Eight Arkansas institutions offer nutrition or dietetics coursework, spanning a two-year transfer degree through the master’s. In-state tuition and fees at the public universities cluster tightly around $10.4K to $10.6K a year, while non-resident rates range from about $13.6K at Henderson State to $31.6K at the University of Arkansas.
Arkansas is unusually well supplied with accredited routes, and two of them integrate supervised practice. Arkansas State runs a coordinated program and UAMS a master’s that includes the internship, so students at those two schools do not enter the national internship match as outside applicants. Five more schools offer accredited didactic coursework, and Arkansas requires a state licence to practise.
Nutrition Programs in Arkansas — Comparison Table
| School | Credentials | Est. Cost | Format | RD Pathway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arkansas State University Jonesboro |
BS Nutrition and Dietetics Coordinated Program in Dietetics — bachelor’s and master’s options |
$10,430 in-state $18,740 out-of-state $10,058 in-state graduate |
Campus and online | Yes — coordinated program includes supervised practice |
| University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Little Rock |
MS in Dietetics — accredited, includes dietetic internship MS Clinical Nutrition |
Graduate rates vary — contact the college | Campus based, central Arkansas rotations | Yes — practice hours built into the master’s |
| Harding University Searcy |
BS Dietetics — accredited DPD MS Applied Dietetics Practice — accredited graduate program |
Private rates — verify with the university | Master’s online and competency-based | Yes — at both the didactic and graduate stage |
| University of Arkansas Fayetteville |
BS Human Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited DPD BS Food, Nutrition and Health |
$10,497 in-state $31,551 out-of-state |
Campus based; evening didactic courses available | Yes — didactic only; internship applied for separately |
| University of Central Arkansas Conway |
BS Nutrition, dietetics — accredited DPD | Verify with the university | Campus based | Yes — didactic only |
| Ouachita Baptist University Arkadelphia |
BS Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited DPD | Private rates — verify with the university | Campus based, private | Yes — didactic only |
| Henderson State University Arkadelphia |
BS Family and Consumer Sciences, dietetics specialization — accredited DPD | $10,560 in-state $13,620 out-of-state |
Campus based | Yes — didactic only; confirm current status |
| Black River Technical College Pocahontas |
Nutrition and dietetics coursework — two-year transfer to UCA | Community college rates — verify | Campus based | No — transfer pathway; technician accreditation appears lapsed |
Public university figures are 2025–26 annualised tuition and fees from the Arkansas Division of Higher Education and exclude housing. Private and community college rates should be confirmed directly. Verify all current rates before applying.
Which Arkansas Nutrition Program Fits You
Choose Arkansas State if you want coursework and practice hours in one program. It runs the state’s coordinated program in dietetics, available at bachelor’s and master’s level, so there is no separate internship match. Its bachelor’s is also offered online, and its out-of-state rate of $18,740 is the lowest at any Arkansas research university.
Choose UAMS if you already hold a bachelor’s. Its Master of Science in Dietetics includes the internship, with rotations across hospitals, school food services, and clinics in central Arkansas. It is graduate-only, so it cannot serve a beginner.
Choose Harding if you want the graduate stage online and wherever you live. Its Master of Science in applied dietetics practice is competency-based, delivered online, and lets students complete supervised learning in their own communities. It specialises in behavioural health and eating disorder practice, which nothing else in the state does.
Choose the University of Arkansas if you want the largest department and evening scheduling. The Human Nutrition and Dietetics degree is accredited, and the university offers evening didactic coursework, which suits students already working. Non-residents should note the $31.6K rate is the highest in the state.
Choose Henderson State if you want the lowest out-of-state rate. At $13,620 for non-residents it is less than half what the University of Arkansas charges, and the dietetics specialisation is accredited.
Arkansas Nutrition Schools
Arkansas State University
Arkansas State in Jonesboro runs the only coordinated program in the state, which changes the shape of the route considerably.
