Department of Nutritional Sciences • Auburn, AL • Campus, Online and Hybrid • $482–$643/Credit
Auburn University offers 5 nutrition credentials:
- B.S., Nutrition, Dietetics Option
- B.S., Nutrition, Pre-Health and Nutrition Science Option
- M.S., Nutrition
- M.S., Nutrition with Dietetic Internship
- Ph.D., Nutrition
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.S. Dietetics | $54.3K / $150.4K | 4 years (8 semesters) | 120 |
| B.S. Pre-Health | $54.3K / $150.4K | 4 years (8 semesters) | 123 |
| M.S. | $17.6K flat | 1.5–2 years (3–4 semesters) | 33 |
| M.S. + Internship | $27.2K flat | 15 months (4 semesters) | 39 |
| Ph.D. | $45.6K / $125.5K | Not clearly stated | 60 minimum |
Auburn runs the entire dietitian pathway in house, and the part that usually goes wrong is the part it controls. Its ACEND-accredited internship is attached to an online master’s, Auburn assigns every rotation rather than making interns find their own preceptors, and residents and non-residents pay the same rate. The constraint is geography: rotations sit within roughly 90 miles of Auburn.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Program Types | Two bachelor’s options, master’s, master’s with dietetic internship, doctorate |
| Format | Both B.S. options Campus; M.S. Online; M.S. with internship Hybrid; Ph.D. Campus |
| Credit Hours | 120 and 123 (B.S.), 33 (M.S.), 39 (M.S. with internship), 60 minimum (Ph.D.) |
| ACEND Accreditation | Yes. Didactic Program in Dietetics and a Dietetic Internship |
| RD/RDN Eligibility | Partial. The M.S. with internship leads to eligibility; the DPD and plain M.S. do not alone |
| Supervised Practice | Minimum 1,000 hours across 9 credits of NTRI 7010, sites assigned by Auburn |
| Specializations | Seven pre-health pathways in the B.S.; thesis, non-thesis or internship track in the M.S. |
| Research Requirement | M.S. thesis optional; Ph.D. dissertation plus written and oral general examination |
| Entrance Exams | GRE required for the Ph.D.; not required for the M.S. |
| Intake | Internship begins once a year, in summer. DPD entry is a junior-year application |
| GPA Floor | 2.8 for DPD admission, 3.0 for the M.S., 3.40 for the accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s |
| Tuition | $482 undergraduate and $643 graduate per resident credit; $533 per online graduate credit |
| Assistantship Rule | A one-third-time or greater GRA or GTA appointment waives tuition and the services fee |
| Institutional Accreditation | Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) |
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, Dietetics Option
The estimated tuition for the Dietetics option at Auburn is approximately $54,288 for a resident and $150,384 for a non-resident, derived from eight full-time semesters at the Fall 2026 block rate plus the student services fee. The program requires 120 credits and takes four years, with the plan of study laid out semester by semester in the bulletin.
The Nutrition/Dietetics option carries Auburn’s ACEND-accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics. Students enter as Pre-dietetics (NTDX) and apply into the DPD later.
Dietetics Curriculum
Almost nothing is optional. The published plan of study contains a single three-hour free elective across all four years. That is roughly 97 percent of the degree prescribed, which is unusually tight even for a dietetics curriculum, and it matters if you want a minor, a double major, or room to retake a course without adding a semester.
The load is front-heavy. Junior year carries 34 credits across two terms while senior year carries 25. Because Auburn bills a flat rate at 12 credits and above, the effective cost per credit swings from about $340 in a 17-hour term to $482 in the 12-hour senior spring. The heavy years are the cheap ones.
Sequencing sets the graduation date, not the credit count. The bulletin states outright that major coursework must be taken in sequence and that transfer students should expect additional semesters. BCHE 3180 gates both metabolism courses, which gate the Medical Nutrition sequence, which gates counseling and the practicum.
- BCHE 3180 Nutritional Biochemistry, the hinge of the whole curriculum
- NTRI 4820 and NTRI 4830, macronutrient and micronutrient metabolism
- NTRI 5020 and NTRI 5030 Medical Nutrition I and II, each with a required lab
- NTRI 3720 Nutritional Assessment, teaching the ADIME framework
- NTRI 5830 Nutritional Genomics, unusual in an undergraduate dietetics core
- NTRI 5100 Controversies in Nutrition, an evidence-appraisal course
- NTRI 5910 Clinical Practicum in Dietetics, one credit in the final term
You Should Know
- The single clinical practicum is one credit. It is an introduction to practice, not supervised practice in the ACEND sense, and it does not count toward the 1,000 hours the credential requires.
