Eight Florida institutions offer nutrition or dietetics coursework, spanning two-year transfer degrees through the master’s. In-state tuition at the public universities is close to identical — roughly $6,400 a year across UF, FSU, FIU, and UNF — while non-resident rates range from about $20.2K at FIU to $30.9K at UF. UF Online charges about $3.9K in state.
Florida has only five fully ACEND-accredited didactic programs, so the choice is narrower than the number of nutrition degrees suggests. Five accredited universities appear below — four public, one private — and all five also run or coordinate their own supervised practice. Florida requires a state licence to practise, which sits on top of the national credential.
Nutrition Programs in Florida — Comparison Table
| School | Credentials | Est. Cost | Format | RD Pathway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Florida International University Miami |
BS Dietetics and Nutrition — accredited DPD through 2032 Coordinated Program Dietetic internship — fully accredited |
$6,561 in-state $20,200 out-of-state |
Campus in Miami | Yes — didactic, coordinated, and internship all in one department |
| University of Florida Gainesville |
BS Dietetics — accredited DPD MS Food Science and Human Nutrition MS Dietetic Internship — accredited, 33 credits |
$6,381 in-state $30,886 out-of-state $3,875 UF Online in-state |
Campus in Gainesville; online undergraduate options | Yes — didactic plus an accredited master’s with internship |
| Florida State University Tallahassee |
BS Dietetics — accredited DPD MS Nutrition and Food Science — nutrition science or food science Dietetic internship — can run concurrently with the MS |
$6,507 in-state $23,190 out-of-state |
Campus in Tallahassee | Yes — internship can be completed alongside the master’s |
| University of North Florida Jacksonville |
BS Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited DPD ISPP — individualised supervised practice pathway |
$6,389 in-state $20,793 out-of-state |
Campus in Jacksonville | Yes — didactic plus an ISPP route to practice hours |
| Keiser University Fort Lauderdale / Melbourne |
Closed to new students as of this review. The Clinical Nutrition MS (Coordinated Program) is in teach-out and not accepting new admissions. The MS/Distance Dietetic Internship previously described here no longer has a live program page as of mid-2024 and does not appear in Keiser’s current graduate degree catalog. | N/A | N/A | No — no actively-enrolling ACEND pathway found; confirm directly with Keiser before applying |
| Nova Southeastern University Fort Lauderdale |
BS Human Nutrition — accredited DPD MS Nutrition, Professional Practice Concentration (MS-RDN) — accredited ACEND Future Graduate Program, 67 credits MS Nutrition — also offered with non-accredited sports nutrition, community nutrition, and herbal therapy concentrations |
$1,350/credit (BS) $697/credit (MS) |
Campus (BS); Hybrid, residential (MS-RDN); private | Yes — the DPD and the MS-RDN are both ACEND-accredited; the MS-RDN also admits non-DPD bachelor’s holders directly |
| Gulf Coast State College Panama City |
Associate — nutrition, food, and exercise science option | State college rates — verify | Campus based | No — transfer pathway |
| Seminole State College of Florida Sanford |
Associate in Arts — nutritional sciences pathway | State college rates — verify | Campus based | No — transfer pathway |
Public university figures are 2025–26 tuition and required fees for 30 credit hours from the Florida Board of Governors, excluding housing. Private and state college rates should be confirmed directly. Verify all current rates before applying.
Which Florida Nutrition Program Fits You
Choose FIU if you want the most complete department in the state. It has run a didactic program and a coordinated program for nearly five decades and has since added its own accredited internship, so all three routes sit in one place. Its DPD was reaccredited in 2025 for the maximum seven-year term, running to the end of 2032, and its out-of-state rate is the lowest of the four accredited universities.
Choose the University of Florida if cost is the constraint. Its in-state rate is the lowest of the four and UF Online charges about $3.9K in state, roughly 40 percent less than campus study. Its accredited MS with dietetic internship runs 33 credits with rotations across hospitals, outpatient clinics, and food service.
Choose Florida State if you want the internship alongside the master’s. Its dietetic internship can be completed concurrently with the MS in Nutrition and Food Science, which compresses the timeline. The master’s splits into nutrition science and food science tracks with thesis and coursework-only options.
Choose the University of North Florida if you want flexibility in where you do your practice hours. Its individualised supervised practice pathway, and its arrangements for students placed at free-standing internships around the state, give more geographic latitude than a fixed rotation schedule.
Keiser is no longer a live option as of this review. Its Clinical Nutrition MS (Coordinated Program) is closed to new admissions and in teach-out, and the distance dietetic internship program described in earlier versions of this page no longer has a working program page or a listing in Keiser’s current graduate catalog. Students who need a distance-friendly internship should look at UNF’s ISPP or its arrangements with free-standing internships instead.
Choose NSU if you can afford a private-university price and want zero placement risk. Its MS-RDN coordinates every preceptor and training site itself, and, as an ACEND Future Graduate Program, admits bachelor’s degree holders from any field directly, not only DPD graduates. That convenience costs more than any public option in this state: $1,350 per undergraduate credit and $697 per graduate credit, with no in-state discount.
