Second Year Informational Interview (Academic Enrichment)

At the beginning of this year I prepared myself to apply to The Ohio State University’s Dietetics program, and in order to do so set up a meeting with Danielle Musick to talk to her about the requirements for the program and about my options within the career as a whole. The interview went well (this wasn’t the first time I’ve spoken with her about this, and as always she was amazingly helpful) and I learned a lot about my chosen education/career path.

I don’t have a transcript word for word about what we spoke about, but I did take notes and she really helped me decide what I wanted to do with a bachelors in dietetics, that is nothing. I changed my major to Public Health and while I may later decide to get my masters in Dietetics and get certified through a didactic program and internship but for now? NOPE. That sounds really horrible but I promise I’m happy with my choice and Danielle in no way scared me off from the major. In fact, Danielle encouraged me to try a different approach to a path that was slowly wearing me down and gave me the tools to make a decision. According to her the didactic program (which is what gets a dietitian certified) can be taken with a bachelors, or with a masters. And since the Dietetics requirements are soon going to be changing to requiring a masters degree that really works in my favor if I decide to do it that way. She also explained why the program is so exclusive and the requirements are so strenuous, mostly because the career itself is very competitive and that OSU wants to make sure its students are able to get good internships. Which is especially important as I’ve just learned that some internships actually cost the interns themselves. (Another reason I’m unsure about majoring in Dietetics). She also recommended I take the Human Nutrition Careers class which has different speakers from within the career come in every week to talk about their jobs, how they got there,  and to connect with us. This was actually one of the major reasons I decided to change my major, so I’m really glad to have taken it. I had this idea of what being a Dietitian was and since taking this class its really opened my eyes to the fact that its not what I want at all. I don’t really like the idea of working in a clinical setting, and while not all dietitians work in such settings the majority seem to. At the moment its clear that Dietetics isn’t for me, and while I may decide later to go through with getting certified at the moment I’m more focused on getting a degree that is useful but more importantly something that I KNOW I would enjoy and be successful in. I’m so grateful for Danielle and her input! Without her help I would probably still be stressing myself out over a career choice I was unsure of and killing myself in classes I don’t understand.