- Admission to the major is not admission to the DPD. Students are admitted to Pre-dietetics first and must apply separately after 45 credits, and Auburn states plainly that meeting the minimum standards does not ensure a seat.
- A C or better is required in every NTRI course to graduate, and in every prerequisite before you can enrol in the next course in the chain. One C-minus stops the sequence rather than just lowering a GPA.
Dietetics Admissions
The consequential gate is the DPD application in the second year, not freshman admission.
- Freshmen and transfers are admitted to Pre-dietetics (NTDX)
- At least 45 credits of the pre-dietetics curriculum, including NTRI 2000 and four of six named science courses
- Minimum 2.8 GPA on the prerequisite set, with no grade below C in any of them
- Selection weighs cumulative GPA, science GPA, a personal statement and career goals
- Seats are limited; applications go in once semester grades post
Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, Pre-Health and Nutrition Science Option
The estimated tuition for the Pre-Health option at Auburn is approximately $54,288 for a resident and $150,384 for a non-resident, the same as the Dietetics option because the block rate absorbs the difference in credits. The program requires 123 credits over four years and is built as a feeder into professional school rather than into dietetics.
This is the option the department has reorganised most heavily. The Pre-Health and Nutrition Science option now absorbs what used to be a separate Wellness degree option, and it carries seven named pathways.
Pre-Health Curriculum
A minor is required, not suggested. Four professional elective slots totalling 12 credits must be spent assembling one of exactly four minors: Health and Human Development, Hunger Studies, International Minor in Human Sciences, or Public Health. The Hunger Studies option connects to Auburn’s Hunger Solutions Institute, which is a genuine institutional asset rather than a course label.
The science load is heavier than the dietetics option. This track takes Calculus I where Dietetics takes precalculus, and adds a second biology sequence in Organismal Biology. That is what makes the credit total 123 rather than 120, and it is what medical, dental and PA programs screen for.
Seven pathways, one degree. Pre-Medicine, Pre-Dentistry, Pre-Optometry, Pre-Physician Assistant, Pre-Physical Therapy, Pre-Occupational Therapy and Health and Wellness each have their own published plan of study. Two further routes compress the timeline: Pre-Pharmacy allows three undergraduate years before the Harrison College of Pharmacy PharmD, with the bachelor’s conferred after four semesters of pharmacy study, and the Rocovich Early Admission Program offers early admission to VCOM-Bluefield’s anesthesia master’s, with candidates notified in the spring of junior year.
- MATH 1610 Calculus I and BIOL 1030 Organismal Biology, both absent from the Dietetics option
- NTRI 1010 Introduction to the Pre-Health Professions, a first-semester orientation to the application process
- NTRI 2010 Basic Sports Nutrition
- NTRI 5830 Nutritional Genomics and NTRI 5100 Controversies in Nutrition
- NTRI 4620 Public Health Nutrition
You Should Know
- This option does not lead to the RDN credential and carries no ACEND accreditation. If dietetics is the goal, the Dietetics option is the one that produces a verification statement.
- The Pre-Pharmacy and Rocovich routes confer the bachelor’s only after you complete part of the professional program. Leaving the professional program early can mean leaving without the undergraduate degree.
- Auburn does not publish admission or progression rates into the professional schools these pathways feed. Ask the department for placement data before treating a pathway as a pipeline.
Master of Science in Nutrition
The estimated tuition for the M.S. in Nutrition at Auburn is approximately $17,589 (33 credits at the $533 distance-learning rate, which the department states includes tuition and fees). The program requires 33 credits for the non-thesis track and can generally be completed in about three to four semesters, a figure derived from Auburn’s nine-credit full-time definition rather than a published program length.
The M.S. in Nutrition is offered on campus and at a distance, and Auburn states that all courses for the program are delivered in an online format either way.
M.S. Curriculum
Three tracks with different destinations. The thesis track is research-intensive and aimed at doctoral study or biomedical research. The non-thesis track is coursework-based for professional advancement. The internship track combines the non-thesis degree with supervised practice and is covered separately below.
The coursework was rebuilt recently. The current graduate inventory carries a set of applied courses that did not exist in older versions of this program, including leadership and management, health behaviour theory for counselling, and advanced nutrition and diet therapy. Any listing that describes the M.S. core as biology and veterinary endocrinology coursework is describing a superseded curriculum.
