When Bartleby Gaines (Justin Long) learns that he has not been accepted to college, he decides to lie to his parents. With the help of his computer whiz friend Sherman (Jonah Hill), he cuts and pastes a letter of acceptance from a made-up school. He takes Dad's check for tuition when offered. When his friends and other college rejects see how well the scam works, the South Harmon Institute of Technology (you can figure out the acronym yourself...) is born and a redecorated psychiatric hospital serves as the campus. Without teachers or accredited courses, the students decide what they want to study. As the students spend their parents' money and convince themselves they aren't "losers" after all, they're discovered by rival students at another college down the road, in particular a fraternity, who make it their special mission to take down Bartleby. Meanwhile, the beautiful Monica (Blake Lively) is supposed to be dating one of the frat boys, Hoyt (Travis Van Winkle), but she's charmed by Bartleby's sensitivity and apparent devotion.