Dietetic Technician to Med School, GPA & MCAT reveal, & More w/ Annie

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Hey, welcome. This is Episode 13 and this episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing Annie. She's a second year medical student at an osteopathic medical school and a former dietetic technician with a bachelor's and dietetics. I found Annie through Instagram. Her handle is @sliceofannie. I love all of the recipes she posts on there, including her documentation of her journey through medical school. Thank you so much, Annie, for coming on today. How's it going?

Going well, thank you for having me.

Yeah, of course, when I saw your Instagram page, I was like, this is someone I definitely need to get on here because I don't know any former dietetic technician or anyone with a bachelors and dietetics that then went on to medical school. So this is a really awesome opportunity.

So I'm glad you found me and I feel like we connected pretty well on Instagram, so it's really cool how that's worked out.

Yeah. So my first question for you today, if you want to just tell us a little bit about yourself, some background, where you from? What year in medical school are you in?

Yes. So I'm originally from Arizona, but I've moved over to South Carolina to go to medical school and I'm currently in my second year.

That's awesome. Me too. How's it going so far?

Like, the last block was honestly extremely challenging. This block is a little bit better, but I am terrified of boards and the pressure is growing to study for it. So it's just, yeah, it's a little hard trying to balance everything with the clock.

What block did you finish that was challenging?

It was Gi and GU so I don't think the material per say was super challenging. It was more. There were so many things going on outside of school with like switching from online to in person or the pandemic and our exam schedule I'm just like a lot of outside factors as well. That was just very stressful.

I know there's a lot that goes into being a med student. Like you're not just a student who's studying all the time. That's not your only responsibility. We just finished cardio about a week and a half ago, and that was a really hard exam. That was the hardest exam I've ever taken in med school so far. But I'm glad that, you know, you're in a better block. I'm also terrified for boards. I have not even started doing practice questions. So we're definitely all kind of in the same boat in different ways.

Yeah, for sure.

So my next question for you is kind of delving into more personal details, I feel like I want our listeners to hear what is your GPA, MCAT score is. And even in my Future podcast, I want to have people that I interview start sharing, yhat's just so our viewers or listeners can kind of get an idea of what stats real people are applying one and kind of hear their story, what extracurriculars you did. Kind of like a quick summary of your application, the high yield stuff, if you don't mind sharing what your GPA was and what your MCAT score was when you were applying.

So when I applied for a medical school, my GPA was like 3.87, but my score is not the best. It was five hundred. And so I applied very realistically when I went through the cycle. And to be honest, some school straight up told me, like, your application looked amazing, except your MCAT score was just a little below our average. So that's why we didn't take you. And I do feel very grateful that I got in on my first round trying. I only had one option and had one interview. But I mean, that's all it took to get me here. So very grateful for that, that I didn't have to take the MCAT again.

I know. I'm actually so happy for you. That's awesome. You only have to take it once you applied. Realistically, you looked at the stats beforehand, you really figured out what schools can I get into? And I'm only going to focus on those. And I think that's a really smart strategy to use. And I had the same experience. Like my GPA was fine. I had a 3.75, I believe I'm remembering correctly, and my mcat was a 505. So when I took the mcat, that was my third score too. I took it three times. So I finally scored the 505, for DO schools to kind of want to admit me on my third try. And it was just such an exhausting process. So for those that are listening out there like there, you will reach your goals one day. And if your GPA is high and your score is low, there's a lot of people like that or people with low GPA that make comebacks with their high mcat scores. There's a lot of us out there that kind of have that story.

Yeah, for sure, and I felt so lucky because I was literally about to pay for the second time and then that interview invitation came and this was like in January, I felt so defeated because every other school rejected me. And then I was like. A little light at the end of the tunnel. Wow, OK.

And I'm so happy for you. And this is actually a question I didn't tell you I would ask, but I was kind of wondering, how did you get that feedback from other med schools who said, oh, you know, your GPA was great, but your score was lacking, which is why we didn't accept you. Did you have to reach out and ask them that? Because I know when I got my rejection letters, there was no reason why.

Mm hmm. So I was just lucky that Midwestern will actually, in their rejection email, they said if you want to reach out and get some feedback, you can. And those the only school that ever said that. So I called them and we kind of play telephone tag. So I didn't get to personally talk to someone. But this woman laid out like a very thorough voicemail, basically, and that's essentially what she said. She was like, oh, everything was strong. Like this was so strong. And then very kindly said, you're interested in a really average, which is a little bit higher. So so like I was like, OK, it's my mcat score, but I need those stats for sharing it with the rest of the world. I don't know.

They're trying to maintain something, but that's really awesome. I wish more medical schools did that. I never got any feedback. I did call one school. It was an empty school. And to ask them, oh, why don't I get in, what can I improve on in my application? And they were like, oh, we're not allowed to share that. And I thought that was so strange. Like, I paid you guys so much money. I mean, all of these schools, so much money to just read my application and see if they're going to accept me or not. I think it would take maybe another five seconds to jot down the main reason why to get accepted.

