divine angst

Mr. Angst called me this morning to report that his SAR (that’s “Student Aid Report”) had flagged a particular item on his FAFSA—specifically, the item where he reported that there would be 2 persons in our household in college next year. Right under the item where he reported that there are 2 persons in our household total. (Never mind that the phrase “in college” is, in itself, incorrect.)

I checked my own SAR and, sure enough, the same item was flagged.

Now, as this information is correct, we were both a bit confused. He was more agitated than I—this is his first experience with the FAFSA. And as I looked for information on the FAFSA website, I got a little nervous myself. They say they flag information that is “inconsistent” with other parts of your application.

I couldn’t figure out how this information could be inconsistent with anything else, so I called. I actually talked to a person! And you know what she told me?

“Oh, no, don’t worry about it. It’s fine.”

This doesn’t inspire a great deal of confidence in the FAFSA folks. Maybe they just can’t comprehend that two people—married, independent people—would be going to school at the same time. I admit it, it’s a little insane, but it can’t be that unusual. Can it?

It appears a hard rock musician has found Jesus.

Wow. It’s just like they always told us in Sunday school!

• Received my Northwestern admissions packet yesterday—it’s a giant binder full of information, much of which is available on their website. Still, some of it I hadn’t seen before, and it’s a nice thing to have.
• UT’s status check remains at complete.
• So does Georgetown’s.
• I haven’t heard a peep from Chicago in two months.

On one bright note, our FAFSAs are turned in and our taxes are done. Still probably need to send copies of our W2s and such to various schools.

Limbo, everybody do the limbo.