Four Louisiana institutions offer nutrition or dietetics degrees. Resident tuition and fees run from $8,810 at Nicholls State to $12,472 at LSU, against a state average near $9,622. Non-residents at LSU pay about $29,148.
The decisive difference is supervised practice. Louisiana Tech is the only school in the state running both an accredited degree and its own accredited dietetic internship. LSU states plainly that it does not offer a supervised practice programme, so its graduates apply elsewhere. Every dietitian and nutritionist practising in Louisiana must be licensed by the state board.
Nutrition Programs in Louisiana — Comparison Table
| School | Credentials | Est. Cost | Format | RD Pathway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana Tech University Ruston |
BS Nutrition and Dietetics, RD concentration — accredited DPD Dietetic internship — accredited, post-baccalaureate, includes a graduate certificate MS Nutrition and Dietetics |
$11,400 resident | Campus; internship coursework online and hybrid | Yes — the only school in Louisiana with its own accredited internship |
| Nicholls State University Thibodaux |
BS Dietetics — accredited DPD MS Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics — 36 semester hours |
$8,810 resident | Campus | Yes — didactic; internship applied for separately |
| Louisiana State University Baton Rouge |
BS Nutrition and Food Sciences — dietetics concentration is the accredited DPD; also nutritional sciences/pre-medical, nutrition health and society, and food science MS Nutrition and Food Sciences — 30 credits, thesis |
$12,472 resident $29,148 non-resident |
Campus | Yes — didactic only; LSU offers no supervised practice programme |
| Southern University and A&M College Baton Rouge |
BS Family and Consumer Sciences — nutrition and health, and culinary and food management concentrations | $9,959 resident | Campus, HBCU | Confirm — verify accreditation directly with the university |
Figures are 2025–26 resident tuition and fees at 15 credit hours, from Louisiana Board of Regents comparisons and LSU’s own published rates, excluding housing. Louisiana Tech operates on quarters rather than semesters, so per-term figures differ. Verify current rates and accreditation status before applying.
Which Louisiana Nutrition Program Fits You
Choose Louisiana Tech if you want the whole route at one university. It runs an accredited undergraduate programme, an accredited post-baccalaureate internship, and a master’s. The internship uses online and hybrid coursework so interns can earn the master’s while completing supervised practice, and it accepts applicants who already hold advanced degrees.
Choose Nicholls State if cost is the binding constraint. At $8,810 in resident tuition and fees it is the least expensive accredited route in Louisiana, roughly $3,700 below LSU, and it pairs the accredited bachelor’s with a clinical nutrition master’s.
Choose LSU if you want breadth or a research master’s. Its Nutrition and Food Sciences degree runs four concentrations, only one of which is the accredited dietetics route, so it also serves pre-medical and food science students. Be clear that LSU does not provide supervised practice.
Choose Southern if you want food management or a community focus at an HBCU. Its Family and Consumer Sciences degree runs nutrition and health and culinary and food management concentrations. Verify what accreditation, if any, applies before relying on it as a route to the credential.
Louisiana Nutrition Schools
Louisiana Tech University
Louisiana Tech in Ruston runs nutrition through the School of Biological Sciences in its College of Applied and Natural Sciences, and holds two separate ACEND accreditations.
- BS Nutrition and Dietetics, registered dietitian concentration — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- Dietetic internship — accredited, post-baccalaureate, incorporating a graduate certificate in dietetics
- MS Nutrition and Dietetics
The internship is the reason to look here. Online and hybrid coursework during the internship lets students earn a master’s while completing supervised practice, which addresses the 2024 graduate degree requirement in one step. The programme also accepts applicants who already hold advanced degrees or graduate credits, so it serves career changers as well as new graduates. Tech describes it as cost-effective both academically and geographically.
One caution matters more than anything else on this page. Louisiana Tech states explicitly that its three programmes operate autonomously, and that completing the undergraduate degree does not guarantee entry into the internship or the master’s. Students must apply and be admitted separately after finishing the didactic programme. Tech reports a 96 percent RD exam pass rate within a year, which is a school-published figure worth asking about with the reporting period attached.
Nicholls State University
Nicholls State in Thibodaux, in the bayou region southwest of New Orleans, offers dietetics through its Department of Allied Health Sciences.
