University of Alabama at Birmingham Nutrition Programs

Department of Nutrition Sciences • Birmingham, Alabama • Online, Hybrid and Campus by program • $471–$744/credit

The University of Alabama at Birmingham offers six Nutrition Sciences credentials:

  • B.S., Nutrition Sciences
  • Undergraduate Certificate, Nutrition and Dietetics
  • M.S., Nutrition Sciences (five tracks)
  • Graduate Certificate, Dietitian Education
  • Graduate Certificate, Nutrition for Community Health
  • Ph.D., Nutrition Sciences

Program Tracks Overview

Program Est. Tuition Est. Duration Credit Hours
B.S. $52.1K res / $129.9K non-res 4 years (8 semesters) 123–125
U.G. Certificate $55.4K res / $138.1K non-res 4 years (8 semesters) 130 with the B.S.
M.S. $22.3K–$43.2K 1–2 years (3–5 semesters) 30–58 by track
Grad Cert, Dietitian Ed. $27.5K 3 semesters added 37
Grad Cert, Community $10.3K res / $25.5K non-res Not clearly stated 16
Ph.D. $46.5K res / $114.9K non-res Not clearly stated 72

UAB sorts applicants into five master’s tracks by the credential they already hold rather than by the career they want. One of those tracks, the 30-credit Clinical Track/Prior Learning Option, exists specifically for people who already finished a dietetic internship and now need the graduate degree that the Commission on Dietetic Registration has required since 2024. Two UAB programs carry ACEND accreditation as Coordinated Programs and lead to RDN exam eligibility; the B.S. does not, and its Nutrition and Dietetics Certificate holds candidacy rather than full accreditation.

Quick Facts

Feature Details
Program Types Bachelor’s, undergraduate certificate, master’s, two graduate certificates, doctorate
Format Online, Hybrid or Campus depending on program; most graduate coursework is online
Credit Hours 16 to 130 depending on credential
ACEND Accreditation Yes, for the DEP track and the Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship. Undergraduate DPD is in candidacy
RD/RDN Eligibility Yes through three graduate routes. No through the B.S., Research Track or LMDP alone
Supervised Practice 1,000 contact hours in the DEP and Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship
Specializations Five M.S. tracks: DEP, Clinical/Dietetic Internship, Clinical/Prior Learning, LMDP, Research
Distinctive Coursework Six-credit Nutritional Biochemistry; two applied statistics courses; obesity and molecular nutrition at doctoral level
Research Requirement Thesis required in the Research Track; two published papers required before the Ph.D. defense
Entrance Exams Not required
Intake Fall only for DEP, Clinical/Dietetic Internship, DEP-C and Research. Three terms for LMDP and Prior Learning
GPA Floor 3.0 graduate, 2.75 undergraduate, with 3.0 maintained in the dietetics tracks
Tuition Graduate online $744/credit flat; graduate campus $646 resident, $1,596 non-resident
Institutional Accreditation Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges
Enrollment Restriction California residents cannot enrolll in UAB online programs
Background Check Criminal background check and drug screen at admission and again before clinical placement

Bachelor of Science in Nutrition Sciences

The estimated in-state tuition for the B.S. in Nutrition Sciences at UAB is approximately $52,100, derived by billing the 42 School of Health Professions credits at $471 and the remaining 81 credits at the $399 Arts and Sciences rate. The program requires 123 to 125 credits and can generally be completed in four years.

B.S. Curriculum

This is a nutrition and wellness degree built on a heavy general science base, not a dietetics degree. Students complete two semesters of general chemistry with labs, organic chemistry, introductory biology, microbiology, human anatomy, human physiology, and an approved statistics course before the upper-level nutrition sequence opens up.

The prerequisite chain is the scheduling constraint. NTR 222 Nutrition and Health gates six later courses, including Lifecycle Nutrition, Nutrition and Metabolism, and Nutrition Assessment. NTR 330 in turn gates Nutrition in Wellness and in Chronic Disease. A student who takes NTR 222 late loses a year, because the chain runs three deep and the courses are not offered every term.

