In 2001, when I enrolled in the MBA program at Touro - there was quite a SNAFU because my ID (for logging into their system) was crosslinked with another Steven King (who, coincidentally, happened to be enrolling in the same program which I did...). I have applied and was emailed that I was accepted at GCU for their MEd program. The given username and ID wouldn't allow log-on and always came up as invalid. Turns out that my file was crosslinked with another Steven King - who completed an on-campus degree in management years ago. Yikes...
Emphasis is mine... Usage Note: The words ironic, irony, and ironically are sometimes used of events and circumstances that might better be described as simply "coincidental" or "improbable," in that they suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly. Thus 78 percent of the Usage Panel rejects the use of ironically in the sentence In 1969 Susie moved from Ithaca to California where she met her husband-to-be, who, ironically, also came from upstate New York. Some Panelists noted that this particular usage might be acceptable if Susie had in fact moved to California in order to find a husband, in which case the story could be taken as exemplifying the folly of supposing that we can know what fate has in store for us. By contrast, 73 percent accepted the sentence Ironically, even as the government was fulminating against American policy, American jeans and videocassettes were the hottest items in the stalls of the market, where the incongruity can be seen as an example of human inconsistency. Source: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ironic - Tom
According to Merriam Webster (http://www.m-w.com) the definition of irony can be: incongruity between the actual result of a sequence of events and the normal or expected result . My original intention was to say that I would have expected a normal registration process without running into a problem with someone similarly named. Expecting a seamless registration (expected result) and actually running into the same problem (actual result) would be incongruous - hence the choice of the word ironic. I would say that the situation is both coincidental and ironic.
