Is a health sciences degree a waste? (Trying to decide on a school)

[cookderosa]

Let me break down my situation. 101 credits taken towards a degree in biology at my previous school. Now some classes are less than a C so they won't transfer over. Now i have a few career goals in mind. 1)Get master's degree in nutrition and go from there. 2)get a job in Health IT. I can easily get my health IT certificate. 3) and it's a long shot but go to PA school. Now i've been accepted to 2 colleges reasonably priced. First one is UMUC they accepted 65 of my credits and it would be towards a degree in Health Services management. Here's the problem. the reviews weren't good about this school. 3% graduation rate and i have no interest in managing hospitals or anything. Next school is Wilmington University. Good school. I know people who went there and can co sign this school. It's also less expensive but they only accepted 57 credits. This would be a Health Sciences degree. I know to work in nutrition i still have to take the requirements. aka organic chemistry, anatomy and physiology, etc. Maybe i can do it at a community college for a lesser cost.

I can help you with the nutrition part.

To "work in nutrition" you have to either choose a licensed occupation or a non-licensed occupation. Licensed work includes Registered Dietitians (RD), Nutritionists, Licensed Nutritionists, and Nutrition or Dietetic Tech. These are considered "legitimate" nutrition occupations, and are heavily regulated in the United States. EVERYTHING else is non-licensed and exceptionally slippery. There are fringe organizations (for profits) that will sell you credentials, please be careful. In many states it's illegal to use the word (the literal WORD) nutrition in any professional capacity. ACEND, for good or bad, has big teeth and takes pleasure in rooting out people using the credentials they own- in short- they don't want anyone claiming any nutrition knowledge unless they've sanctioned it. I'll leave that discussion for another thread.

If you ever want to work for a doctor, hospital, WIC program, health department, outreach program, college, research university, and others, you need an official licensed credential.

Non-licensed occupations (like me, I'm a chef) have to be thought of as "personal enrichment" and not much more. In other words, I can teach nutrition in a culinary program at a university, I can teach nutrition in a culinary program at a college, I can teach nutritional cooking in any adult education / continuing education program. I can NOT teach nutrition from a nutrition department or biology department.
Interestingly enough, I taught Culinary Nutrition for a long time before earning my master's, so my master's was more of a cherry on top - it wasn't the credential that qualified me for the job if that makes sense. In short, there are no professions I know of where a non-licensed master's in nutrition is the required degree.

I urge you to use caution because the usefulness of a master's in nutrition may be different than you expect.