Because no one else told me this, here you go should you need it.  If you apply for American Federal aid by filling out the FAFSA and you read the part of the instructions that says the SAR (the result of the FAFSA) will be electronically sent to the college whose FAFSA code you entered into the form, you will be up the creek if that college happens to be non-American.  They only send it to American schools.  British schools do not accept it.  So you have to mail them a copy yourself.  If I hadn't called I might have missed this all important step.  You'd think the international digital age we live in wouldn't have these problems, but there you go.  That's the penultimate lesson; the ultimate lesson is to call up folks no matter what and get them to confirm all this noise.  It's worth it to get the answer.