I Wish I Knew That...#2

Read the application instructions and then read them again!!

Case in point: DICAS wants your schools to send your transcripts to them directly with a special form that is available on the application website.  I thought that I would save time and make sure that things arrived by the deadline by collecting each of my three official transcripts in sealed envelopes and them send them in one envelope for all three schools.  This was my plan until just 1 month before the deadline when I realized that the transcripts had to be sent directly from the schools.  This was one of the most stressful parts of the whole process because I had one month for the schools to process and mail my transcripts and for DICAS to receive and upload them to my account.  It generally takes several business days for DICAS to process your paperwork after it arrives.  I checked the website religiously until my documents showed up.

The moral of the story:  save yourself the headache and get your transcript requests in early but make sure that you stay diligent with checking the website to make sure that your paperwork is received and processed in a timely manner.

Two Weeks!

Tomorrow is my last day working in the restaurant business and today marks two weeks until the internship gets going.  As I've mentioned before, I'm excited but anxious.  It's terrifying giving up my income to work for free for 10 and a half months but exciting because this is my dream and is all that I've worked for over the last two and half years!  I'll keep you posted as things get started.

Help! My Internship is Giving Me a Shopping Problem!

It's true.  My upcoming internship is giving me a shopping problem.  These end of season clearances and sales are draining my budget.  It's been years since I had a need to go shopping for office appropriate clothing but I knew that I would need to stock up on office attire before my internship started so I set aside all of my graduation money to spend on a new "grown up" wardrobe.  Here's the problem...I'm having too much fun buying all kinds of cute work clothes!!  And now that I have cute work clothes, I need matching shoes which is strange because I have never been much of a shoe girl.  Usually, I could care less what my shoes look like as long as I have a cute purse and other accessories. I don't know what's come over me, but I suddenly need a pair of dress shoes in every color.  I have purchased five pairs in the last three days.  Luckily I'm quite the bargain hunter so I've only spent $60 on all five pairs but this internship needs to get started so that I can quite spending money!

Application Process Tip #6

1       Pay attention to program deadlines.  My #1 choice had a deadline that was two weeks early than the national deadline.  DICAS only allows you to submit one application regardless of how many programs you apply to  so I had to make sure that all of my applications were completed by the due date for the first program.  

Less than 1 month to go!

My internship starts on August 13th, which is less than one month away!  I'm getting excited and anxious, it's scary to think that it's almost the final step in my career path to becoming an RD. I got an email from my internship director the other day and nearly jumped out of my skin with excitement.  I was hoping to get an idea of where my first rotations would be and what my schedule would look like but no such luck.  The email contained a lot of info on policies and procedures for interns, where to purchase professional liability insurance, books to buy and information on a couple of assignments that we will have.  The biggest assignment so far is to research a fad diet and write a paper and give a presentation on our analysis of the diet and what we would tell a client that was interested in trying the diet out.  I chose to do my project on the Paleo diet.  I will be sure to share my opinions and findings regarding the Paleo diet on this blog.