I’m a senior and quite interested in those two areas. However, schools provide these majors are usually in large size,
and I prefer smaller schools. I find Cornell kind of fits my expectation. What are other schools that are qualified?
I also think about majoring in biology/chemistry in a liberal art school and waiting until graduate to major in my interests in a large school. Is that a good idea? Should I go straight to the major?
I’ll go pretty far here in saying that nutritional science is probably not what it appears to be, even to those extensively educated in the field. So, in addition to preparation in foundational science courses (chemistry, biology, biochemistry), I’d suggest you study the relationship between cultures and their environments across both time and space (think anthropology, philosophy, religious studies). A liberal arts college, then, could be an excellent choice for their offerings in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. You could then specialize in graduate school in a field that would be suitable in terms of your career goals.
With respect to larger schools, the mentioned Cornell could be good, as might Tufts. As at an LAC, you could choose to study widely at a school of this type as well.
Long ago, my dad majored in dairy science at Cornell (because it was free tuition). He became a food technologist. Food technology could be an interesting field to look into; I bring it up because few have heard of it.
Food science programs, even in big schools, are TINY. Most programs, even for big 10 schools, are well under 100 undergrads total. For food science, you probably should consider the accredited programs. IFT has a list on their website of all accredited programs int he country.
Try the search on college navigator. It is a federal website. You can add filters. But just looking at food science major and no other filters 60 colleges popped up. When I added bachelor degree filter it went down to 46 ish. Food science is under agriculture.
Here is link: https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/
Also, on the college navigator website you can see how many food science bachelor degrees were awarded in the listed year. Along with associates, masters, doctorate, 1-yr certifications.
Not a small school, but UC Davis is supposed to have a good food science & technology program. http://foodscience.ucdavis.edu
Cornell would be great if you can attend. Otherwise, if you want a small school, I agree with @merc81, study biology or chem at undergrad at a good LAC (tons of options) and then focus on food science in graduate school.