Florida Nutrition Schools
Florida International University
FIU’s Department of Dietetics and Nutrition sits within the Robert Stempel College of Public Health and Social Work in Miami. Read the full FIU profile for the DPD and M.S. curricula, admissions requirements, and a tuition breakdown.
- BS Dietetics and Nutrition — accredited DPD, reaccredited in 2025 for the maximum seven-year term through December 31, 2032
- Coordinated Program — combining coursework and supervised practice
- Dietetic internship — granted full ACEND accreditation
The department states it has prepared practitioners through both a didactic and a coordinated program for nearly five decades, and added the internship as part of continuous improvement. Having all three under one roof means a student can move between routes without changing institutions — the widest set of options in Florida.
Graduates receive a verification statement and are qualified either to sit the technician exam or to apply to accredited supervised practice. FIU notes explicitly that Florida graduates must also obtain a state licence to practise.
University of Florida
UF houses dietetics in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in Gainesville. Read the full UF profile for the DPD and MS-DI curricula, the pediatric internship track, admissions requirements, and a full tuition breakdown.
- BS Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- MS Food Science and Human Nutrition — nutritional sciences focus
- MS Dietetic Internship Program — accredited, 33 graduate credits
The curriculum pairs biological and physical sciences, mathematics, communications, economics, and business with life cycle nutrition, medical nutrition therapy, metabolism, community nutrition, counselling, and food service management. The MS-DI requires applicants to have completed or be completing an accredited DPD, and rotates through hospitals, outpatient clinics, and food service settings.
UF’s cost structure is the most varied in the state. Campus study is the cheapest in-state option at about $6,381, but the non-resident rate of $30,886 is the highest of the four accredited universities. UF Online sits at roughly $3,875 in state and $16,579 out of state, which changes the calculation substantially for distance students.
Florida State University
FSU runs nutrition through its Department of Health, Nutrition, and Food Sciences, in Anne Spencer Daves College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences in Tallahassee. Read the full FSU profile for the DPD curriculum, the sports-nutrition and clinical-nutrition internship tracks, admissions requirements, and a full tuition breakdown.
- BS Dietetics — accredited undergraduate program producing a DPD verification statement
- MS Nutrition and Food Science — nutrition science or food science specialisations, thesis and coursework-only tracks
- Dietetic internship — can be completed concurrently with the MS in Nutrition
The concurrent structure is the differentiator. Rather than finishing a master’s and then applying for an internship, or the reverse, an FSU student can run both together. Master’s admission requires a bachelor’s and a 3.0 undergraduate GPA, with no GRE, and there are fall and spring intakes.
Be careful which FSU program you enter. The department offers nutrition degrees at both levels, but it is the undergraduate dietetics major specifically that carries ACEND accreditation and produces the verification statement. A nutrition or food science track will not, however similar the coursework looks.
FSU also operates a Panama City campus with a lower published rate than the main campus, so confirm which campus your program runs from before assuming the Tallahassee figures apply.
University of North Florida
UNF’s Department of Nutrition and Dietetics sits in the Brooks College of Health in Jacksonville. Read the full UNF profile for the open-admission DPD, all four graduate pathways (including the career-changer FEM route), the ISPP, and a full tuition breakdown.
- BS Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- Individualised supervised practice pathway — an accredited route to practice hours
UNF’s distinctive feature is how it handles supervised practice. Beyond its own ISPP, the department offers arrangements for students who place into free-standing internships elsewhere in Florida, including programs run by Pasco County, AdventHealth, the Tampa VA, and NutritionInc. For a student who cannot relocate to a single university’s rotation schedule, that flexibility is worth real money.
The department is clear about the sequence: complete the accredited DPD, complete an accredited internship — typically alongside a master’s — then sit the national exam, which now requires the master’s.
Keiser University
Keiser previously offered two dietetics pathways: a Clinical Nutrition MS Coordinated Program (in-person, Melbourne and other campuses) and a Master of Science in Nutrition with Distance Learning Internship. As of this review, the Coordinated Program’s own page states it is closed to new admissions and in teach-out, and the distance internship’s program page returns a 404 and is absent from Keiser’s current official graduate degree directory. Wayback Machine snapshots show the distance program’s pages returning normal content into mid-2024 and failing shortly after, consistent with a discontinuation around that time rather than a temporary site issue.
Confirm directly with Keiser (admissions or the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics) before treating either pathway as available. Students who need a distance-friendly route to supervised practice should look at UNF’s ISPP or its arrangements with free-standing internships instead.
Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern in Fort Lauderdale offers nutrition through its Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine. Unlike an earlier version of this page stated, NSU is a genuine ACEND-accredited RD pathway, and by a wide margin the most expensive one in Florida. Read the full NSU profile for the curriculum, tuition, and admissions detail.