  • NTR 420 Nutritional Genetics, covering gene and environment interaction in food response
  • NTR 421 Nutrition Assessment and the Nutrition Care Process
  • NTR 433 Health and Wellness in the Information Age, an informatics course
  • NTR 450 Translational Research in Nutrition Sciences
  • NTR 444 Nutrition in Wellness and in Chronic Disease
  • NTR 490 Capstone Experience, a group project integrating the major

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know
  • The catalog states the degree total two different ways. The requirements table gives 123 to 125 credits and the four-year plan of study totals 124 to 126. Ask the department which governs your degree audit.
  • A letter grade of C or higher is required in every course in the program curriculum, not just a passing grade.
  • The 2.75 GPA is an admission and a continuation standard. Falling below it gives a student two semesters to recover before dismissal from the major.

B.S. Admissions

  • Applications accepted at any time, with entry at the start of any full academic term
  • 2.75 minimum GPA from high school, or 2.75 overall and institutional GPA for transfers and internal major changes
  • Entering freshmen admitted directly to the major rather than to a pre-nutrition pool
  • No entrance exam requirement stated

Undergraduate Certificate in Nutrition and Dietetics

The estimated in-state tuition for the B.S. carrying the Nutrition and Dietetics Certificate is approximately $55,400, derived on the same split rate applied across 130 credits. The certificate adds 21 credits of dietetics coursework inside a 130-credit degree and is open only to students already majoring in Nutrition Sciences.

This is UAB’s only undergraduate route toward the dietitian credential. It functions as a Didactic Program in Dietetics: graduates receive a verification statement and may then apply to an ACEND-accredited supervised practice program and a graduate program, which together produce CDR exam eligibility. The verification statement alone does not.

You Should Know

  • ACEND has granted this program candidacy accreditation, not full accreditation. Candidacy is a real status that supports verification statements, but it is a stage in the accreditation process rather than its conclusion. Confirm the program’s current standing with ACEND directly before enrolling on the strength of it.
  • Application happens in the spring of sophomore year and requires full-time enrollment of at least 12 credits per semester.
  • No credit is awarded for prior learning experiences, and only courses the UAB transfer team deems equivalent will transfer.

Master of Science in Nutrition Sciences

The estimated tuition for the M.S. in Nutrition Sciences runs from approximately $22,300 for the 30-credit Prior Learning Option to $43,200 for the 58-credit Dietitian Education Program, at the flat $744 online rate. The program requires 30 to 58 credits depending on track and can generally be completed in three to five semesters, or about two years in the thesis-based Research Track.

All five tracks share a 14-credit core: a six-credit Nutritional Biochemistry course, applied statistics, applied research methods, and seminar. Everything else is track-specific, and the track you are eligible for is decided almost entirely by what you have already completed.

M.S. Track Comparison

Track Credits Entry requirement RDN exam eligible
Clinical Track/Prior Learning 30 Verification statement from a completed DI or CP Already eligible
Lifestyle Mgmt & Disease Prevention 36 Five prerequisite science and nutrition courses No, unless DEP-C added
Research Track 37 Science degree preferred; thesis required No
Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship 48 Undergraduate DPD verification statement Yes
Dietitian Education Program 58 Five prerequisites plus six named NTR courses Yes

The Prior Learning Option is the unusual one. It serves practitioners who already completed an internship and hold or can claim the credential, but who now need a master’s degree because CDR has required one for exam eligibility since January 2024. At 30 credits of entirely online required coursework, it is the shortest route on this list, and it is aimed at people already in the profession rather than at new entrants.

M.S. Supervised Practice

  • 1,000 contact hours required in both the DEP track and the Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship, matching the national standard
  • DEP practicum runs across seven courses, NTR 670 to NTR 676, worth 24 credits
  • Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship practicum runs through NTR 589, also 24 credits
  • DEP students may complete practicum in the Birmingham area or remotely in their own location, anywhere in the United States
  • Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship placements are onsite in Birmingham or offsite in Huntsville, Mobile or Montgomery
  • Both dietetics tracks admit through the DICAS portal on a competitive basis, with a February 1 deadline

The placement models differ in a way that decides where you can live. The DEP is location-independent: UAB states that students do not have to relocate to Birmingham, and practicum can be arranged wherever the student already is. The Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship is not, since its four sites are all in Alabama. A student outside Alabama who wants supervised practice at UAB is effectively choosing the DEP, and paying 10 more credits for it.

