Where's My Pell Check?!?

On one of our financial aid forms, there is a line for the student to fill in their "Estimate Graduation Date." Few students know specifically when the plan on graduating so we just ask them to write a year. My standard advice for students is to "write a year that is two or three years down the road, because it usually takes that long to finish a degree."

Today I told a student to write a year that he plans to complete is degree. He literally wrote the word "year."

Sigh...