University of Florida Nutrition Programs

University of Florida offers 2 Nutrition and Dietetics credentials profiled here:

  • B.S., Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD)
  • M.S.–Dietetic Internship (MS-DI), combined and accredited

UF also offers a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences (a pre-health, non-accredited track built for medical, dental, and other professional-school admission) and a plain M.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition (a research degree with Food Science or Nutritional Sciences tracks, no internship attached). Neither is profiled in full below, and neither leads to RD eligibility on its own.

Program Tracks Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
B.S., Dietetics (DPD)~$25,500 total (derived); ~$15,500 via UF Online (derived)4 years (8 semesters)120–121
M.S.–Dietetic Internship (MS-DI)~$25,500 total (derived from the program’s own annual estimate)5 semesters across roughly 2 academic years42 (33 graded + 9 S/U)

UF’s defining facts are structural rather than financial: its tuition is genuinely linear per credit hour, among the lowest in-state rates of Florida’s accredited programs, and its MS-DI runs a competitive pediatric-rotation track, up to 2 of its 8 annual seats, placing interns at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital or Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. UF’s own DPD graduates get a DICAS-free fast application option into the MS-DI, but the program still recruits nationally through DICAS for the remaining seats, unlike FIU’s internally-only internship.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesB.S. (DPD or Nutritional Sciences); combined M.S.–Dietetic Internship (MS-DI); separate research M.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition
FormatCampus (DPD and MS-DI); UF Online undergraduate option available for eligible coursework
Credit Hours120–121 (B.S., either major); 42 (MS-DI: 33 graded credits + 9 S/U credits, per the program’s own advising page)
ACEND AccreditationYes: the DPD and the MS-DI, both fully accredited. The Nutritional Sciences major and the plain research M.S. carry no ACEND accreditation.
RD/RDN EligibilityYes, via the DPD plus the MS-DI plus the CDR exam. The Nutritional Sciences major and the plain research M.S. do not lead to RD eligibility on their own.
Supervised PracticeMinimum 1,000 hours per CDR/ACEND standards, delivered across a full-time internship semester (January–May) with no spring break during that term; up to 8 interns admitted per year, up to 2 in the pediatric rotation track
SpecializationsMS-DI: an optional pediatric internship rotation track (Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital or Nicklaus Children’s Hospital), up to 2 of 8 seats
Distinctive CourseworkDIE 6241/6242, Advanced Medical Nutrition Therapy 1 & 2; DIE 6942, Dietetic Internship I (9 credits); a mock RDN exam serving as the program’s final exam
Research RequirementNon-thesis M.S.; HUN 6835 (Research Projects in Nutrition and Dietetics, 2 credits) substitutes for a thesis
Entrance ExamsGRE not required for the MS-DI, though scores may be submitted; not stated for the B.S.
IntakeMS-DI: single annual cycle, Fall start; UF Graduate School and DICAS applications (for non-UF-DPD applicants) both due December 15
GPA Floor2.5 in critical-tracking courses (dropping to 2.0 upper-division later) for the DPD; 3.0 minimum undergraduate GPA and 3.0 graduate GPA before entering the full-time internship for the MS-DI
Tuition$212.71/credit (published, in-state undergraduate); see Tuition section
Institutional AccreditationSACSCOC

B.S., Dietetics (DPD)

The estimated tuition for the B.S. in Dietetics at UF is approximately $25,524 in-state and $123,544 non-resident (120–121 credits across 8 semesters at UF’s published per-credit rate; derived, see Tuition). A UF Online in-state student pays approximately $15,502 for the same credit load, using the UF Online per-credit rate. The program requires 120–121 credit hours and is a conventional four-year, eight-semester sequence.

UF houses dietetics in the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department (FSHN), within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. The Dietetics major and the separate Nutritional Sciences major sit in the same department; only Dietetics carries ACEND accreditation.

