I think the favorite question of my aunts, uncles, and grandparents is, "So what do you do with a nutrition degree, become a nutritionist? Is that the same thing as a dietitian?" I have to tell you, the word nutritionist is very general. Anyone could pick up an apple and call themself a nutritionist. You just weighed yourself? Hey, you're a nutritionist too! I happen to call myself a "degreed nutritionist" on LinkedIn because I thought I deserved a title. This misconception is no one's fault because the word is easily confused with dietitian. I also strongly dislike the word dietician, because dietician is NOT a word. Dietitian is spelled with a T, not a C. Got it? Ok now we can be friends. Anyways the career people usually think of is Registered Dietitian (RD). RD's are fantastic. Maybe you have had the privilege of meeting one. Nearly all of my nutrition teachers at Cal Poly are RD's and I look up to each and every one of them. It is a certification I hope to achieve someday.
How does one become an RD? It can be a long road. Many years ago Cal Poly didn't have a nutrition major, instead it was called home economics. How crazy is that? I'm not trying to insult anyone here, in fact my grandmother was a home economics teacher and she can cook any food you're craving (or didn't even know you were craving), sew anything you can describe, and knows an extreme amount about human health. In fact she takes amazing care of the diet of my grandfather who has type II diabetes. However, if you have to drown yourself in science classes such as organic chemistry, biochemistry, microbiology, anatomy, and metabolism (to name a few) the title nutrition major sounds much more suitable. (Sidebar, pre-med students can be nutrition majors.) If you plan on becoming an RD, you are an applied nutrition major to be more specific.
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| Our clinical final was a pot luck; we all passed with flying colors |
Wait a minute, nutrition majors take biochemistry? Wow, I thought you guys sat around drawing food pyramids and eating bananas! Ok, first of all the food pyramid has been replaced by MyPlate and second of all, why yes, we do eat bananas. Mm bananas and peanut butter. And almonds. Pretzels too. And hummus, lots of hummus. It's kind of a running joke nutrition majors always carry snacks around with them, in fact my classmates and I constantly ate through classes. We even had a potluck one time! Anyways, back to the science load. It was heavier than I expected, but necessary to have a deep understanding of the human body to be able to treat patients.
Ok. So you finish 4 (or more) years at an undergraduate program and have a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, ta da! Check. What's next? Dietetic Internship (DI). I happen to dislike this term; it gives me anxiety and sleepless nights. I talk and text about it so much my iPhone auto corrects the words do and so to DI. Why oh why would an internship give someone heart palpitations and breakouts? People give internships out like candy, right? Aren't you working for free?
Wrong. Dietetic Internships are crazy competitive. I'm not saying they are impossible, because as you can see by the field of RD's out there it has and can be done. The process uses a dual matching program called DICAS. You the candidate rank your schools while the schools also rank the candidates. It doesn't help anyone's odds that there have been twice as many applicants as available positions in the past. Schools rank applicants using point systems which typically factor in GPA, letters of recommendation, work experience, leadership, volunteering, personal statements, and possibly the GRE. Most programs have an application period ending in mid February (Singles Awareness Day last year, yet another reason to dread Feb 14) but a few may offer a second due date in September. Then applicants wait until a date in May to find out if they have been matched.
[Most nutrition majors apply their senior year, but I have to tell you that I did not. You know when something doesn't feel right? That's the feeling I got, but I didn't tell anyone . So everyone thought I was applying and I played along right with it, I even fooled myself! Exactly a week before DICAS closed and applications were due, I thought I would quickly pull it together and apply to two schools, just to say I tried. What did I think this was, amateur hour? How wrong I was. It takes about 100 hours to compile, write, and organize a profile for DICAS. Everyone had been working on this since December. I immediately realized how overwhelmed I was and broke down into tears. Tears are an understatement; my body was more focused on flooding our apartment with salt water to remember how to breathe deeply. The amount of tissues I went through in an hour wiped out a small rainforest in the Amazon. It took my roommate, a Taco Tuesday jaunt, and an email from Cal Poly's insanely-magically-amazing-to-the-point-I-think-she-is-more-angel-than-human DPD coordinator (she is an RD, I told you they are fantastic) to calm me down. It was crystal clear I was not ready for this. And then the angelic DPD coordinator told me it was ok I wasn't ready. In fact she waited a year to apply. I later found out more of my classmates were also waiting. Things were going to be ok.]
So you get into a DI. Check. (I wish I could describe the DI more, but I don't know firsthand. Will definitely look into a guest blogger to share more). You endure a year of classes and many hours working in hospitals and within the community. Next step is a national exam administered by the Commission on Dietetic Registration. Pass test, check. Congratulations, you may now insert the initials RD after your last name and be considered a fantastic human being by my (partial) self. Hmm. I hope I can get to this step one day, I think I am going to need lots of snacks for this...
However that's not to say you have to be an RD to work in the nutrition field. Nope. There are many other positions and possibilities I plan on exploring and sharing. Maybe I could even tell you the various fields RD's can work in. Ahh the possibilities of my baby blog. In the mean time, here are some handy links:
MyPlate (no longer the food pyramid) http://www.choosemyplate.gov/
Cal Poly's curriculum for the Applied Nutrition major http://www.fsn.calpoly.edu/pdfs/Schedule-Planning_Flow_Sheets_2012-13_Catalog_Nutrition/2012-13_Flow_Nutrition_Applied_Concentration.pdf
Plug in a state, find a school with an accredited DI http://www.eatright.org/BecomeanRDorDTR/content.aspx?id=8473&terms=dietetic+internships
Save the Amazon! http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/forests/amazon/
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