What it’s about:

Dietetics prepares you to provide for the nutritional needs of people in conditions of both wellness and ill health. Your studies include the basic sciences, nutrition and food science, principles of management, and behavioural and social sciences. Bachelor degree programs prepare you to become a registered dietician (RD), and associate degree programs prepare you to be a dietician technician (DTR).

What the study of this major is like:

All dietetics programs must be approved by the Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education (CADE). To become a registered dietician, you most complete an accredited program and earn at least a four-year Bachelor of Science degree. Your course work includes biochemistry, microbiology, and anatomy, as well as industry-related subjects such as culinary arts, food service systems management, and food and nutrition sciences. In courses like communications, computer science, and sociology, you learn the necessary business skills and “people skills.”

You must also complete a supervised practice program in dietetics (typically 6 to 12 months)-either while you’re in college or afterward-and pass an exam administered nationally by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR). Program that combine your degree work and the practice program are called coordinated programs in dietetics (CPD). Programs that postpone the supervised practice work until after you graduate are called didactic programs in dietetics (DPD). You should choose which program is best for you before you enroll.

If you plan to become a dietician technician, you must complete a CADE-accredited dietetics program while you earn at least a two-year associate degree. You take courses in food and nutrition, food service systems management, and general science, together with at least 450 hours of supervised practice in a health care facility or food service organization. After you graduate, you must pass the CDR’s nationally administered registration examination. If you think you might later want to become and RD, check with the dietician program you are considering to see if it has formal arrangements (known as an articulation agreement) with CPD and DPD programs to accept some or all of your credits. Otherwise, check directly with the CPD or DPD programs you are considering to see if your courses will receive transfer credit.

Course work in the dietetics major includes lecture, labs, individual and group projects, and required practical experience and/or summer internships. In courses with labs, you’ll be kept very busy, so you must organize your time efficiently. Programs may differ in aspects of the curriculum that work best for faculty members. For example, a program in a research-based university ma emphasize science, whereas in a small college, it may stress food service system management. As a result, some programs may be more academically challenging than others, and some may offer opportunities beyond the basic requirements. To find out about a program’s emphasis, look at the catalogs. Faculty members’ areas of expertise will be reflected in the courses they teach.

Sometimes people confuse registered dieticians, dietician technicians, and nutritionists. Although in some states you need to be licensed to call yourself a nutritionist, the definition often varies. In every state, however, only professionals who are certified by the Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) can legally use the titles “registered dietician” and “dietician technician.”

Career options and trends:

Registered dietician (RD) in clinical, administrative, or private practice*; register Eddie titian technician (DTR) working in a school or health care facility*; restaurant manager; extension educator; research dietician, chef; food industry representative.

According to the National Bureau of Labor Statistics, job prospects for dieticians will likely increase, especially in home health care and social services. Employment in hospitals is expected to show little change over the next decade or so because of anticipated slow growth and reduced length of patients’ hospital stays. Faster growth, however, is anticipated in nursing homes, residential care facilities, and physician clinics. Rising public interest in nutrition and obesity disorders will also spur demand.

While job prospects are good for all dietetics majors, the best and most plentiful jobs go to graduates who are RDs.

Source: CollegeBoard 2012 Book of Majors