DPD Curriculum

UF’s own critical-tracking system locks eight separate semester checkpoints. The catalog specifies a required course (or pair) that must be completed in each of the program’s eight semesters, from College Algebra and Trigonometry and General Chemistry I in semester one through Nutrition and Metabolism in semester eight, each gated by a 2.5 GPA requirement in critical-tracking courses (2.0 upper-division GPA in the later semesters). Falling behind on any single checkpoint can push the entire remaining sequence back a term.

The senior year concentrates the clinical coursework. Semesters seven and eight run Medical Nutrition Therapy Applications Parts 1 and 2, Nutrition and Disease Parts 1 and 2, Food Systems Management with its lab, Nutrition Counseling and Communication, and a Dietetics Seminar, on top of Food Chemistry and an Experimental Foods Laboratory.

  • HUN 2201: Fundamentals of Human Nutrition
  • HUN 3403: Nutrition through the Life Cycle
  • DIE 3310: Community Nutrition
  • DIE 4125 / 4125L: Food Systems Management and Laboratory
  • DIE 4245 / DIE 4246: Medical Nutrition Therapy Applications, Parts 1 and 2
  • HUN 4221: Nutrition and Metabolism
  • HUN 4445 / HUN 4446: Nutrition and Disease, Parts 1 and 2
  • DIE 4436: Nutrition Counseling and Communication
  • DIE 4505: Dietetics Seminar

More curriculum details are available here.

You Should Know

UF’s own catalog states plainly that completing the DPD allows graduates to “compete for graduate student and dietetic internships,” language that signals a competitive process rather than a guarantee, even for UF’s own MS-DI. The DICAS-free option described below softens that competition for UF’s own DPD graduates but does not remove it entirely.

B.S. Admissions

  • Standard UF or transfer admission; State of Florida Common Course Prerequisites accepted from transfer students
  • 2.5 GPA in critical-tracking courses at each semester checkpoint; 2.0 UF GPA overall in early semesters
  • 2.0 upper-division GPA required from semester five onward

M.S.–Dietetic Internship (MS-DI)

UF’s own program cost sheet estimates MS-DI tuition and fees at approximately $12,740/year in-state and $30,134/year non-resident, which derives to roughly $25,480 in-state and $60,268 non-resident across the program’s roughly two-year span (published annual figures, program’s own estimate; total derived, see Tuition). The program requires 42 total credits (33 graded, 9 S/U) across 5 semesters, with a maximum completion window of 5 years.

The MS-DI combines a non-thesis master’s with an ACEND-accredited dietetic internship in one program, culminating in a mock RDN exam that serves as the program’s final exam. Unlike FIU’s internally-only internship, UF’s MS-DI recruits nationally: any DPD graduate from an accredited program, not just UF’s own, can apply through DICAS.

MS-DI Curriculum

The full-time internship is concentrated into one intense semester. The first four semesters follow the standard UF academic calendar; the fifth, running January through May, is the full-time internship component, during which all university holidays are observed but there is no spring break.

  • BCH 6206: Advanced Metabolism (3 credits)
  • DIE 6241 / DIE 6242: Advanced Medical Nutrition Therapy 1 & 2 (4 + 3 credits)
  • DIE 6942: Dietetic Internship I (9 credits)
  • HUN 6940: Community Nutrition Practicum (WIC and elective rotations, 3 credits)
  • DIE 6949: Clinical Nutrition Practicum (Renal and Diabetes rotations, 3 credits)
  • HUN 6245: Advanced Human Nutrition (3 credits)
  • At least one elective from Global Nutrition, or a specific nutrient-focused course (lipids, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, or minerals)

More program details are available here.

You Should Know

UF’s own program advising page states the MS-DI includes “33 graded credits of graduate courses and 9 credits of S/U graduate credits,” for 42 total. Reconstructing the published required-course table does not cleanly sum to that 33/9 split (the listed graded courses alone total closer to 30, before the 9-credit DIE 6942 internship course). The 42-credit grand total is clear and repeated on the program’s own page; the exact graded-versus-S/U breakdown is not fully reconcilable from the published course list alone. The state hub’s cited figure of “33 credits” for this program reflects only the graded portion and understates the true total.

