Nutrition & Fitness - degree advice

[lumina]

What would be the most cost effective path for a 17-year-old who's still in high school but wants to study nutrition and wellness/fitness?

[rachel83az]

Does the 17-year-old know what they actually want to do, what career they want? I would probably start with OnlineDegree and XAMK courses. TESU has both a BALS with a Health & Wellness concentration and a Health & Wellness certiciate that can be obtained in conjunction with another degree. https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/Current/...centration and https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/Current/...d-Wellness The XAMK and OnlineDegree courses in nutrition/wellness might or might not directly apply to the degree/certificate (they will be electives at the very least), but they should at least help give an idea whether this is actually something that the 17-year-old wants to pursue.

[bjcheung77]

That's right, I would get the student to take some courses related to Health/Nutrition/Wellness and see if the interest remains there, we recently were notified of courses from Sophia.org and other ACE providers for Nutrition/Personal Fitness and other related subjects, the student may want to take some of these as free electives towards a BALS, BSLA, or BLS degree at Excelsior, TESU, UMPI.

[lumina]

Does the 17-year-old know what they actually want to do, what career they want? I would probably start with OnlineDegree and XAMK courses. TESU has both a BALS with a Health & Wellness concentration and a Health & Wellness certiciate that can be obtained in conjunction with another degree. https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/Current/...centration and https://tesu.smartcatalogiq.com/Current/...d-Wellness The XAMK and OnlineDegree courses in nutrition/wellness might or might not directly apply to the degree/certificate (they will be electives at the very least), but they should at least help give an idea whether this is actually something that the 17-year-old wants to pursue.

He originally had a degree in nutrition in mind but his ultimate goal is to become a health and fitness coach.
He's already intimidated by the varying state-by-state regulation and licensing requirements and precisely because of that, he wanted to at least build a solid education foundation to later have the freedom to work and live wherever he chooses.

Initially we were thinking of going for the Health Sciences degree at Excelsior, it turned out that it is very challenging to find alternative credits.
Health and Wellness at TESU seems to be the best choice for now. He has already taken a few Xamk courses and will soon start with Sophia.

Did I understand correctly that the undergraduate certificate in health and wellness can only be obtained in conjunction with a degree?

---

That's right, I would get the student to take some courses related to Health/Nutrition/Wellness and see if the interest remains there, we recently were notified of courses from Sophia.org and other ACE providers for Nutrition/Personal Fitness and other related subjects, the student may want to take some of these as free electives towards a BALS, BSLA, or BLS degree at Excelsior, TESU, UMPI.

We came across the Penn Foster's Fitness and Nutrition Certificate program. We know that PF College only has national accreditation but their Career School on the other hand is said to be regionally accredited, what does that mean exactly?


To what extent could a non-degree certification program be useful on its own?

[rachel83az]

The undergrad certificate can be obtained by itself, but it's kind of expensive on its own. If you only do the certificate, it might actually cost in the ballpark of a TESU degree. So, it doesn't make a lot of sense to do the certificate on its own. I would suggest either doing the BALS Health & Wellness or choose a secondary degree that could be used if the fitness coaching doesn't work out for some reason. For instance, BA Biology + Health & Wellness certificate.

[bjcheung77]

We came across the Penn Foster's Fitness and Nutrition Certificate program. We know that PF College only has national accreditation but their Career School on the other hand is said to be regionally accredited, what does that mean exactly?

To what extent could a non-degree certification program be useful on its own?

Penn Foster and Ashworth have multiple divisions, both have NA and RA status, heck, they even have Canadian subsidiaries too...  Career programs are similar to 'high school level' and require specific accreditation/recognition to operate.  These programs are 'secondary school level', geared for entry careers into the workplace not for advanced or higher education such as an Associates or Bachelors level.  If you review DEAC accredited high schools, they'll have similar requirements too.

For your second question, there are multiple ACE/NCCRS options available for Excelsior/TESU BSLA/BALS or UMPI BLS, I would rather not take anything that doesn't provide an option to ladder to the associates or at the bachelors level.  As I mentioned, take something that has ACE credit, here's an example: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ACE-credit

[lumina]

We came across the Penn Foster's Fitness and Nutrition Certificate program. We know that PF College only has national accreditation but their Career School on the other hand is said to be regionally accredited, what does that mean exactly?

To what extent could a non-degree certification program be useful on its own?

Penn Foster and Ashworth have multiple divisions, both have NA and RA status, heck, they even have Canadian subsidiaries too...  Career programs are similar to 'high school level' and require specific accreditation/recognition to operate.  These programs are 'secondary school level', geared for entry careers into the workplace not for advanced or higher education such as an Associates or Bachelors level.  If you review DEAC accredited high schools, they'll have similar requirements too.

For your second question, there are multiple ACE/NCCRS options available for Excelsior/TESU BSLA/BALS or UMPI BLS, I would rather not take anything that doesn't provide an option to ladder to the associates or at the bachelors level.  As I mentioned, take something that has ACE credit, here's an example: https://www.degreeforum.net/mybb/Thread-...ACE-credit

He's very interested in the personal trainer certification (3 LL ACE credits) at the Brookbush Institute, but we haven't found out if there's an age restriction.

---

Since he is an high school student, I figured he could benefit from a dual enrollment program. Pierpoint's dual-credit course is priced at $25/credit-hour.
I'm now trying to find other community colleges that offer dual-enrollment courses in nutrition/sports.

[rachel83az]

See if you can find a 4-year school (one with Bachelor's degrees) that offers duel-enrollment (some do, though it is admittedly usually CCs) with UL nutrition/sports credits available. Even just a couple of UL classes would make it possible to a cheaper TESU degree in the future.

[lumina]

Just wanting to be sure nothing has changed at TESU so far and 24 RA-equivalent foreign credits will still count toward the required RA credits, right?

[rachel83az]

Yes. Foreign credits that have been evaluated as being equivalent to 24 (or more) RA credits works at TESU. This may mean needing about 2x as much ECTS.