The University of New England offers four nutrition credentials:
- B.S., Nutrition (campus, Biddeford)
- M.S., Applied Nutrition (online)
- M.S., Applied Nutrition, Dietetics focus (online coursework with supervised practice)
- M.S., Applied Nutrition, RDN to MSAN pathway (online)
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.S., Nutrition | $192.2K | 4 years (8 semesters) | 120 |
| M.S., Applied Nutrition | $34.3K | 2 years (6 semesters) | 36 |
| MSAN, Dietetics focus | $48.4K $56.4K without a DPD | 2 years (6 semesters) | 48 |
| RDN to MSAN | $25.5K | 16 months (4 semesters) | 27 |
UNE runs two nutrition operations that barely touch each other. The campus bachelor’s sits in the Westbrook College of Health Professions and carries no dietetics accreditation. The graduate programs sit in UNE Online and include an ACEND-accredited dietetics degree that admits people with any bachelor’s degree at all. A UNE nutrition graduate applies to UNE’s own dietetics master’s through the same door as a stranger with a history degree.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | B.S. and three master’s tracks |
| Format | B.S. campus; MSAN and RDN to MSAN online; Dietetics focus hybrid |
| Credit Hours | 120 (B.S.), 36 (MSAN), 48 (Dietetics), 27 (RDN to MSAN) |
| ACEND Accreditation | Yes, the MSAN Dietetics focus only. The B.S. is not a DPD. |
| RD/RDN Eligibility | Through the Dietetics focus only |
| Supervised Practice | 1,050 SEL hours, built into the Dietetics curriculum |
| Separate Internship | Not required. SEL runs alongside coursework. |
| Placement Model | Students secure their own SEL sites and preceptors |
| Specializations | Four MSAN focus areas, including an individualized option |
| Prior Nutrition Coursework | Not required for the Dietetics focus; three pre-dietetics courses fill the gap |
| Entrance Exams | No GRE for any program |
| Graduate Tuition | $895 per credit, identical for every student |
| Residency Discount | None. UNE is private and charges one rate. |
| Term Length | Eight-week online terms, multiple start dates per year |
| Institutional Accreditation | New England Commission of Higher Education |
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition
The estimated tuition for the B.S. in Nutrition at the University of New England is approximately $192,160 over four years (annual tuition of $45,960 plus the $2,080 General Service Fee, held at 2026-27 rates; figures derived, see Tuition). The program requires a minimum of 120 credits and is completed in four years on the Biddeford campus.
The school describes this as a broad generalist degree in nutrition science. It is not a Didactic Program in Dietetics, and it does not lead to RDN eligibility.
B.S. Curriculum
The catalog lists 40 credits of Nor’easter Core and 90 credits of program-required coursework. Those two figures sum to 130 against a 120-credit minimum, which the catalog resolves by noting that some courses satisfy both. Roughly 22 credits carry a dual designation, leaving about 12 credits of genuinely open electives.
Experiential learning comes through two practicum courses and two laboratory courses rather than a clinical placement.
- NUTR 420 Community Nutrition Education and OS 424 Health Education: Theory to Practice, each carrying a 45-hour community practicum
- NUTR 200 Food Science Concepts and Food Safety, a laboratory course
- NUTR 238 Fundamentals of Healthy Cooking, a laboratory course
- NUTR 350 Nutritional Biochemistry and NUTR 400 Medical Nutrition Therapy
- NUTR 342 Food Systems and Public Health, NUTR 410 Nutrition Across the Seven Continents
- BIO 208 and BIO 209 Anatomy and Physiology 1 and 2, both with labs
- PUB 200, PUB 205 Principles of Epidemiology, and PUB 305 Research Methods
- EXS 322 Bioenergetics and Metabolism, SOC 275 Sociology of Food and Health
You Should Know
- The catalog’s prose and its own course table disagree on two course titles. The narrative calls them Theories of Health Education and Designing and Supporting Healthy Communities; the table lists Health Education: Theory to Practice and Community Nutrition Education. The course numbers match, so this reads as an editing lag rather than a curriculum change.
- Grade floors are stricter than the university minimum and carry a hard stop. A C- is required in MAT 120/150, CHE 130, BIO 104, BIO 208, and BIO 209, and those math and science courses may be attempted only twice. A second failure means dismissal from the program, not probation.
- A grade of C or better is required in every NUTR and PUB course, under the same two-strike rule.
- The 90 hours of practicum here are community and education placements. They are not supervised practice hours and do not count toward any dietetics credential.
- The catalog page reviewed carries a notice that it is not the current edition. Confirm the 2026-27 requirements with the department before planning a sequence.