You Should Know
  • The DEP accepts no transfer credit of any kind. UAB states plainly that courses or supervised practice hours taken elsewhere cannot fulfill DEP requirements because there is no policy to evaluate equivalencies.
  • UAB discourages DEP and DEP-C students from working while enrolled, describing the programs as intensive, accelerated and full-time.
  • Maximum completion time is three years for the DEP and 2.25 years for the DEP-C.
  • A coordinated M.S./M.P.H. is available to Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship students only. UAB’s two catalog pages disagree on how much coursework is shared: the Health Professions record says 3 credits of NTR 589 carry into the M.P.H., while the Public Health record says 12 credits from the nutrition curriculum do. Get the shared-credit count in writing, since it changes both cost and completion time.

M.S. Admissions

Deadlines vary by track rather than sitting on one graduate-school date, and three tracks accept fall entry only.

  • Fall entry only, with a February 1 DICAS deadline, for the DEP and Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship
  • Fall entry with a June 1 deadline for the Research Track; January 5 for the DEP-C supplemental application
  • Fall, spring and summer entry for LMDP and the Prior Learning Option
  • Three evaluation forms required
  • Prerequisites for LMDP and DEP: introductory nutrition, biology, organic chemistry, physiology and microbiology, three credits each, grade C or higher
  • The DEP additionally requires six named undergraduate nutrition courses: NTR 222, 232, 320, 330, 420 and 421
  • No entrance exam requirement stated
You Should Know
  • UAB’s own pages disagree on DEP prerequisites. The graduate catalog and the admissions page describe five prerequisite courses plus, in the catalog, six named NTR courses, while the departmental FAQ describes “the equivalent of a Minor in Nutrition Sciences,” which is 18 credits at UAB. The gap between one introductory course and a full minor is roughly a year of preparation for a career changer. Confirm with the department before assuming you qualify.
  • UAB participates in NC-SARA, but California is not a member state, so California residents cannot be admitted to UAB online programs. A student who relocates to California mid-program should ask what happens to their enrollment.
  • A criminal background check and drug screen are required at admission and again before clinical placement in the tracks that involve it.

Graduate Certificate in Dietitian Education

The estimated tuition for the Dietitian Education Graduate Certificate is approximately $27,500 on its own at the $744 online rate, or about $54,300 for the full 73-credit LMDP and DEP-C sequence. The certificate requires 37 credits, of which 24 are practicum, and adds three semesters to the LMDP track.

The DEP-C exists for one reason: it gives LMDP students, who enter without a dietetics background, a route to RDN exam eligibility. Students become eligible to apply after completing 29 specified LMDP credits, and admission is competitive rather than automatic.

You Should Know

  • This route costs materially more than the direct DEP for the same outcome. LMDP plus DEP-C is 73 credits against the DEP’s 58, a difference of 15 credits, roughly $11,200 at the online rate, and two additional semesters. Both end at the same CDR examination. UAB presents them as two pathways without stating the gap.
  • Admission to the DEP-C is not guaranteed by meeting the minimum requirements, and the cohort begins in the fall only. A student who is not admitted finishes with the LMDP degree and no RDN eligibility.
  • NTR 501, the RDN certification review, carries a non-refundable $550 fee and awards zero credit hours.

Graduate Certificate in Nutrition for Community Health

The estimated tuition for the Graduate Certificate in Nutrition for Community Health is approximately $10,300 in-state or $25,500 non-resident at the campus graduate rate. The certificate requires 16 credits and UAB does not publish a stated completion time.

The certificate is built from three LMDP courses, applied nutrition for physical activity, community interventions, and nutrition counseling, plus six elective credits. It carries no ACEND accreditation and does not lead toward the RDN credential. It suits someone doing community or public health work who wants graduate nutrition coursework without committing to a full master’s.

You Should Know

  • UAB does not state a delivery format for this certificate. Its three required courses are taught online within the LMDP track, which suggests online delivery, but that is an inference rather than a published fact. The tuition estimate above uses campus rates; at the $744 online rate the same 16 credits would cost about $11,900.