- NTRI 7020 Advanced Nutrition and Diet Therapy
- NTRI 7030 Leadership and Management in Nutritional Sciences
- NTRI 7040 Health Behavior Theory for Nutrition Counseling and Education
- NTRI 7050 Methods of Research
- NTRI 7520 and NTRI 7540, macronutrient and micronutrient metabolism at the graduate level
- NTRI 7620 Sports and Performance Nutrition
- NTRI 6040 Global Nutrition and Hunger
M.S. Research Requirements
- Thesis track: original research under a faculty advisor, culminating in a defence, using NTRI 7990
- Non-thesis track: NTRI 7980 Non-Thesis Research, three credits, plus coursework
- At least half of all credits must sit at the 7000 or 8000 level
- Departmental research strength is concentrated in diabetes and obesity, with access to the Auburn University Metabolic Phenotyping Lab
The thesis is the track that requires a faculty match, and Auburn is explicit that assistantships are competitive and that a tuition waiver is not guaranteed for master’s students. Distance students should treat the thesis as the harder option to arrange, since it depends on a mentor relationship the online format does not create by itself.
M.S. Admissions
- Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution with a minimum 3.0 overall GPA
- Prerequisites: general chemistry with lab, organic chemistry, biochemistry, general biology with lab, and a general nutrition course
- Accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s route for Auburn undergraduates: minimum 3.40 GPA, between 45 and 96 undergraduate credits with at least 24 earned at Auburn
- Accelerated students take up to 9 graduate credits in the senior year and finish the remaining 24 within a year of graduating
You Should Know
- Auburn’s usual block rate, which stops charging above 9 graduate credits a term, does not apply to graduate online distance programs. Online students pay for every credit, so taking a heavy load saves nothing.
- A one-third-time or greater assistantship waives tuition and the student services fee entirely, but assistantships require living in the Auburn area and are not offered to distance students as a matter of course.
- The plain M.S. does not confer RDN eligibility. It is a research and professional-advancement degree unless paired with the internship.
Master of Science in Nutrition with Dietetic Internship
The estimated tuition for the M.S. with Dietetic Internship at Auburn is $27,240, published by the department as 30 didactic credits at $533 and 9 practicum credits at $1,250. The program requires 39 credits and runs four consecutive semesters, summer through summer, at the same rate for residents and non-residents.
The M.S. with Dietetic Internship is the only Auburn program that produces RDN exam eligibility. It is open to graduates of any accredited DPD, and Auburn also admits internship-only candidates who already hold a DPD verification statement and a master’s degree.
Internship Supervised Practice
- Minimum 1,000 hours of supervised practice, delivered through 9 credits of NTRI 7010
- Auburn coordinates and assigns all placements; interns are not required to secure their own sites or preceptors
- Students may request specific sites, subject to program director approval
- Rotations sit within roughly 90 miles of Auburn and run three days a week
- Rotation areas: clinical, community, foodservice management, plus specialty settings including SEC and Olympic athletics, ROTC performance, WIC, schools and medical camps for children
- Skills boot camps in nutrition-focused physical exam, swallowing evaluation, the Nutrition Care Process and tube feeding placement
- A structured RD exam review course, valued at $500, is provided at no cost
- Prior employment or volunteer experience cannot be substituted for any supervised practice hours
The placement model is the reason to look at this program. Across the profession the didactic-to-internship transition is where candidates stall, and where they do get placed, most programs make the intern responsible for finding preceptors. Auburn assigns them. The 1,000-hour minimum matches the current standard rather than exceeding it, so the advantage here is certainty of placement rather than volume of hours. The trade-off is blunt: three days a week inside a 90-mile radius means this is not a program you complete from another state, whatever the coursework format suggests.
You Should Know
- ⚠ The credit accounting does not reconcile across Auburn’s own pages. The graduate bulletin describes the 9 practicum credits as filling the elective slots inside the 33-credit non-thesis degree, while the department’s cost table bills 30 didactic credits plus 9 practicum credits as 39. The difference is about $3,200. Get the billable credit count in writing before enrolling.
- Orientation is held in person on campus during the first full week of the summer term and is mandatory, so the program begins with travel even for students who plan to live locally afterwards.
- Required extras beyond tuition come to roughly $1,443, covering a lab coat, exam study materials, BLS and ServSafe certification, shoes, health screenings and background checks, books and technology, and professional memberships. Transportation between rotation sites is on top of that and is not estimated by Auburn.
- The RD exam fee of $250 and the $80 annual registration maintenance fee fall after completion.
