Gulf Coast State College Nutrition Programs

Gulf Coast State College offers 1 nutrition-related credential:

  • Associate in Arts, Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Science Option (Liberal Arts AA)

This is a transfer degree, not a dietetics credential. It carries no ACEND accreditation, does not lead to RD eligibility on its own, and is not designed to. Its purpose is to complete general education and science prerequisites at community-college tuition rates before transferring into a four-year accredited program elsewhere in Florida.

Program Overview

ProgramEst. Tuition (In-State / Out-of-State)Est. DurationCredit Hours
A.A., Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Science Option~$5,925 / ~$21,583 total (derived)2 years60

Gulf Coast’s defining fact is straightforward: this is the least expensive way to complete a dietetics program’s prerequisite science sequence in Florida, at a state-college tuition rate roughly one-fifth of the four-year universities’ per-credit rates. It is not, and does not claim to be, a path to the RD credential by itself.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesAssociate in Arts (transfer degree), Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Science option within the Liberal Arts AA
FormatCampus, Panama City
Credit Hours60
ACEND AccreditationNone. This is a transfer associate degree, not a dietetics program.
RD/RDN EligibilityNo, not on its own. It supplies general education and science prerequisites that a subsequent bachelor’s-level DPD requires.
Supervised PracticeNot applicable
SpecializationsNone; this is a general education and prerequisite package, not a specialized curriculum
Distinctive CourseworkFull Anatomy & Physiology I and II sequence with labs, General and Qualitative Analysis Chemistry with labs, Microbiology with lab, alongside Statistics and College Algebra
Research RequirementNot applicable
Entrance ExamsNot stated
IntakeNot restricted; standard community-college admission and registration cycles
GPA FloorNot stated for this option specifically beyond standard college admission
Tuition$98.75/credit (published, in-state, AA level); see Tuition section
Institutional AccreditationSACSCOC

A.A., Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Science Option

The estimated tuition for this A.A. option at Gulf Coast is approximately $5,925 in-state and $21,583 non-resident (60 credits at Gulf Coast’s published per-credit rate; derived, see Tuition). The program requires 60 credit hours and typically takes 2 years.

This is a concentration option within Gulf Coast’s Liberal Arts Associate in Arts degree, built around the Florida statewide common-prerequisites manual rather than a dietetics-specific curriculum. The college itself frames the outcome as preparation to “continue their studies in nutrition, food, and exercise science at a four-year institution,” not as a standalone credential.

Curriculum

The 60-credit checklist is dominated by general education (30 credits across Communications, Humanities, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, and Social Sciences) and a 21-credit block of “additional common prerequisites” that maps closely onto what Florida’s four-year accredited DPD programs require for admission.

  • HUN 1201: Nutrition Principles
  • BSC 2085 / BSC 2085L and BSC 2086 / BSC 2086L: Human Anatomy and Physiology I & II, with labs
  • CHM 1045 / 1045L and CHM 1046 / 1046L: General Chemistry and General Chemistry with Qualitative Analysis, with labs
  • MCB 2004 / 2004L: Microbiology with lab
  • STA 2023: Statistics
  • MAC 1105: College Algebra

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know

None of Florida’s four-year accredited DPD programs profiled on this site requires this specific A.A. option as a prerequisite; they accept transfer credit from the underlying courses regardless of which associate-degree option a student completed. Choosing this specific option over Gulf Coast’s general A.A. mainly signals intent and groups the right science sequence together, rather than unlocking guaranteed admission somewhere. Confirm your intended university’s exact prerequisite list before assuming every course here transfers as a direct equivalent.

Tuition

Gulf Coast publishes a genuinely linear per-credit rate for AA-level coursework: $98.75 per credit in-state, $359.71 per credit non-resident. Gulf Coast advertises this as the lowest tuition and fees among Florida’s 40 public colleges and universities for residents.

Gulf Coast’s own published cost comparison (30 credit hours, tuition and fees only) shows the gap directly: $2,963 at Gulf Coast against $6,467 at FSU, $6,380 at UF, and $6,369 at UCF for the same course load.

Be aware that:

  • The 60-credit total above is tuition only. Books, supplies, and any lab fees are additional and were not itemized on the pages reviewed.
  • Gulf Coast’s published rate is for associate-level coursework. Its bachelor’s-level courses (for programs outside this associate pathway) bill at a separate, higher $117.59/credit in-state rate.
  • Rates cited here come from Gulf Coast’s own Tuition & Fees page. Verify current rates before enrolling.

The value case for this degree is entirely about the first two years’ cost, not about any credential it confers on its own. A student who completes it and transfers cleanly saves roughly $10,000–$18,000 in tuition and fees over the same two years at a four-year university, based on Gulf Coast’s own comparison figures.

Why Choose This Program?

Best suited for students who know they want a dietetics degree eventually but want to complete the expensive science prerequisites at the lowest possible cost first.

Choose this option if cost is the dominant factor in your first two years. The core value is arithmetic: the same anatomy, chemistry, and microbiology sequence costs a fraction of what it would at any Florida university, with no difference in the credit itself once transferred.

The honest limit: this is general education and prerequisite coursework, not a dietetics curriculum, and it confers no professional standing by itself. A student must still be admitted to and complete one of Florida’s accredited four-year DPD programs afterward. Plan the transfer destination early, since some universities gate their own DPD admission competitively regardless of a clean associate-degree transcript.

Accreditation

Gulf Coast State College is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), which governs the college’s authority to award degrees, the transferability of its credits, and eligibility for federal financial aid.

This associate degree carries no programmatic accreditation from the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND), and none is expected: ACEND accredits didactic and supervised-practice dietetics programs, not general-education transfer associate degrees. A graduate of this program is not RD-eligible, is not eligible for the NDTR technician exam, and has completed no dietetics-specific coursework beyond one introductory nutrition course. The credential value here is entirely in the transfer credit and the cost savings, not in any accreditation status of its own.

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