- BS Nutrition and Dietetics — also available online
- Coordinated Program in Dietetics — bachelor’s and master’s options, combining coursework with supervised practice
The coordinated structure means graduates complete their practice hours inside the program rather than competing nationally for an internship placement. For a student weighing certainty of completion, that is the most consequential difference between Arkansas schools.
The bachelor’s is also delivered online, which matters in a state where the accredited programs are otherwise concentrated in Jonesboro, Fayetteville, Conway, Searcy, and Arkadelphia — none of them close to each other. For a student in the Delta or the south of the state, online delivery may be the only realistic access to an accredited degree.
Confirm which version of the program you are entering, since the coordinated route exists at two levels and the 2024 graduate degree requirement means the bachelor’s alone no longer reaches the credential.
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
UAMS in Little Rock offers graduate dietetics through its College of Health Professions and its Department of Dietetics and Nutrition.
- MS in Dietetics — accredited, includes the dietetic internship
- MS in Clinical Nutrition
The department trains advanced-level practitioners, educators, and clinical specialists, with affiliations across hospitals, school food services, and clinics in central Arkansas supplementing the primary training sites. Its accreditation was renewed following a 2019 site visit and runs to 2028.
The clinical emphasis is genuine rather than nominal. UAMS is the state’s academic health centre, and the department’s stated purpose includes developing and applying new techniques in clinical nutrition and advancing nutritional care for Arkansans specifically, which shapes where graduates tend to place.
UAMS notes that completing the MS with internship does not by itself guarantee registration or licensure, and that students are responsible for meeting those requirements. It is also graduate-entry only, so a student starting from high school needs a bachelor’s elsewhere first.
Harding University
Harding is a private Christian university in Searcy offering accredited programs at both stages of the route.
- BS Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- MS Applied Dietetics Practice — accredited under ACEND’s Future Education Model for graduate programs
The master’s is the distinctive one. Harding describes it as the first of its kind in Arkansas and among few nationally that are competency-based and allow students to complete online coursework and supervised learning wherever they are located. Its focus is behavioural health and eating disorder practice, preparing graduates for hospitals, outpatient clinics, rehabilitation centres, and long-term care.
The curriculum emphasises Christian principles alongside clinical content, which is worth knowing before applying. Tuition is private-university rates; confirm directly.
University of Arkansas
The flagship in Fayetteville houses dietetics within its School of Human Environmental Sciences.
- BS Human Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- BS Food, Nutrition and Health — non-credentialing
The program’s stated mission is preparing graduates for practice across Arkansas and beyond, and it offers evening didactic coursework, which is unusual and useful for students who work daytime hours. Graduates are eligible for supervised practice and graduate study leading to the credentialing exam.
The residency gap is the widest in the state, $10,497 against $31,551. Non-resident students should compare Arkansas State at $18,740 or Henderson State at $13,620 before committing, though the university operates a non-resident tuition award that offsets part of the difference for qualifying students — ask about it directly rather than assuming the published rate is what you would pay.
University of Central Arkansas
UCA in Conway runs its dietetics coursework through the Department of Nutrition and Family Sciences.
- BS Nutrition, dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
UCA also anchors the state’s clearest community college transfer route, holding a published two-plus-two agreement with Black River Technical College that maps sixty lower-division credits into its Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. That makes it the natural destination for students starting at a two-year college.
UCA’s program director is listed among ACEND’s approved program contacts, and the department carries the state’s clearest published pathway documentation, mapping course-by-course equivalencies for transferring students. That level of published detail is rare and worth using if you are planning a transfer.
Confirm current tuition and the transfer agreement terms directly, since articulation agreements are renegotiated periodically and the guarantee is tied to your year of initial enrolment rather than your year of transfer.
Ouachita Baptist University
Ouachita Baptist is a private university in Arkadelphia offering an accredited undergraduate dietetics degree.
- BS Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
It is one of two accredited programs in Arkadelphia, a town of under eleven thousand, alongside Henderson State. For students weighing the two, the practical differences are cost structure and institutional character rather than accreditation status.
