What are you doing after graduation?

Where are you going to graduate school? Medical school? Law school? Do you have a job? Where are you living?

As part of the curriculum, I think Notre Dame and Saint Mary's should teach us how to answer those questions.

Applying for (fill in your future) 101.

As ridiculous as that sounds, I did not realize the huge production involved in getting a job or getting into graduate school, and how completely unprepared I was for that process.

Silly me, I thought that if I succeeded in undergraduate, applying for what I wanted to do when I graduated would simply be the next step.

Little did I know that applying to medical school would not involve all the knowledge I have learned at Saint Mary's but on my ability to write a "personal statement" 27 different times.

I needed a class on how to tell complete strangers who you are in 500 words or less; and a class on how to miss 50 percent of your fall classes going to interviews without failing out of college and another class on how to get to any medical school in the United States from the South Bend airport without draining your savings.

Applying for post-graduate programs is really not a matter of showing off your many talents and strengths, but, instead, a matter of waiting, waiting, and more waiting.

I think the application process for post-graduate programs is really a test of how badly you want to get in. They design these processes thinking, "If she'll jump through all these hoops, she must really want to come here."

Of course, once you get in, there is another, completely non-academic obstacle course awaiting you.

Financial aid.

This would involve a "paperwork 101" class. Thank goodness for the federal government's willingness to help with the house payment size tuition that I'll have to pay for medical school, but, could there be a few more forms?

The schools I have visited have spent an entire afternoon on how much debt they will put me in and, really how, there's not much I can do about it but fill out some more forms.

Surviving after graduation is a matter of figuring out what forms you have to fill out when and getting them in on time.

On the other hand, looking back, the application process for getting into college was relatively long and somewhat stressful. The result was four years I will never forget and a great background for my future plans. It was worth any complaining I did during my senior year of high school. The application process for medical school has been even more stressful and much more time consuming, but, hopefully, the rewards will make it all worth it too. Spending time in the hospitals I have visited has shown me that, maybe, I shouldn't spend my time complaining that I have to jump through all these hoops to become a doctor. Instead, maybe, I should say thanks that I can jump through the hoops and I will become a doctor.

• Applications 101