Internship Admissions
- A DPD verification statement is required to register for NTRI 7010, so the internship is closed to applicants without accredited didactic coursework
- Admission to the graduate program follows the M.S. requirements, including the 3.0 GPA floor
- The cohort starts once a year, in summer
- Auburn undergraduates on the accelerated route complete fewer graduate credits during the internship year, which lowers the total cost
- Assistantship applications are typically due early in the spring before the May start; contact the internship director
Doctor of Philosophy in Nutrition
The estimated tuition for the Ph.D. in Nutrition at Auburn is approximately $45,594 for a resident and $125,514 for a non-resident, derived by carrying the 60-credit minimum across seven full-time semesters at the Fall 2026 graduate rate plus the services fee. Those are unfunded figures and most doctoral students should not expect to pay them. The program requires a minimum of 60 credits beyond the bachelor’s degree.
The Ph.D. in Nutrition concentrates on nutritional genomics, physiology, cellular and molecular nutrition, biochemistry and epidemiology, with departmental strength in diabetes and obesity.
Ph.D. Curriculum
Of the 60 credits, at least 30 must be graded coursework at the 7000 and 8000 level. Course requirements mirror the master’s plus NTRI 8970, NTRI 8850 and NTRI 7280, which means students entering with an Auburn master’s carry a substantial part of the requirement forward. Laboratory facilities cover human, animal, chemical and physical research.
- NTRI 7280 Laboratory Methods in Food Science and Nutrition
- NTRI 8520 and NTRI 8540, advanced macronutrient and micronutrient metabolism
- NTRI 8850 Research Seminar for the Doctoral Program
- NTRI 8970 Advanced Topics in Nutrition
- NTRI 8980 Non-Dissertation Research, an applied research course taken before dissertation work
- NTRI 8990 Research and Dissertation
Ph.D. Research Requirements
- A general doctoral examination with written and oral components; candidacy follows a successful result
- A dissertation reporting original research, with a defence
- GRE scores required, alongside letters from faculty or health professionals able to judge graduate-level ability
- Applicants may enter with a bachelor’s or a master’s in nutrition or a closely related field
Auburn publishes a credit minimum for this program but not a completion time, which is normal for a research doctorate and unhelpful for budgeting. The variable that actually decides affordability is the assistantship: a research or teaching appointment at one-third time or greater waives tuition and the student services fee outright, leaving the reduced assistant fee of $844 a semester. For a non-resident that is the difference between roughly $125,500 and something closer to $6,000 across the program. Ask about funded positions before comparing sticker prices with anywhere else.
Tuition
Auburn’s published cost per credit hour for Fall 2026 is $482 for resident undergraduates and $1,483 for non-residents, and $643 per graduate credit for residents and $1,975 for non-residents. Two further rates apply to the programs on this page: a distance-learning rate of $533 per graduate credit, which the department states includes tuition and fees, and $1,250 per credit for internship practicum hours. Which of the four you pay depends on level, residency and delivery.
On-campus tuition is capped: there is no additional charge above 12 undergraduate credits or 9 graduate credits in a term, plus a $1,002 student services fee each semester. That cap does not apply to graduate online distance programs, which is the single most important line in Auburn’s fee schedule for anyone weighing the online master’s.
| Route | Resident | Non-resident |
|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate, per semester at 12+ credits | $6,786 | $18,798 |
| Graduate on campus, per semester at 9+ credits | $6,789 | $18,777 |
| Graduate online, per credit, no cap | $533 | $533 |
| Internship practicum, per credit | $1,250 | $1,250 |
Confirmed costs
- B.S., either option, four years: $54,288 resident and $150,384 non-resident, being 8 semesters at $6,786 or $18,798 (derived)
- Blended undergraduate per-credit: $385.60 resident over 120 credits, $376.20 over 123 (derived)
- M.S., 33 credits online: 33 × $533 = $17,589, identical for residents and non-residents
- M.S. on campus, three terms at 11 credits: $21,653 resident and $60,281 non-resident (derived)
- M.S. with Dietetic Internship: 30 × $533 plus 9 × $1,250 = $27,240, as published
- Internship required extras beyond tuition: about $1,443, bringing the all-in figure near $28,683 (derived, excluding travel)
- Ph.D., unfunded, 60 credits across seven terms: $45,594 resident and $125,514 non-resident (derived)
- Ph.D. with a one-third-time assistantship: tuition and services fee waived, leaving the $844 per-semester assistant fee
- No College of Human Sciences differential applies to Nutrition. The college charges program fees only for Interior Design and Hospitality Management
Be aware that:
- Cost figures published elsewhere for these programs are frequently wrong by large margins. A four-year Auburn degree is 8 semesters, not 12, and the correct per-credit rate is the published one rather than a semester total divided by an assumed course load.