Yeah, and it's hard because they do have thousands and thousands of applicants. So if they did that for everyone, I would be a lot of work, I guess. But at the same time, this is a super stressful process. And especially if you let's just say like don't get in the first time, which is totally fine. You still would prefer some feedback so that you can work on it for the next cycle.
So I really encourage anyone who's reapplying to definitely reach out to as many schools as you can that you got rejection emails from. And just see if they will share with you any guidance in terms of doing better. So my next question for you is, I noticed you have a lot of awesome pictures of food on your Instagram, and I really get impressed by Foody Instagram because I can never take a good picture of food. Like if you want to share some tips, that would be awesome. Like, do you have pretty plates to use an app, the nice counter space. I would just love to know, but I was wondering. I have a hard time fitting in cooking in my schedule. I do cook, I don't buy food out too much, but I have to. I usually do it really fast. I have to time to make things pretty. So how do you fit your basically your cooking schedule with your med school schedule in your day to day and also making it look pretty for Instagram?

So for me, I'm not someone who lives by, like a set schedule, so it just depends on the day for me.

A lot of the times each week for about one day, which is usually like Sunday or the day after an exam, a lot like one to two hours to really food prep something that's a big batch. So like four or five meals, I could get out of it and I'm in. And sometimes it takes like only 30 minutes for me and more practice. So I started to cook a lot more in undergrad because I don't like the food that are vegetarian. So it's just a little bit hard to find healthy options that weren't just salads because I just can't eat salad it all the time. So option cafeterias, it's actually so just by practicing, I've been able to be more efficient with cooking and I kind of multitask with cooking tools like. I figure out, like, OK, this is Cook for a while these first and then I make the sauce and I make like whatever in between. So that's like about one day a week. And then throughout the week, I usually just make a quick little meals that only take about ten minutes. And for me, cooking is my stress relief. So I try to make time to cook. And that's kind of like cathartic for me because I'm just not thinking about school and being on something else. And also when things look pretty, I really enjoy eating it, which I know it's very extra. But in my Instagram does motivate me to put in a little bit more effort because it was just like like things in a bowl and it'll be done. But, you know, for Instagram, it's been fun to try to think of new creative ways to plate my food. I don't have any really special plates. I just use like whenever my roommates have or I have like one or two other nice weather on like five dollars at Target. And then I just honestly don't have a set up yet like other food bloggers do. I know they have like these cool like that you could use like a tile or use different things as backdrops. I just haven't done that yet. So I straight up just use my white study desk. I like clean it off and put the food there. And there is like ways to make the overlay look even better with textures and different accessories. But to be realistic, like I just don't really have time to do that. So I'm glad that you still think they look great. And I'm just using my iPhone and then I just edit with Lightroom just to change the lighting a little bit to look better in the colors. But I try to keep it pretty natural to what it is. It's just enhancing an iPhone picture on it.

Yeah, I really like it in the comments. So you guys, for those of you who are listening, are watching right now at her Instagram, which is @sliceofannie, she has the whole recipe in the comments. So not only do you get like that great picture, like, oh, this is what it's going to look like when you're done with. She puts the recipe and the comments are actually in her comment, which really helps me because, like, if I want to make something, I spend too much time Googling recipes. And then the blog posts are so long and there's so many ads in between and my computer gets below, which is not a huge problem, but it does slow me down. So I really like that as well. So thank you for sharing that on your Instagram while you document your school journey.

Yeah, of course. And I just find that it's a really great outlet for me, I'm I really don't think that you should live and breathe medicine all the time. I think that's going to burn you out. And I'm pretty artistic, too, like my brain works both in the artistic creative side and the left side. So. This is like my creative outlet when I'm not able to, like, paint or draw or whatever, like taking these pictures, making the food. That's how I can keep being creative in studying science all the time.

Even with your background as a I think I forgot how to say the word dietetic technician. And also, you know what? You graduated with your bachelors. So that probably motivates you to. And what kind of made you take that? I really just love the unique background. You have to go to med school. I still think it's kind of a non-traditional route, you know. So how did you kind of combine your background when you were writing essays maybe, or your personal statement to being like, oh, but I also want to do medicine.

