ajax xml not parsing

ajax xml not parsing

I'm sorry if this is repetitive. I am trying to GET and parse an XML document that has been validated by W3C validator. After trying $.parseXML as seen in examples on this site $xml.length returns 0. Examining the data directly shows the text of the doc. This is extremely frustrating. Please help.

CODE:

function loadContract() {
    $(function(){
        $.ajax({
            url:'http://www.ctunet.com/Contract.xml',
            type:'GET',
            dataType: 'xml',
            success:function(data){
                var xml    = data,
                xmlDoc = $.parseXML( xml ),
                $xml   = $( xmlDoc );
                $("#currentTitle").text($xml.length);
                }
            });
        });
}