Well, that’s just dandy for me, being that it is the fall of my senior year. Unfortunately, she’s right. For one, the GREs are like the SATs, but more annoying. Because as if I wasn’t doing enough studying in college, I have to use whatever free time I can locate to cram for yet another life-altering standardized test. Yes, my friends, they don’t end with high school graduation…don’t even get me started on the freaking out taking place by my friends taking the LSATS, MCATS, and GMATS (for law school, medical school, and business school, respectively, FYI). And I have to find time to take this four-hour test between classes, and get to the mysterious location of the test without a car.

And then there are the applications. First, specifically, are the recommendation letters. Luckily, I haven’t had as much of a nervous breakdown about this as some of my peers, but how can one not? It’s basically asking you to find three qualified adults you met in college, one of them a professor, who knows everything about you, or at least enough to write you a raving review. And what a joy it is to go quivering into the office hours of the professor who taught your 100-person biology class three years ago. (Hint: This is much easier if you remembered to talk in class and actually learn your professors’ names the last three years).

Then, you have to pick schools that you would like to attend. Which potentially means a location that you could end up living in the rest of your life. I mean, it’s not like it isn’t possible. Which means you have to think ahead past your research paper due this week and the stats exam you just bombed, and focus on what location you could realistically move to in nine months from now.

For the record, I am applying to public policy programs at the University of Texas, Columbia, George Washington University, and Ohio State. (And yes, my recommenders will be thrilled when they find out they have to write four separate raving reviews about me). I AM excited…or at least I will be once it’s all over.