Two Maine institutions offer nutrition degrees: the University of Maine in Orono and the University of New England in Biddeford. Between them they run ten credentials, from a 12-credit online graduate certificate to a research doctorate. Published program costs run from about $8,200 for UMaine’s graduate certificate to about $192,200 for UNE’s four-year bachelor’s, and durations from 16 months to four years, or longer for the doctorate.
Three of those ten are ACEND-accredited, and they form two complete routes to becoming a Registered Dietitian. UMaine holds Maine’s only accredited undergraduate dietetics program and its only dietetic internship; UNE Online holds an accredited graduate dietetics program that builds supervised practice into the degree. The other seven credentials are research, industry, or general nutrition degrees, and none of them leads to the RD credential on its own.
Nutrition Programs in Maine — Comparison Table
| School | Credentials | Est. Cost | Format | RD Pathway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Maine Orono | B.S. Food Science & Human Nutrition, 120 cr M.S. in-person, 30 cr M.S. online, 30 cr M.S. + Dietetic Internship, 30 cr Grad Certificate, 12 cr Ph.D. Food & Nutrition Sciences, ~60 cr | $57.2K res / $157.6K non-res $19.1K res / $55.7K non-res $20.6K all students $25.6K all students $8.2K all students $37.5K res / $110.8K non-res | Campus, Hybrid and Online | Yes, through the B.S. dietetics concentration plus the internship |
| University of New England Biddeford | B.S. Nutrition, 120 cr M.S. Applied Nutrition, 36 cr MSAN Dietetics, 48 cr RDN to MSAN, 27 cr | $192.2K $34.3K $48.4K, or $56.4K without a DPD $25.5K | Campus and Online | Yes, through the MSAN Dietetics focus only |
UNE is private and charges one rate to every student. UMaine is public, so its campus programs carry a large resident and non-resident spread, while its fully online graduate programs are billed at a single rate regardless of where the student lives.
Which Maine Nutrition Program Fits You
Choose the University of Maine if you want to become a dietitian without leaving the state, and you can accept a competitive second gate. It is the only place in Maine where the whole pathway sits under one roof, and the internship assigns every student to a site rather than asking them to find one. The constraint is capacity: the program is approved for up to ten interns a year, so finishing the undergraduate half does not secure the graduate half.
Choose UMaine also if you want a research degree or a doctorate. It is the only Maine school offering a nutrition Ph.D., the only one with animal and food science faculty, and the only one that funds graduate students through assistantships.
Choose the University of New England if you already hold a bachelor’s degree in something else and want the fastest accredited route to the RD credential. Its dietetics master’s accepts any regionally accredited bachelor’s, builds the missing science into the degree plan, and runs the supervised practice alongside coursework, so there is no separate internship application at all. The trade-off is that students find their own placement sites and preceptors, and first-year hours must be secured before admission.
Choose UNE Online if you want nutrition knowledge without the clinical credential. Its 36-credit applied nutrition master’s states plainly that it does not produce an RDN, and the 27-credit RDN to MSAN pathway serves dietitians credentialed before the 2024 graduate-degree rule.
Maine Nutrition Schools
University of Maine
UMaine’s School of Food and Agriculture in Orono runs the state’s widest nutrition ladder, across campus, hybrid, and online delivery.
- B.S. Food Science and Human Nutrition, 120 credits, four years, $57.2K resident and $157.6K non-resident
- M.S. in-person, 30 credits, two to two and a half years, $19.1K resident and $55.7K non-resident
- M.S. online, 30 credits, two to three years, $20.6K for everyone
- M.S. with Dietetic Internship, 30 credits and 1,072 practice hours, 16 to 21 months, $25.6K for everyone
- Graduate Certificate in Human Nutrition, 12 credits, $8.2K
- Ph.D. Food and Nutrition Sciences, roughly 60 credits beyond the master’s, $37.5K resident unfunded
The dietetics concentration of the B.S. is Maine’s only ACEND-accredited undergraduate program, and the internship is the state’s only accredited supervised practice program. The internship assigns interns to sites, clusters rotations in one area, and reports a 96 percent first-time exam pass rate.