Doctor of Philosophy in Nutrition Sciences

The estimated tuition for the Ph.D. in Nutrition Sciences is approximately $46,500 in-state or $114,900 non-resident at the campus graduate rate, before any funding. The program requires 72 credits and UAB does not publish a typical completion time.

Ph.D. Curriculum

The 72 credits break into 36 of required coursework, 12 of electives and 24 of research. The required list is unusually science-heavy for a nutrition doctorate, pairing the six-credit Nutritional Biochemistry course with two semesters of applied statistics, molecular biology, scientific methods and a dedicated obesity course.

  • NTR 747 Molecular Biology and Nutrition Sciences
  • NTR 779 Obesity in the 21st Century
  • NTR 623 Applied Statistics to Nutrition Sciences II
  • NTR 733 Laboratory Instruments and Methods in Nutrition Research
  • NTR 750 Body Composition and Energy Metabolism, an elective option
  • NTR 761 Enhancing Research Productivity Through Intensive Writing, an elective option

Ph.D. Research Requirements

  • 24 research credits, split evenly between non-dissertation and dissertation research
  • Comprehensive written and oral qualifying examination
  • Dissertation defense reporting original research
  • Two manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals before the defense, one with the student as first author
  • Application deadline December 1

The publication requirement is the one to weigh. Many nutrition doctorates expect publication; UAB makes two accepted papers a precondition of defending, which hands part of your timeline to journal review cycles you do not control. That is a strong signal about the department’s research orientation, and it is also the most common reason a funded doctorate runs past its planned length. The department houses two NIH-funded centers, the Nutrition Obesity Research Center and the Diabetes Research Center, which is where the research capacity behind that expectation comes from.

You Should Know
  • The sticker figures above assume a self-funded student. Doctoral students in research departments of this kind are commonly supported by assistantships or training grants that cover tuition and pay a stipend, so the real question is funding availability in your admitting laboratory, not the published rate. Ask what proportion of the current cohort is funded and for how many years.

Tuition

UAB publishes tuition per semester hour, and the rate depends on which school teaches the course and whether it is delivered online. For graduate Nutrition Sciences courses the published 2026–2027 rates are $646 per credit in-state and $1,596 per credit non-resident for campus or blended courses, and a flat $744 per credit for online courses regardless of residency. Undergraduate School of Health Professions courses are $471 in-state and $1,175 non-resident, while Arts and Sciences courses are $399 and $994.

Because the rate follows the course rather than the student, an undergraduate major is billed at two different rates across the degree. The estimates on this page apply the School of Health Professions rate to the 42 NTR and HRP credits and the Arts and Sciences rate to the remaining 81, which is a derivation rather than a published program price.

How the figures were derived

Program Derivation Estimated total
B.S., 123 credits 42 × $471 + 81 × $399 $52,101 in-state
B.S., 123 credits 42 × $1,175 + 81 × $994 $129,864 non-resident
B.S. with certificate, 130 credits 49 × $471 + 81 × $399 $55,398 in-state
M.S., Prior Learning, 30 credits 30 × $744 $22,320 any residency
M.S., LMDP, 36 credits 36 × $744 $26,784 any residency
M.S., Research Track, 37 credits 37 × $646 / $1,596 $23,902 / $59,052
M.S., Dietetic Internship, 48 credits 48 × $744 $35,712 any residency
M.S., DEP, 58 credits 58 × $744 $43,152 any residency
LMDP plus DEP-C, 73 credits 73 × $744 $54,312 any residency
Ph.D., 72 credits 72 × $646 / $1,596 $46,512 / $114,912

Costs confirmed on UAB’s published fee schedule:

  • Graduate application fee $50
  • Seat deposit for the Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship $450, non-refundable but applied to tuition
  • RD exam workshop fee $550, covering NTR 501 and a one-year eatrightPREP subscription
  • Health Professions laboratory fee $50
  • Graduate graduation fee $75
  • Campus dining fee $225 per semester for graduate students in campus housing

Be aware that:

  • Online costs an Alabama resident more, not less. At $744 flat against $646 in-state on campus, a resident pays $98 more per credit to study online, about $5,700 across the 58-credit DEP. A non-resident saves $852 per credit, roughly $49,400 over the same degree. The flat online rate is a large discount for out-of-state students and a small penalty for in-state ones.
  • UAB states that blended and in-person courses are charged at the standard campus rate. The dietetics practicum courses are in-person by nature, so it is not clear whether their 24 credits bill at the online rate or the campus rate. That ambiguity is worth about $2,400 to a resident and moves the non-resident figure far more. Ask the bursar which rate applies to NTR 589 and NTR 670 to 676.
  • The figures above are tuition only. They exclude the mandatory institutional fees UAB itemizes separately, and they are not cost-of-attendance estimates.
  • Rates are the published 2026–2027 schedule and are set by the Board of Trustees, which may revise them at the start of any term.

For a self-funded student the practical reading is that residency barely matters at the master’s level, because the tracks that carry the RDN credential are billed online at one national rate. It matters enormously at the doctoral level, where the non-resident campus rate is nearly two and a half times the resident one, and where an assistantship that converts that rate is worth more than any other variable on this page. Verify current rates on UAB’s detailed tuition and fees page.

Why Choose This Nutrition Program?

Best suited for students who already hold part of the dietetics pathway and need UAB to supply the missing piece rather than the whole thing.

For the internship completer who needs a master’s. The Prior Learning Option is the clearest case. If you finished an ACEND dietetic internship and now need a graduate degree for exam eligibility, 30 credits of online coursework at $22,320 is a targeted fix, not a second education. Samford, the other Birmingham option, routes everyone through its two graduate dietetics programs regardless of what they have already completed.

For the career changer who cannot relocate. The DEP puts the entire coordinated program online except the practicum, and lets the practicum happen wherever the student lives. That combination is rare. It means a 58-credit accredited route to the RDN exam without moving to Birmingham and without entering the separate internship match, which is where most DPD graduates lose time.

For the research-bound student. The thesis-based Research Track and the Ph.D. sit inside a department with two NIH-funded centers and a faculty roster weighted toward metabolism, body composition and obesity. The Research Track is explicitly built to feed the doctorate, and the doctorate’s two-publication requirement tells you what standard applies.

The honest drawbacks. Scheduling is rigid: three of the five master’s tracks admit in the fall only, the dietetics tracks run through a competitive DICAS match with a February deadline, and the DEP accepts no transfer credit whatsoever. UAB also discourages DEP students from working, which makes a 58-credit full-time program a genuine income problem for a career changer. The undergraduate degree is not a dietetics degree, and its certificate route to the DPD is in candidacy rather than fully accredited. Someone who wants a conventional four-year dietetics bachelor’s is not well served here.

Accreditation

UAB is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Institutional accreditation governs the things that apply to every degree at the university: whether credits transfer, whether other graduate schools recognize the degree, and whether students can draw federal financial aid. It applies to all six credentials on this page.

Programmatic accreditation is narrower and is what matters for the dietitian credential. The Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics accredits two UAB programs: the M.S. in Nutrition Sciences, Dietitian Education Program, which ACEND recognizes as a Coordinated Program in Dietetics, and the M.S. in Nutrition Sciences, Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship. The Dietitian Education Graduate Certificate operates under the DEP’s accreditation as its second pathway. The Nutrition Sciences program with the Nutrition and Dietetics Certificate holds candidacy accreditation as a Didactic Program in Dietetics, which is a stage in the process rather than its completion.

Everything else falls outside ACEND’s scope. The Research Track, the Ph.D., the Graduate Certificate in Nutrition for Community Health, and the LMDP track taken without the DEP-C carry no programmatic accreditation. That is normal for research and community nutrition degrees, which are not credentialing programs and are not diminished by the absence. The risk is only that a reader assumes otherwise.

Graduates of the Dietitian Education Program, the DEP-C route and the Clinical Track/Dietetic Internship are eligible to apply to take the Commission on Dietetic Registration examination to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, having completed both the supervised practice and the graduate degree that CDR requires. Graduates of the undergraduate Nutrition and Dietetics Certificate receive a verification statement and may apply to accredited supervised practice programs, which is one step in the pathway rather than the end of it. Board certification does not confer state licensure, and licensure requirements differ by state, so check with the board in the state where you intend to practice.

Nutrition Programs Elsewhere in Alabama