That’s entirely my point.
usually trying to teach a loved one is an enterprise doomed to failure. The student tends to blame themselves 1,000 more than when the teacher is a stranger, and more powerfully internalize difficulties… And even if you are a great teacher NOW that says nothing about the job you did THEN and whether it had any chance of success to begin with.
Meh, I did a good job. I helped her get to a place she thought was impossible for her, that past failures had taught her could never happen for her. I shouldn’t distract the thread with this topic but I admit there’s some ego poking through here. And it was a formative experience for me as well as her–it’s basically the event that led me to think teaching was a good thing for me to do. So I feel compelled to say something in my/our defense here. But I’ll leave it at that, because enough about me.
While you’re right that it wouldn’t make sense to base current decisions on these twenty year old events, you probably also understand (assuming you’re not making the mistake of thinking you know all there is to know from a few brief comments on a discussion forum thread!) that that’s not at all the entirety–or even a large fraction–of what she is basing her deliberations on.
Fwiw, none of the nutrition majors I know are working as dietitians or even nutrition. One is an administrative assistant. Another is a nanny. Another is back in school for nursing. From what I understand is that due to the limited number of positions available, it’s actually pretty competitive. Even if awareness increasing it doesn’t seem to necessarily mean organizations need to hire more nutritionists.
I’m a Nutrition Science major at NCSU. I have 4 chemistry courses in my degree progress: Chem 101, Organic I and II and Biochem, all with requisite labs. It’s not math intensive, but it is extremely memory intensive. I really struggled with Orgo I, although I did manage to get a B, and I still have to take Orgo II and Biochem. I am really really really dreading both. BUT, I have really enjoyed the other courses in the degree path and I really look forward to finishing. I felt like there would be sufficient prospects in the field in the coming years to choose it as my major. BTW, I’m 42 and my advisor told me that I’ll have a significant advantage over the younger graduates because I’ll give the impression that I have more experience, especially getting into a Master’s program which is very competitive right now.
As a genuine math-phobic, I can say it really is different as a motivated adult.
I spent much of high school in tears over my algebra homework. I squeaked through my last math requirement in Junior year, and never looked back. Indeed, part of the reason I didn’t consider grad school was fear of the GRE.
Eventually I found I really wanted to go to grad school, and what’s more, I wanted to go to a good one. I needed to clear at least a medium high score.
I bought a few books, and spent the next few months re-learning all the math that I never really learned to begin with. It was about two hours of study a day, and I seriously did have to start with long division, but I did it. My scores were fine, and I did fine in the math classes in my program. Now I am considering a program that requires multi-variable calculus, so I am going to wok through that for a year or so.