Submitted an research proposal to the Lawrence Livermore Postdoctoral Fellowship (Nov. 1 2010 deadline). A month and a half later, I heard back from them:
'We received 158 applications from outstanding individuals like yourself, which made the review task quite difficult. The Committee, after careful examination, chose six candidates for interviews. Although you were not one of these candidates, your excellent background, experience and credentials put you in the top group of twenty candidates."
Five minutes later, another email was sent:
"We received 158 applications from outstanding individuals, like yourself, which made the review task quite difficult. The Committee, after careful examination, has decided that although you have an excellent background, experience and credentials, there are other candidates whose qualifications more strongly match our requirements for the Fellowship."
Basically they sent out the wrong message to me. Talk about unprofessionalism at its worst! So demoralizing.