As a private institution its published rates differ substantially from the public universities above. Private schools frequently discount heavily through institutional aid, so the sticker price is a poor guide — run the net price calculator before ruling it out on cost.
Henderson State University
Henderson State, also in Arkadelphia, houses dietetics inside a Family and Consumer Sciences degree.
- BS Family and Consumer Sciences, dietetics specialization — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
The program emphasises individualised attention, one-to-one advising with a registered dietitian, and hands-on learning at local healthcare facilities and food service organisations. Its non-resident rate of $13,620 is the lowest of any Arkansas university offering accredited dietetics.
Verify accreditation currency before applying. The most recent confirmation we could locate is a 2020 university announcement of reaccreditation through 2028, and Henderson State has restructured a number of degree programs since then. Contact the program director directly.
Black River Technical College
Black River in Pocahontas is a two-year public college serving northeast Arkansas. It maintains a nutrition and dietetics program with its own director.
- Nutrition and dietetics coursework — structured as a two-plus-two transfer into UCA’s Bachelor of Science in Dietetics
The published agreement allows up to sixty credits at Black River, with the remaining sixty at UCA, forty of which must be upper division. For a northeast Arkansas student this is the cheapest entry into an accredited dietetics degree.
Its ACEND dietetic technician accreditation appears to have lapsed — one accreditation listing shows a term ending in 2021 and a Commission on Dietetic Registration list marks the technician program closed. Treat it as a transfer pathway rather than a technician credential, and confirm current status with the college.
How to Choose a Nutrition Program in Arkansas
Who supplies your supervised practice
This is the sharpest division in Arkansas. Arkansas State’s coordinated program and the UAMS master’s both contain the practice hours; Harding’s graduate program builds supervised learning around where the student already lives. Everyone else produces a verification statement and then competes for a placement. Given the internship match is the most common failure point in the RD route, that difference is worth more than a few thousand dollars of tuition.
In-state rates are near identical, non-resident rates are not
Arkansas’s public universities charge within a few hundred dollars of each other in state, so residents should decide on program structure rather than price. For non-residents the spread is enormous — $13,620 at Henderson State against $31,551 at the University of Arkansas — which is a difference of more than $70K across four years.
Delivery and entry point
Arkansas State offers its bachelor’s online and Harding delivers its master’s online with local supervised learning, so distance students have real options. UAMS is graduate-entry only and cannot serve someone starting out. Black River provides the least expensive first two years, feeding into UCA.
Public, private, and what the sticker price hides
Six of the eight schools here are public and two, Harding and Ouachita Baptist, are private. The published gap between them is large, but private institutions in Arkansas discount aggressively through institutional aid, and the two private programs are the ones offering something structurally different — Harding’s online competency-based master’s has no public equivalent in the state. Compare net price rather than list price before deciding.
Arkadelphia has two accredited programs
Henderson State and Ouachita Baptist both run accredited dietetics programs in the same small town, one public and one private. For a student weighing them, the deciding factors are cost structure, institutional character, and the currency of accreditation rather than curriculum content, since both are didactic programs producing the same verification statement.
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. Five of the eight schools here stop at the bachelor’s, so plan the graduate step from the start.
Nutrition Licensure and Credentials in Arkansas
Arkansas licenses dietitians through the Arkansas Dietetics Licensing Board. Licences renew annually and require twelve continuing education units, with a renewal fee that has been subject to temporary reductions — confirm the current amount rather than relying on a published figure.
The state licence sits on top of the national CDR requirements: an ACEND verification statement, a master’s degree, supervised practice hours, and a passing exam score. Confirm current licensure rules directly with the board before making enrolment decisions.
Before applying anywhere in Arkansas, verify three things directly with the school: the current ACEND accreditation status of the specific program, which matters most at Henderson State and Black River, that the tuition rate quoted matches your residency and the coming academic year, and — if supervised practice certainty matters to you — whether the program you are entering includes it or expects you to find it. Individual school profiles for these programs are in progress and will be linked here as they publish.