- BS Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- MS Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics — 36 semester hours, clinical and leadership focus
Nicholls is the cheapest accredited route in the state and pairs the didactic bachelor’s with a clinical master’s, so a student can satisfy both the coursework and graduate degree requirements in Thibodaux before applying for an internship elsewhere.
The university confirms that its dietetics curriculum meets the bachelor’s-level educational requirements for licensure by the Louisiana Board of Examiners in Dietetics and Nutrition, and that graduates earn the verification statement needed to apply for an internship. Its published figure that 80 percent of graduates rate the programme’s preparation as satisfactory or better is an ACEND objective drawn from an alumni survey, not an outcome measure — ask for actual placement data.
Louisiana State University
LSU houses nutrition in the School of Nutrition and Food Sciences within its College of Agriculture in Baton Rouge.
- BS Nutrition and Food Sciences — with dietetics, nutritional sciences and pre-medical, nutrition health and society, and food science concentrations
- MS Nutrition and Food Sciences — 30 credits with a thesis, research-oriented
Only the dietetics concentration is accredited. The other three lead to medicine, research, food industry work, or public health rather than the credential, and the degree title does not distinguish them — confirm which concentration you are entering.
The critical fact is stated on LSU’s own pages: it does not currently offer a supervised practice programme. Graduates of the accredited dietetics concentration must apply to an accredited internship at another institution. LSU also notes that students who complete the knowledge requirements without entering an internship are qualified to sit the dietetic technician exam, which is a real fallback given how competitive placements are.
Southern University and A&M College
Southern University in Baton Rouge is Louisiana’s public HBCU, offering nutrition within Family and Consumer Sciences.
- BS Family and Consumer Sciences — with nutrition and health, and culinary and food management concentrations
The culinary and food management concentration is distinct in Louisiana and fits the state’s food industry, pointing toward food service operations, hospitality, and community programmes rather than clinical practice.
Verify accreditation directly. Our sourcing for this programme is the university’s overview page rather than an accreditation statement, and a Family and Consumer Sciences degree with a nutrition concentration is not automatically an accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics. If the RDN is your goal, ask the department specifically whether the concentration produces a verification statement.
How to Choose a Nutrition Program in Louisiana
Only one school supplies supervised practice
Louisiana Tech runs the state’s only accredited internship. LSU explicitly does not offer one, and Nicholls provides accredited coursework and a master’s but not the practice hours. That makes Tech’s internship the pivot point for the whole state, and its own warning that undergraduate completion does not guarantee admission is worth taking seriously. Apply broadly, including out of state.
Check which concentration carries the accreditation
LSU runs four concentrations under one degree title and only one is accredited. Southern’s nutrition concentrations sit inside a Family and Consumer Sciences degree. In both cases the degree name will not tell you whether you finish with a verification statement, so confirm with an advisor before enrolling rather than after.
The technician credential is a genuine fallback
LSU notes that students who complete the dietetics knowledge requirements without entering an internship qualify to sit the dietetic technician exam. In a state with one internship programme, that route deserves consideration rather than being treated as a failure outcome, particularly since the 2024 rules made the RDN route substantially longer.
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 programme, to sit for the RDN exam, along with 1,200 hours of supervised practice. Louisiana Tech’s internship builds the master’s in; Nicholls offers one separately; LSU’s master’s is research-oriented rather than a dietetics degree.
Nutrition Licensure and Credentials in Louisiana
Louisiana requires licensure to practise. Nicholls State states plainly that all dietitians and nutritionists practising in the state must be licensed by the Louisiana Board of Examiners in Dietetics and Nutrition, and LSU notes the board grants and enforces licensure for both registered dietitians and dietetic technicians.
The national CDR requirements apply alongside — an ACEND verification statement, a master’s degree, supervised practice hours, and a passing exam score. Note that Louisiana licenses dietetic technicians as well as dietitians, which not every state does. Confirm current requirements with the board before relying on them.
Before applying anywhere in Louisiana, verify three things directly with the school: which concentration within a broader degree carries the accreditation, since LSU and Southern both house nutrition inside larger majors, whether you will have a route to supervised practice given that only Louisiana Tech provides one in state, and the current accreditation position at Southern University, where our sourcing is a programme overview rather than an accreditation statement. Individual school profiles for these programs are in progress and will be linked here as they publish.