B.S. Admissions
- High school preparation in biology, chemistry, and physics, plus three years of mathematics through Algebra II
- Applications submitted in the fall of the year before matriculation; later applicants are admitted on a space-available basis
- Internal transfers from another UNE major need a 2.5 GPA, a change of major form, and a conversation with program faculty
- The Admissions Committee reviews internal transfers at the close of each semester
- No standardized test requirement is published for this program
You Should Know
Students planning on graduate dietetics study are told to consult an advisor about electives and sequencing to pick up prerequisites. That instruction is the tell: the major does not carry the dietetics prerequisites by default, so a student who wants the RDN route needs to plan for it deliberately from early on.
Master of Science in Applied Nutrition
The estimated cost for the M.S. in Applied Nutrition is approximately $34,290 (36 credits at $895 per credit, which the school publishes as $32,220 in tuition, plus the General Service Fee across six semesters; figures derived). The program requires 36 credits, runs fully online, and can be completed in as few as two years.
This degree does not lead to RDN eligibility and the school says so plainly. It is aimed at people building nutrition expertise for education, wellness, public health, or industry roles, and at RDNs who want a master’s without the dietetics coursework.
MSAN Curriculum
Twelve three-credit courses make up the degree, delivered in eight-week terms. Students either build an individualized plan or follow one of the named focus areas, each of which comes with recommended courses.
- Non-Diet Approaches to Health Promotion, covering the cultural, environmental, psychological, physical, genetic, and economic drivers of overweight and obesity
- Nutrition and Disease Prevention
- Sustainable Nutrition, with an emphasis on nutrition policy and local and global food systems
- Individualized, in which students select across the full nutrition curriculum
- APN 610 Research Methods and APN 775 Advanced Nutrition Research
- APN 620 Nutrition Education and Health Behavior Change, covering motivational interviewing and counseling design
- APN 755 Applied Nutrition Capstone, a project or paper on a topic approved by a faculty mentor
More detail is on the program page.
You Should Know
- UNE’s own materials are inconsistent about how many focus areas exist. One page states four optional focus areas and three optional focus areas in the same document. Four are named across UNE sources.
- At least one focus-area course requires departmental permission to register rather than being openly available.
- Students taking one course per eight-week session count as full time for financial aid purposes, which matters for loan eligibility at a low credit load.
MSAN Admissions
- Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution
- No GRE
- Free online application
- Resume and a goal statement
- Official transcripts showing conferral
- Multiple start dates each year
MSAN, Dietetics Focus
The estimated cost for the MSAN Dietetics focus is approximately $48,370 for a student who already holds a DPD verification statement, and approximately $56,425 for a student entering without one (48 credits at $895, which the school publishes as $42,960 in tuition, plus twelve $260 lab fees, the General Service Fee, malpractice insurance, and Academy dues; the higher figure adds three required pre-dietetics courses; figures derived). The program requires 48 credits plus 1,050 supervised experiential learning hours.
This is the accredited one. It is an ACEND Future Education Model graduate program, which means the supervised practice is built into the degree and no separate dietetic internship application is needed.
Dietetics Curriculum
The structure is unusual and worth understanding before comparing costs with anywhere else. Every three-credit didactic course is paired with a one-credit lab, and the lab is where the SEL hours happen. Twelve didactic courses at three credits plus twelve labs at one credit is exactly 48.
- APN 730 Medical Nutrition Therapy and APN 785 Nutrition Assessment and Application in a Clinical Setting, which uses the Nutrition Focused Physical Exam approach
- APN 780 Food and Nutrition Operations Management
- APN 734 Nutrition Leadership, Community Nutrition and Wellness
- APN 760 Micronutrients, Nutrition and Functional Applications
- APN 615 Nutrition and Metabolism, APN 604 Nutrition Across the Lifespan
- APN 775 Advanced Nutrition Research and APN 755 Applied Nutrition Capstone, both 16-week courses
- A free SEL-Prep course covering medical terminology and clinical resources before placement begins
Clinical nutrition and food service management SEL come in the first year, community nutrition in the second. Full details are on the program page.
You Should Know
- Students find and secure their own SEL sites and preceptors. UNE supplies guidance, a prep course, and field coordinators, but the placement is the student’s responsibility, and first-year SEL hours must be approved and secured before the program will admit them.
- The three pre-dietetics courses are described as included in the degree plan, but the published 48 credits are entirely accounted for by the twelve didactic courses and twelve labs. A student without a DPD verification statement should expect those nine credits, roughly $8,055, on top of the advertised $42,960.
- The time commitment is not part time in practice. Students report 20 to 25 hours a week on coursework, and during six of the eight weeks of every lab they spend a further 15 hours a week at their SEL site.
- UNE markets the program as 100% online. The coursework is. The 1,050 SEL hours are in person at a site the student arranges locally, which is why this page classifies it as hybrid.
