More than anything, this email piqued his curiosity.

Sporting his Stanford hoodie, he went to the admissions portal on his Stanford-stickered laptop, logged in with his username (praneeth_k) and password (dreams_of_going_to_stanford), and clicked on the button to view the update.

A large bolded “April Fools’!!!” emblazoned the screen as virtual confetti streamed from above. “We got you, didn’t we?” read the opening line. The body of the letter went on to explain that Stanford admissions had been planning the prank for years, and that in fact nobody had been admitted to the Stanford Class of 2026.

“Gosh darn those silly rascals! Welp! They got me!” exclaimed an amused Praneeth exactly according to plan. “Much to my chagrin, seems like I’ll be going somewhere else and will harbor no ill will towards Stanford for this slight.”

Editor’s Note: This article is purely satirical and fictitious. All attributions in this article are not genuine and this story should be read in the context of pure entertainment only.