- The 39-credit total for the internship program conflicts with the 33-credit non-thesis master’s minimum described in the bulletin, worth about $3,200.
- Non-residents pay roughly three times the resident rate on campus but exactly the same as residents online. For the master’s the gap between the two routes is close to $39,000.
- Doctoral sticker prices are close to meaningless here. The assistantship waiver covers tuition and the services fee in full, but appointments are competitive and are not guaranteed by admission.
- None of these figures are cost-of-attendance bundles. Housing, food, books and transportation are excluded, as is travel between internship rotation sites.
For an Alabama resident living near campus, the undergraduate arithmetic is straightforward and the block rate rewards heavy semesters. For everyone else the decision turns on delivery: a non-resident who enrols in the online master’s pays what an Alabama resident pays, while the same person on campus pays a premium that dwarfs every other variable in this profile.
Current rates are published on the Auburn bulletin’s Basic Charges page.
Why Choose This Nutrition Program?
Well suited to someone who wants the dietitian credential without gambling on a national internship match, and to science-track undergraduates using nutrition as the route into a health profession.
Placement certainty is the real product. Auburn assigns supervised practice sites rather than sending interns out to recruit preceptors, and it will not accept prior work or volunteer experience as a substitute for hours. Combined with a free RD exam review course and small cohorts, this is a program designed to move people through the credential rather than to admit them and wish them luck. Very few schools own the didactic program, the internship and the master’s degree that the credential now requires.
Flat national pricing on the graduate programs. Residents and non-residents pay the same $533 per credit online and the same $27,240 for the internship program. That is unusual at a flagship public university, and it means a prospective dietitian in another state is not penalised for choosing Auburn, at least on tuition.
The undergraduate degree has been rebuilt around pre-health. The Pre-Health and Nutrition Science option now carries seven professional pathways, a required minor drawn from four choices, and two accelerated routes into pharmacy and anesthesia. For a student who wants a science-heavy major with an advising structure attached, that is a more coherent proposition than a generic nutrition science degree.
The honest drawbacks. The internship’s 90-mile radius and three-days-a-week schedule make this a local program with online coursework, not an online program. The Dietetics option leaves one free elective in four years, so there is no slack for a minor, a study-abroad term or a stumble. The master’s loses Auburn’s block-rate cap when taken online, so a fast finish costs the same as a slow one. And Auburn’s own pages disagree on how many credits the internship program bills, which is not a detail to discover after matriculating.
Accreditation
Auburn University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. Institutional accreditation applies to every degree at the university and governs credit transfer, recognition of the degree by other graduate schools, and eligibility for federal financial aid.
Programmatic accreditation is separate and narrower. The Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics accredits two programs in the Department of Nutritional Sciences: the Didactic Program in Dietetics, which sits inside the Nutrition/Dietetics option of the bachelor’s degree, and the Dietetic Internship attached to the Master of Science in Nutrition. Auburn publishes ACEND’s contact details alongside both.
Nothing else in the department carries programmatic accreditation. The Pre-Health and Nutrition Science option, the plain master’s and the doctorate all sit outside that scope. For the doctorate this is standard, since research degrees in nutrition science have no accreditor. For the Pre-Health option it is worth stating plainly, because the two bachelor’s options share a department, a course prefix and much of their first two years while leading to entirely different credentials.
Graduates of the Didactic Program in Dietetics receive a verification statement and may apply to accredited supervised practice programs. On completing supervised practice together with a graduate degree, they are eligible for the Commission on Dietetic Registration examination, which has required a master’s degree at minimum since January 1, 2024. Graduates of the M.S. with Dietetic Internship complete both requirements inside one program and are eligible for the examination on completion. Graduates of the Pre-Health option or the plain master’s are not eligible for the examination and cannot enter a dietetic internship without first earning a verification statement elsewhere. Alabama licenses dietitians, so passing the examination is a step toward practice rather than the end of it; confirm current requirements with the state board.
Related Programs
- Alabama Nutrition Programs & Online Degrees
- Jacksonville State University - Jacksonville
- Oakwood University - Huntsville
- Samford University - Birmingham
- Tuskegee University - Tuskegee
- University of Alabama - Tuscaloosa