High school seniors applying for admission at Vassar College experienced a roller coaster of emotions this weekend as a computing error informed all early decision applicants that they had been accepted. Our John Wagner has the details.

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POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. -- Vassar College expected to receive 8,000 applications for a freshman class of around 675 students. The odds are slim, but when the admissions website went live Friday with decisions for 254 early decision applicants -- all 254 student accounts triggered an acceptance letter.

"She told everyone, she put it as her Facebook status, she was really happy," said Matt Geline, a Vassar student and friend of one applicant. "But then when she checked three hours later, she discovered that there was a glitch and she was just distraught."

The mistake was noticed and fixed within a half hour, but by that time 122 students had already logged in. 76 of those received an apology and a denial letter hours later, and Vassar College says they're deeply sorry for the confusion.

"That was a placeholder that was supposed to be replaced when the site went live by individualized letters," said Jeffrey Kosmacher, director of media relations at Vassar. "It was a human error working with technology that caused this; we take full responsibility."

The school says it is reaching out to each affected family and will refund application fees, but the decisions are final. But some current students say the applicants deserve another chance.

"I mean where you decide to go to school for the next four years is one of the most important decisions that you make in your life, so at least return the application fees," said Alejandro Montoya, a senior at Vassar College. "Maybe even defer them to regular admission and give them consideration -- take a second look."

"You can't really compensate for the emotional damage caused by something like that," said Geline.

Each early decision applicant had committed to Vassar as their top college choice. And after a few hours of celebrations and days of frustrations, they're left with no choice but to keep their heads up and move forward.

"If they have the drive and the work ethic to at least apply to a college such as Vassar they definitely will have the drive to go as far as they want in life in general," said Race Bottini, a senior at Vassar. "So I am not worried about any of these kids."