Our contracts final involved a hypothetical in which a state school had accidentally sent their letters of acceptance to their rejected students, and vice-versa. One of the students was Sally, who had received her (incorrect) letter of acceptance, and before even sending in her seat deposit, run out and purchased $500 of logowear.
Anyway, this would be nonforseeable reliance, and under Second Restatement of Contracts Section 90, the school would very likely not be liable.
My final exam included the following sentence: “While silly Sally’s superior school spirit is stupendous, such spending seems slightly superfluous: she’s simply seen signs she’s selected.”
…this didn’t affect my grade. Gotta love this professor…