<p>I was looking into going to grad school for toxicology after getting a bachelor's in biology. But I'm thinking about changing my mind to be a dietician. What are the job opportunities and outlook for dieticians as opposed to toxicologists? As a freshman majoring in bio, the most classes I've taken were gen ed requirements so I do have some room to make changes right now. What are both jobs like? Can anyone here talk to me about them?</p>
<p>A dietitian requires a lot of interaction with patients in a clinic or hospital setting. Unless you work in industry working for a food company or consultancy. It also requires state certification to practice. </p>
<p>Toxicology tends to be either a hospital lab or industry lab job where you don’t have any contact with patients. You’ll have more interaction with other lab workers and the doctors who need your expertise. </p>
<p>In both, you could stay in a lower position and become very experienced and knowladgable. You could move into college teaching or management but these two options are very different to lab/client based work. Or if you work in health care you could move to industry and vice versa.</p>
<p>It depends – what is your motive??</p>
<p>What interests you about each field?</p>
<p>If you actually love nutrition, the topic, the idea of talking about people’s diets all the time, the idea of motivating people or working in a hospital calculating pt’s needs then go into nutrition.</p>
<p>If you are more interested in research of what humans can handle or are more academic, toxicology would be good.</p>
<p>If you’re concerned about money, toxicology is where you need to go?</p>
<p>I only recommend nutrition to those who really are into it.</p>
<p>The thing is, I’ve been looking into nutrition on my own time and it seems interesting. The environment of the lab is more appealing however. Thanks for the insight everyone.</p>
<p>There are VERY FEW tox programs in the country…which is why toxicologists don’t have as much trouble finding jobs as all the other life sciences people–there’s simply not over saturation of labor. </p>
<p>You’ll hear about how bad the pharmaceutical industry is for employment–for basic scientists-- because all of that work is done overseas. However, things like toxicology and clinical tox still have to be done here in order to get through the FDA, so tox is a better choice. You can also get employed in many other sectors such as materials, food, environmental, criminal…</p>
<p>Dieticians OTOH, are relatively low paid and the job market is tough. Again, the same story as everyone else. Too many applicants, not enough jobs, depressed wages. There are many more schools of RDs than there are for toxicology.</p>