Yeah, that was very challenging me for me, for my personal statement, because my application shows that I did a lot outside of medicine, not just in medicine. I have a very wide variety of interests. So to tie it all in was kind of focusing on integrative medicine, which I was given the advice not to say I strongly want to do integrative medicine like I'm a premed. I don't know anything technically in medicine, I should say it's my interest. So that's what I did. But I incorporated how I used to be an athlete and I loved nutrition and had this whole background and then my culture kind of being Asian and having a lot of Eastern medicine influences. And then eventually I tied them all in into thinking I want to practice medicine in a preventative way, or it will allow me to incorporate maybe some alternative medicine options that are evidence based, but that I have a strong background in. And so that's how I kind of pull that all together. And it's funny because when I got to undergrad, I just chose nutritional sciences thinking like, you know, out of all the majors at my school offers like this. Sounds interesting if I switched after the first year or whatever, like, who cares? And I ended up loving it so much more than my advisor was very trying very hard to bring me in to be a dietitian. But it gave me a very good Plan B option. So that's why I did Nutritional Sciences Dietetics instead of what they recommended for premed to just do the nutrition emphasis. Because if you just do nutrition emphasis, you can't be a registered dietitian. You would have to take an extra six months of courses to be able to get accreditation certification. So I went the dietetics route and it was honestly probably the best choice that I made because they have this class called medical nutrition therapy. And that is what made me love the major. And it actually strengthened my desire to go into medicine because we could practice all of the clinical cases. Think about it in a very inpatient clinical setting idea of how to incorporate nutrition into these patients treatment plans. And then I was able to practice that being a dietetic technician. So I'm very glad that I went the path that I did, because I do think it has prepared me for the future when treating patients in order to think about all these other specialties that I could work with.

Now, you brought up so many amazing points, and I just want to kind of go back and reiterate that you followed your passions and you're really happy with what you chose because of that, even though your counselors or your advisors and undergrad told you you should not do the dietetic part of this, you should only do do the nutrition major. And you said, no, I like it, so I'm going to do it anyways. And it worked out anyways. And I think there's so many people that don't get the best advice from their advisers. I didn't I got advice that I should apply when I'm twenty five and I was twenty at the time and I was like, that's in five years. What I'm going, what am I going to do between those five years? Because I had already been working on my, you know, my resume and my activities. I was doing them now. I was just a younger student in undergrad for the year that I was in. So I was the average age for med school acceptances. And I understand that completely. But everyone has different backgrounds. So for those of you guys who are listening, please follow your passions. You know, take something in college if you want to take it, even if other people are saying don't do it because you never know what's going to come out of that.

One hundred percent and actually I love what said because I was very young for my grade too, I graduated right before twenty one. So that is actually a huge reason why I did take the gap year just because I felt like my application was relatively strong on that point. But one, I knew that the average was higher. I knew that people who were older had an advantage because they just had that years of experience I didn't have yet. But then I also wanted to break.

So good for you. I'm glad that you because of that break, I had pressure from family telling me, don't take a break, you're going to fall off and you're never going to go to med school if you take a break. But gap years are becoming a lot more normalized now. I know a little back then it was not super normal. People want to go straight out of college. And I think once you forget that age factor that, oh, I'm going to be older when I get into medical school. Once you get over that, it's really not a big deal. It's all about kind of the journey and just enjoying every single day like in the present. Don't think about what age you're going to graduate college. Don't think of what age you're going to graduate medical school and finally become a resident or finally become an attending because you're just not going to enjoy the process as much. If you think of it as like I'll be happy when I'm a physician in ten years. That's not how you should be thinking about it. You should be doing what you love even right now. So you're happy in the day to day. So you took one year, you right.

Yeah, I did. That's awesome.

So we're getting towards the end of the podcast. I have one more question to ask you and that's one share, one piece of advice that changed your life that you would like to share with everyone today.

Ok, this is hard because I feel like I've had a lot of advice. I think one that stands out to me the most and has shaped kind of how I interact with people is. There is never a stupid question, and if you have a question, ask it, because I am definitely someone who asks too many questions sometimes, but, once I got over that fear of being like, oh, being a burden, oh, they're too busy to respond to me, you know, I realized that the more that I ask questions to people will do it in a respectful way, you know? But I have just gained so much, not only like advice, appreciation, that I even came up to them and asked the question also really good mentors. So I do feel like throughout my life, thankfully, I have had relatively good support throughout. But I do also think that it's because I put in that initial effort and work to ask these questions that I had, and then that's how I was able to seek out the answers instead of just kind of like living in my head, being nervous and like going through all the pros and cons, but not having a direct sense of guidance that I couldn't gain until I asked about it.

Yeah, no, that's a great point. I love that advice because asking questions, like you said, is what helps you find mentors and mentors, change your life like my mentor changed my life and I actually have a podcast episode with her. It's Episode nine, if you guys want to listen to that. But I don't think I would have gotten where I am today in this time period. Maybe if it weren't like without her, she helped me boost my confidence, get a research position which helped me get the following research positions that I got after that. So it was really just an awesome relationship. There's no stupid question. If you don't know something, I bet you someone in the room also doesn't know something and it's just better to be vulnerable. You're going to have a way quicker a learning curve if you just ask those questions rather than trying to figure it out yourself. Thanks for sharing that. I really like that advice.

Of course, so thank you so much for coming on today. This is an awesome episode. I'm really excited to release it. I'm actually going to release it today, today's Friday, November 6th. So this will be out on Spotify, you guys today. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you again so much for having me. This is so fun. It's my first podcast. So this is exciting.

Yeah, of course it was awesome. All right, guys, if you enjoy this podcast, make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss any new episodes released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also, if you've learnt one little thing from the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review. It means a lot to me and I read them all. I'll see you in the next one.