- BS Human Nutrition — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD)
- MS Nutrition, Professional Practice Concentration (MS-RDN) — accredited ACEND Future Graduate Program, 67 credits, admits non-DPD bachelor’s holders directly
- MS Nutrition — also offered with non-accredited sports nutrition, community nutrition, and herbal therapy concentrations
The non-accredited MS concentrations suit students heading toward wellness, sports performance, community health work, or the Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS) credential rather than the RDN. The accredited MS-RDN concentration is the one that leads to RD eligibility, and it coordinates all supervised-practice placements itself rather than requiring students to find their own preceptors.
At $1,350 per undergraduate credit and $697 per graduate credit, with no in-state discount, NSU costs substantially more than any public Florida university profiled on this page. The trade-off is a fully coordinated placement process and, through the MS-RDN, a route into the RD credential that does not require a separate undergraduate DPD.
Gulf Coast State College and Seminole State College
Two Florida state colleges offer nutrition-oriented associate degrees built for transfer rather than direct entry to practice. Full profiles are linked above for both: Gulf Coast publishes a specific 60-credit course checklist; Seminole State’s pathway is closer to the general A.A. degree with a nutrition label and a guaranteed UCF transfer attached.
- Gulf Coast State College, Panama City — associate with a nutrition, food, and exercise science option
- Seminole State College of Florida, Sanford — Associate in Arts, nutritional sciences pathway
Both cover the science base that dietetics degrees require — biology, chemistry, anatomy — at a fraction of university tuition, and Florida’s articulation system moves Associate in Arts credits into the state universities relatively cleanly.
Neither leads to a credential on its own. The value depends entirely on the transfer working, so confirm with your intended university which of its dietetics prerequisites your associate actually satisfies before enrolling.
Location is the practical consideration. Seminole State sits in the Orlando metro, within reach of central Florida universities, while Gulf Coast is in the panhandle, closer to Tallahassee than to any other accredited program. Choose the one whose transfer destination you can actually attend.
How to Choose a Nutrition Program in Florida
Accreditation narrows the field sharply
Florida has many nutrition degrees but only five fully accredited didactic programs. A degree titled nutrition, human nutrition, or nutritional sciences may be perfectly good and still not produce a verification statement. Check accreditation before anything else, because it is the single filter that determines whether the RDN is reachable from where you start.
In-state price is not a differentiator
The four accredited public universities charge within about $180 a year of each other in state, so residents should choose on program structure, location, and supervised practice arrangements rather than price. Non-residents face a real spread — roughly $20.2K at FIU against $30.9K at UF — and UF Online at about $16.6K out of state undercuts all of them.
Who arranges your supervised practice
This is the sharpest division. FIU offers coordinated and internship routes in-house; FSU lets the internship run concurrently with the master’s; UNF supports placement into free-standing internships across the state; Keiser delivers practice at a distance. Florida also has hospital-based accredited internships, including one at the Bay Pines VA that grants a Master of Public Health with a nutrition therapy emphasis over twenty months.
Geography matters more here than in most states
Florida is long, and the accredited programs sit at four corners of it — Miami, Gainesville, Tallahassee, and Jacksonville. Driving between them is a matter of hours rather than minutes, so supervised practice rotations tie you to a region for the better part of a year. If you are already established somewhere, UNF’s free-standing internship arrangements and Keiser’s distance program are the two routes that do not require relocating.
Where you can start
All four accredited universities take students from high school. The two state colleges accept students with no prior college coursework at a fraction of university tuition, and Florida’s articulation system is designed to move Associate in Arts credits into the state universities. Keiser is graduate-entry, requiring a completed didactic program before you apply.
The master’s requirement changed in 2024
Since January 1, 2024, the Commission on Dietetic Registration has required a master’s degree in any field, plus a verification statement from an ACEND-accredited program, to sit for the RDN exam, along with a minimum of 1,000 supervised practice hours — most Florida programs provide between 1,000 and 1,200. Plan the graduate step from the start.
Nutrition Licensure and Credentials in Florida
Florida requires dietitians to hold a state licence to practise, separate from the national RDN credential. FIU states this directly in its program materials: graduates must obtain a Florida licence in addition to meeting CDR requirements.
The CDR requirements apply alongside it — an ACEND verification statement, a master’s degree, supervised practice hours, and a passing exam score — and both the credential and the licence require ongoing continuing education to maintain. Confirm current Florida licensure rules and fees with the state before relying on them.
Before applying anywhere in Florida, verify three things directly with the school: that the specific degree you are entering is one of the accredited didactic programs rather than a general nutrition degree, that the tuition figure quoted matches your residency and the coming academic year, and — if you are starting at a state college — which dietetics prerequisites your associate degree actually satisfies at your intended university. Full profiles for seven of the eight Florida schools — Florida International University, the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of North Florida, Nova Southeastern University, Gulf Coast State College, and Seminole State College of Florida — are linked above and in the comparison table. Keiser University is not profiled separately: as noted above, its dietetics pathways appear closed to new students as of this review.