MS Epidemiology then PhD Nutrition or vice versa?

[~Lemonmacaron]

Hello all (please move if this isn't in the right area),

 

I'm currently a sophomore in undergrad deciding what to do with my career. My biggest interest is in nutrition currently, and I could see myself doing research as part of a team in a teaching hospital or academic department. I'm worried, however, that there aren't many openings available for nutrition researchers (I've tried searching job websites, the NIH, FDA, etc.). I'm thinking that going through an epidemiology program would give me practical training to find a job, but I don't know if it would be possible to specialize in nutritional epidemiology within a general epidemiology program. Many programs I have looked into focus on infection control, epidemics, etc. whereas I'm more interested in studying patterns between nutritional habits and subsequent development or delay of disease.

 

So what I'm thinking of doing so far would be completing a MS program in epidemiology to get the training needed to become an epidemiologist, and then applying to a PhD program in nutrition to obtain more advanced knowledge of nutrition and apply skills from the epidemiology program to do research. I'm hoping this would make me more marketable, as I would prefer to stay in the Midwest if possible. Is this a feasible idea, or would it look strange to have a MS and PhD in two different areas? Or, would it be better to switch the two and do a MS in nutrition then a PhD in epidemiology?

 

Thanks for your help!

[gliaful]

Have you looked into Nutritional Epidemiology PhD programs? For what you want to do, I would think that your primary focus would be in epidemiology. Some epidemiology programs may be especially strong in the subfield of nutritional epidemiology, but I think nutrition programs tend to be tailored toward working as an RD. While you may do research while in a nutrition program, fewer graduates go into research.

[~Lemonmacaron]

So far I have looked into UNC-Chapel Hill, Emory, UW, and UW-Madison for Epidemiology/Nutritional Epidemiology. Out of all these UNC appeals to me the most because it has the most information about post-graduation job opportunities and has the largest nutritional epidemiology course selection. However, I would have to pay out of state tuition and funding is not guaranteed. Madison has a great Nutrition program with guaranteed funding but does not have as many specific epidemiology courses, while UW has a huge selection of epidemiology classes but again does not have guaranteed funding. Does anyone have experience with these schools?

 

I have seen many coordinated Masters/RD programs but I do not know of any PhD/RD programs--only about 3-4% of dietitians have doctoral degrees. I am actually majoring in dietetics right now but I am considering switching to a chemistry major with a biology and nutrition minor to allow more time for research and advanced courses. Most epidemiology programs I have looked at only require a background in biological sciences and 1 semester of calculus. I am more interested in chemistry but could take genetics and microbiology (I already took physiology) to earn enough credit for a biology minor... should that be sufficient?

[gliaful]

Are you sure those other schools don't have funding, or was that information just not posted on their websites? I don't know if epidemiology programs are typically fully funded, but I would hope so.

 

I wouldn't look at the courses as much as I'd look at the structure of the program and the projects/interests of the faculty. There is coursework in grad school but it isn't usually the focus in the sciences.

 

I would say a biology minor, paired with either dietetics or chemistry, would be a sufficient background. I'm not in epidemiology and I've never taken a course in epidemiology, but at my undergrad institution it was listed as a health sciences course. I would think that taking health sciences courses might support your application.

[~Lemonmacaron]

I will definitely start looking at the faculty from these schools and see which ones relate the most to my interests. Thank you so much for your help pasteltomato!!

[nutellarain]

Are you more interested in wet lab work (i.e. studying nutrition in response to disease in animal models) or more bioinformatics approaches? If you are interested in wet lab work and spend sometime investigating the research at various schools, you should definitely be able to find a fully funded biomedical/bioscience program that will have some PI's studying some aspect of nutrition. It seems most schools will have someone working on diabetes + nutrition at the very least. I know you mentioned a lack of job opportunities in nutrition research and while I'm definitely no expert on this, you may have a much easier time getting jobs studying the more basic science aspect of nutrition (At my small institute of 40 labs, there are a handful of PI's working on nutrition related research). 

 

If you want to get more into the bioinformatics or epidemiological approach, a nutritional epidemiology program would probably be a better fit. I also recommend taking a look at general public health PhDs. These programs usually have specialized tracks which may align well with your interests. Honestly, it might be best to pay less attention to the title of the program and search more for PI's whose research aligns with your interests. Coursework is the least important part of your PhD degree. 

[~Lemonmacaron]

Thank you nutellarain for your advice. So far I'm not 100% sure if I want to go the clinical/wet lab route or population-based study route. I like statistics and its applications in public health, so I'm leaning more towards epidemiology programs, but at the same time I still want to help contribute to new research. It seems that most epidemiologists look at previous sets of data and apply statistical methods to make conclusions, rather than create new sets of data from experiments and draw conclusions from them. Do you think that faculty from schools I am interested in applying to would respond well if I asked them questions about their work/research, or should I wait until I actually start applying to grad schools to contact them? Maybe in the mean time I can look for undergrad research programs that focus on both areas.