What do I say to someone who just got some bad news?

e.g. A person that I know but I am not very familiar with comes up to me and tells me that he/she just got rejected from XYZ college. What, if anything, should I say?

Note: I am known to be highly ranked in GPA in my class, so I need to make sure that what I say doesn’t sound arrogant or condescending. That will probably tick off the person even more.

Note 2: Now suppose that the person did not get rejected from college but rather something worse happened, let’s say his dog died or something. I don’t really know this guy or his dog. What should I say?