The catch is capacity. The internship admits up to ten students a year, and its two additional Individualized Supervised Practice Pathway places are open only to UMaine doctoral students.
Full University of Maine profile
University of New England
UNE runs two separate nutrition operations: a campus bachelor’s in the Westbrook College of Health Professions and a set of online master’s degrees through UNE Online.
- B.S. Nutrition, 120 credits, four years, campus, $192.2K
- M.S. Applied Nutrition, 36 credits, two years, online, $34.3K
- MSAN Dietetics focus, 48 credits and 1,050 practice hours, two years, $48.4K with a DPD or $56.4K without
- RDN to MSAN pathway, 27 credits, 16 months, online, $25.5K
The Dietetics focus is an ACEND Future Education Model graduate program, which means supervised experiential learning runs inside the degree rather than as a separate internship. It accepts any bachelor’s degree and requires no GRE. The campus B.S. is not a dietetics program and confers no verification statement, so its own graduates apply to UNE’s dietetics master’s through the same route as applicants from unrelated fields.
Full University of New England profile
How to Choose a Nutrition Program in Maine
Which RD route, not whether
Maine offers two structurally different accredited routes to the same credential. UMaine’s runs bachelor’s first, then a competitive application to its internship. UNE’s takes any bachelor’s, then one graduate program with the practice hours already inside it.
The decision turns on where you are standing now. A high school student who wants the RD credential without leaving Maine has a genuine four-year option at UMaine; someone who already holds an unrelated degree has a faster route at UNE.
Who finds your placement
This is the sharpest difference between the two schools and it is easy to miss. UMaine assigns interns to sites and clusters all rotations in one area, but requires a car and states that most interns relocate near their training sites. UNE lets students stay where they are, but the student must secure their own sites and preceptors, with first-year hours approved before admission.
Neither model is better in the abstract. Assigned placement removes the risk of not finding a preceptor and adds the cost of moving; self-placement does the reverse, and is harder in a rural or saturated market.
Public tiers versus one private rate
UMaine is public, so residency matters enormously on campus and not at all online. A Maine resident pays about $57,200 for the bachelor’s while a non-resident pays about $157,600, but the online master’s, the internship, and the certificate cost the same for everyone. UNE is private and charges $895 a credit to every graduate student regardless of where they live.
Two cost details are worth checking before committing. UMaine’s departmental FAQ still quotes a per-credit rate one year out of date, and UNE’s advertised dietetics tuition covers 48 credits that do not include the three pre-dietetics courses a career changer will need.
Where you can start
UMaine admits at the bachelor’s, master’s, certificate, or doctoral level, but its graduate admission is advisor-gated: no faculty member willing to advise, no offer. UNE takes any regionally accredited bachelor’s and reviews holistically without a GRE.
The 12-credit UMaine certificate is the state’s only low-commitment entry point and stacks into the online master’s at a B or higher. Its prerequisites are demanding, requiring chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology, and introductory nutrition before admission.
Nutrition Licensure and Credentials in Maine
Maine licenses dietitians and dietetic technicians through the State Board of Licensing of Dietetic Practice, within the Office of Professional and Occupational Regulation. This is a practice act rather than title protection: practising as a dietitian in Maine without a license counts as unlicensed practice and can be referred to the Attorney General.
Licensure requires a qualifying degree, supervised practice, and the national registration examination. A temporary one-year non-renewable license is available to applicants who have met every requirement except the exam, and licenses renew annually on December 31.
Full requirements are published by the Maine Board of Licensing of Dietetic Practice.
Before You Apply
The board’s continuing education rules are mid-transition. For the 2026 renewal cycle licensees may attest under either the old Chapter 2 rules or the new Chapter 14; from 2027 Chapter 14 applies to everyone.
Confirm both cost gaps directly with each program. Ask UMaine for the current online per-credit rate, and ask UNE whether your prior coursework waives any of the three pre-dietetics courses, since that answer is worth roughly $8,000.
If the RD credential is the goal, ask UMaine about internship capacity and timing for your application year. Ten seats is the binding constraint on the whole in-state pathway.