- Two UNE pages disagree on length: one says two years and describes a 24-month program, another says two years and four months. The credit arithmetic supports 24 months at eight credits a semester including summers.
Dietetics Admissions
Admission runs through one of two pathways, and which one applies is the single biggest cost variable in this program.
- Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution in any field; near-completers may be conditionally accepted
- Pathway A: a B- or better in the three MSAN pre-dietetics courses, Applied Anatomy and Physiology, Applied Nutritional Biochemistry, and Foundations of Nutrition Care and Medical Nutrition Therapy, or comparable transfer coursework
- Pathway B: a verification statement from a U.S. ACEND-accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- Under either pathway, all first-year SEL hours and SEL preparation must be approved and secured before admission
- No GRE; GPA reviewed holistically rather than against a published floor
- Resume, official transcripts, and four goal-statement essays of 250 to 350 words each
- Decisions typically within two weeks of a complete application
You Should Know
- If pre-dietetics coursework or a verification statement is more than five years old, UNE strongly encourages taking the three pre-dietetics courses regardless. An RDN-track career changer returning after a long gap should budget for them.
- Transfer credit requires an official transcript, a syllabus, and a transfer credit form, and is granted at the program director’s discretion for work completed within five years.
- A UNE B.S. in Nutrition does not produce a verification statement, so its graduates enter through Pathway A. Whether their undergraduate biochemistry, anatomy, and medical nutrition therapy courses substitute for the pre-dietetics requirement is a case-by-case transfer decision, not an automatic waiver.
RDN to MSAN Pathway
The estimated cost for the RDN to MSAN pathway is approximately $25,545 (27 credits at $895 per credit plus the General Service Fee across four semesters; figures derived). The program requires 27 credits, runs fully online, and can be completed in as little as 16 months.
This exists because of a credentialing change rather than a curricular one. Since January 2024 the Commission on Dietetic Registration has required a graduate degree to sit for the RDN exam, which left practicing dietitians credentialed under the old bachelor’s rule wanting a master’s without repeating dietetics content.
RDN to MSAN Curriculum
- 27 credits rather than 36, recognizing existing RDN competencies
- Core coursework in applied nutrition, research, health promotion, and systems-level practice
- Electives aligned to the same focus areas offered in the full MSAN
- Up to 405 continuing professional education units can be earned while completing the degree
- Multiple start dates each year
You Should Know
The nine-credit reduction against the standard MSAN saves roughly $8,055 and about eight months. The trade-off is that the pathway assumes an active RDN credential, so it is closed to anyone still working toward registration and cannot be used as a cheaper route into the field.
Tuition
The University of New England is private, so there is no in-state rate. Every student pays the same, and the two levels are priced very differently: undergraduate tuition for 2026-27 is $45,960 a year for a full-time load of 12 to 18 credits, while every online graduate nutrition program is billed at $895 per credit.
That gap is the defining fact about cost here. Four years of the bachelor’s runs roughly $192,200 in tuition and fees. The ACEND-accredited master’s that actually produces a dietitian runs roughly $48,400. The credential that leads somewhere costs about a quarter of the one that does not.
Fee stack
| Charge | Rate | Applies to |
|---|---|---|
| General Service Fee, undergraduate | $1,040 per semester | Enrollment of 7 or more credits |
| General Service Fee, online graduate | $345 per semester | All online graduate programs |
| Lab fee | $260 per lab, 12 labs | Dietetics focus only |
| Malpractice insurance | $50 per year | Dietetics focus only |
| Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics dues | $60 per year | Dietetics focus only |
| Undergraduate part-time rate | $1,625 per credit | Loads below 12 credits |
| Application fee | None | Online graduate programs |
The lab fee count is a useful cross-check. Twelve lab fees at $260 matches the twelve one-credit lab courses in the published dietetics curriculum exactly, which confirms the fee schedule and the course list describe the same program.
Estimated program costs
| Program | Tuition | With mandatory fees |
|---|---|---|
| B.S., Nutrition, 4 years | $183,840 | $192,160 |
| M.S., Applied Nutrition, 36 credits | $32,220 | $34,290 |
| MSAN Dietetics, 48 credits, with a DPD | $42,960 | $48,370 |
| MSAN Dietetics, without a DPD | $51,015 | $56,425 |
| RDN to MSAN, 27 credits | $24,165 | $25,545 |
Figures are derived by multiplying published per-credit or annual rates by published credit totals and adding the mandatory fees above. They exclude housing, books, health insurance, and travel to SEL sites.
