Overview
The Undergraduate Programs are designed for students interested in (i) Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism, (ii) Molecular Nutrition, (iii) professional study in Dietetics, (iv) Public Health Nutrition, (v) Medicine, (vi) Dentistry, (vii) Nursing and, (viii) Physical Therapy.
The undergraduate majors follow the general education requirements of the College of Arts and Sciences (SAGES) in addition to departmental curriculum. The innovative program, SAGES (Seminar Approach to General Education and Scholarship) requires freshman and sophomore seminar courses on a variety of topics with enrollments of 15-20 students for each seminar focused on critical thinking, analytical, and writing skills. Additionally each student does a Senior Capstone Experience, a research project, within the major department.
Nutrition has developed a junior level required Capstone Seminar where students develop and write the research proposal for the Capstone Experience to be conducted senior year. In the Capstone Seminar, students learn about types of research, ethics in research, how to write a research proposal. It assures quality control regarding the research projects. Capstone Experiences have been conducted in departmental research laboratories as well as with patients in clinical settings. In addition to this required research experience, many students are given Nutrition Department Fellowships which have stipends for the Summer to work with Nutrition faculty on their research project. We also have one undergrad student funded each Summer through Howard Hughes Medical Institute SPUR Program administered by the Department of Biology.
There are approximately 50 undergraduate majors although many more students enroll in nutrition courses as electives. For example, the one semester overview course NTRN 201 (no prerequisites) enrolls about 60 per semester. Most of the undergraduate majors are exceptional individuals. For example, we have had a number of pre-professional scholars in medicine (high school students accepted at CWRU as freshman who are guaranteed admission to medical school) and , others have won awards such as , 2 Fulbright Scholarships awardees (one to Japan, the other to Finland). About 60% of the undergraduate majors pursue a career in medicine or dentistry and occasionally physical therapy; the others a career in nutrition practice as registered dietitians. The accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) can be done simultaneously with the B. S. or B. A. degrees. In January 2003, the DPD received a 10 year accreditation (maximum possible) by the American Dietetic Association Commission on Accreditation for Dietetics Education. Even though we could wait until 2012 for the next accreditation of DPD, we have moved it to Spring 2009 in order to coordinate simultaneous evaluation of DPD and the internship of the M. S. in Public Health Nutrition Program.
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