PhD Nutrition - Help Needed!!!! URGENT!!

[robhat]

Hi

I have a Masters degree in Food Science from Cornell U. My research interests run into studying the association between diet and diseases and studying food components - phytochemicals, micronutrients for their health beneficial aspects (and translating into real world applications such as fortified foods, micronutrient supplementation trials, functional foods, dietary strategies). I'm in the process of applying and I'm confused like hel!

I have been looking up several Nutrition programs to apply (I want to go to a good program such as Harvard or Cornell, Tufts, etc) .. and majorly I see the 'student profile' with admitted students holding a prior MD degree or a Public Health degree or years of experience in Africa or Bangladesh and it seems more policy oriented and less benchwork. 

I'm utterly confused at what to look at. Am I going in the wrong direction? Should I instead, focus in Food Science only? I realize I'm more Food Science than Nutrition, but then that's just my background talking.
Is my profile not upto it? Do I have to HAVE an MD degree to make it into Harvard for a PhD in Nutrition?

Can someone please help? I wish I would could be less confused at this stage.

Best
Ro

[katethekitcat]

I would suggest contacting schools that have programs you're interested in. Your profile might be a perfect fit at one school but not meet the requirements for another. Tell them what you're looking for and share your background. They can give you a much better answer to whether or not you're qualified, and, again, the answer will be different for each school.

[krm]

I use my food science background (at Cornell currently doing development work) to say that I understand all aspects of food systems and thus getting a clearer idea of how people access and utilize food. It's all about how you write your story. I haven't encountered any PhD Nutrition programs requiring MDs, however, so I'm not sure what you're looking at. Best luck! -K