Confirmed costs
- $45,960 undergraduate tuition and $2,080 General Service Fee for 2026-27, published by Student Financial Services
- $895 per credit for all online graduate nutrition programs
- $32,220 total MSAN tuition and $42,960 total Dietetics tuition, both published by the program
- Published undergraduate direct costs of $67,440 a year including room and board, and a full cost of attendance of $71,640
- Undergraduate health insurance of $3,907 a year unless waived with proof of comparable coverage
- Living expense allowances for online graduate students of $1,000 a month for the MSAN and $1,850 a month for the Dietetics focus
Be aware that:
- The single largest hidden cost is the pre-dietetics requirement. UNE describes the three foundational courses as included in the degree plan, but the 48 published credits are fully consumed by twelve didactic courses and twelve labs. A career changer without a DPD should plan on nine additional credits, about $8,055.
- The school states it typically raises rates 2 to 4 percent a year. A four-year bachelor’s total computed at today’s rate will understate the real bill by several thousand dollars.
- The advertised undergraduate cost of attendance bundles room, board, books, and transportation. Those are living costs, not program costs, and they are why third-party sites quote wildly different numbers for this school.
- Travel to SEL sites is a real and unbudgeted cost. UNE notes some sites may require travel, and because students arrange their own placements, the distance is not known until the placement is.
- Half-time enrollment for online graduate aid is 3 to 5 credits a semester and full time is 6 or more. Below 3 credits a semester there is no federal aid at all.
- 98 percent of undergraduates receive some financial assistance and the school reports an average total aid package of $37,000, so the sticker price is not what most undergraduates pay. No comparable discount rate is published for the online graduate programs.
Why Choose This Nutrition Program?
The right answer depends entirely on which of two unrelated programs is being considered, so it is worth separating them.
For someone who wants to become a dietitian, the Dietetics focus is a strong and unusual option. It removes the step that derails the most people. In the conventional route a student completes an accredited undergraduate program, then applies separately to a supervised practice program and competes for a limited number of seats. Here the practice hours are inside the degree, so admission to the program is admission to the whole pathway. It also accepts any bachelor’s degree, builds the missing science into the plan of study, requires no GRE, and needs no relocation. At roughly $48,400 with a DPD or $56,400 without one, it is priced well below what a bachelor’s plus a separate internship typically costs.
For someone who wants nutrition knowledge without the clinical credential, the MSAN is honest about what it is. Four focus areas, 36 credits, roughly $34,300, no pretense that it produces an RDN. The RDN to MSAN pathway is narrower still and solves one specific problem well: a practicing dietitian credentialed before the 2024 graduate-degree requirement can close that gap in 16 months for about $25,500 while banking up to 405 continuing education units.
The campus bachelor’s is the one that needs the hardest look. It is a generalist degree, not a DPD, and it costs roughly $192,200 over four years before housing. It does not confer a verification statement, so its graduates enter UNE’s own dietetics master’s through the same pathway as applicants with unrelated degrees. For a student who already knows they want the RDN, the arithmetic points toward a cheaper accredited undergraduate program elsewhere, or toward any bachelor’s at all followed by the Dietetics focus here.
Two drawbacks apply across the graduate programs. The first is self-placement: students find their own SEL sites and preceptors, and first-year hours must be secured before admission. UNE provides coordinators, a prep course, and a guide, but the work and the risk sit with the student, and in a rural or saturated area that is a real obstacle. The second is intensity. Twenty to twenty-five hours a week of coursework plus fifteen hours a week on site during most lab weeks is close to a second job, and the flexible online framing can obscure that.
Accreditation
The University of New England is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. That institutional accreditation covers every program on this page and governs credit transfer, recognition for further graduate study, and federal financial aid eligibility.
Programmatic accreditation covers exactly one program. The Master of Science in Applied Nutrition, Dietetics focus, holds full accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics as a Future Education Model graduate program. That model is what allows supervised experiential learning to sit inside the degree rather than in a separate internship, and it is why graduates of this program receive a verification statement on completion.
Nothing else here carries ACEND accreditation. The campus B.S. in Nutrition is not a Didactic Program in Dietetics, and neither the standard MSAN nor the RDN to MSAN pathway is an accredited dietetics program. For the MSAN this is by design, since it is aimed at people who are not seeking the clinical credential. For the bachelor’s it is the fact most likely to be misread, because a nutrition degree from a health professions college looks like a dietetics degree and is not one.
Graduates of the Dietetics focus are eligible to apply to sit for the Commission on Dietetic Registration credentialing examination once all program requirements are met. Since January 2024, CDR has required a graduate degree for exam eligibility, which is the requirement this program is built around. Most states additionally require licensure or certification to practice, and completing an accredited program does not by itself satisfy any state’s licensing rules. Applicants should confirm requirements with their own state board. Graduates of the B.S., the standard MSAN, and the RDN to MSAN pathway are not eligible for the CDR examination on the basis of those credentials alone.