MS-DI Admissions

UF admits up to 8 MS-DI students per year, all beginning in Fall, with up to 2 of those 8 seats reserved for the pediatric rotation track (Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital or Nicklaus Children’s Hospital).

  • Completed or in-progress accredited DPD, with a Verification Statement or Declaration of Intent
  • Minimum 3.0 undergraduate GPA
  • UF Graduate School application due December 15
  • Non-UF-DPD applicants: a separate DICAS application also due December 15, 11:59 PM
  • UF’s own DPD students may use a DICAS-free application option instead, with UF Graduate School application due December 15 of the prior year for a Fall start roughly 18 months later, and admission decisions by March 1
  • GRE not required; may be submitted
  • Pediatric-track applicants must state that interest explicitly in their personal statement

Tuition

UF publishes a genuinely linear per-credit tuition rate rather than a block or tiered one, the cleanest structure of any Florida school documented so far. In-state undergraduate tuition and fees run $212.71 per credit; non-resident runs $1,029.53 per credit. UF Online carries its own lower rate: $129.18 per credit in-state (bare rate, before the Activity, Athletic, Health, and Transportation fees that don’t apply to fully online students) or $175.39 with the fees that do apply; non-resident UF Online runs $552.62 to $598.83 per credit depending on the same fee distinction.

General graduate tuition (courses numbered 5000–9999) runs $530.69 per credit in-state and $1,327.88 per credit non-resident. The MS-DI program publishes its own annual cost estimate separately, which is the more authoritative figure for that program specifically (see below); it does not match the general per-credit rate exactly, particularly for non-residents.

Estimated Totals by Credential

  • B.S., Dietetics (120–121 credits / 8 semesters): approximately $25,524 resident, $123,544 non-resident, using the published per-credit rate × 120 (derived)
  • B.S. via UF Online (same credit load): approximately $15,502 in-state (bare rate), using the UF Online per-credit rate × 120 (derived)
  • MS-DI (5 semesters, roughly 2 academic years): approximately $25,480 resident, $60,268 non-resident, using the program’s own published annual cost estimate × 2 (published annual figure; multi-year total derived)

The MS-DI program’s own cost sheet also publishes a fuller annual cost of attendance, not just tuition: approximately $26,073/year in-state living on campus, $27,023/year in-state living off campus, $44,417/year non-resident, or $21,923/year in-state living with parents, each including tuition, books, transportation, living expenses, required health insurance, a background check, safety shoes, and professional membership dues. Liability insurance is covered by the program itself.

Be aware that:

  • The state hub’s cited DPD figures ($6,381 in-state, $30,886 non-resident, annual) match this profile’s derived annual totals from the published per-credit rate exactly (at 30 credits/year), confirming both sources agree on the underlying rate.
  • The MS-DI program’s own published annual tuition-and-fees estimate ($12,740 in-state) is close to the general graduate per-credit rate applied to a typical 24-credit annual load ($12,736.56), but its non-resident figure ($30,134) runs meaningfully below the general non-resident per-credit rate applied the same way (about $31,869), a roughly $1,700 gap. Use the program’s own published figure for MS-DI planning rather than the general institutional rate.
  • UF Online’s lower per-credit rate applies only to designated UF Online sections; a student mixing on-campus and UF Online coursework should confirm which rate applies to each course individually.
  • Rates cited here come from UF’s own 2025–26 Tuition and Fees schedule and the MS-DI program’s own estimated costs page. Verify current rates before enrolling.

On a straight per-credit basis, UF is the least expensive in-state accredited bachelor’s route documented among Florida’s public universities so far, and UF Online cuts that further for students who can complete coursework remotely. The MS-DI’s published annual cost of attendance, not just tuition, is worth budgeting from directly, since it already bundles the health insurance, background check, and safety-shoe costs a self-funded estimate would otherwise miss.

Why Choose This Nutrition Program?

Best suited for students who want the lowest-cost in-state accredited pathway in Florida, transparent per-credit pricing, and, for interested students, a rare pediatric-nutrition specialty track within the internship itself.

Choose UF if cost transparency and a low in-state rate matter most. A genuinely linear per-credit tuition structure, the lowest in-state DPD total found among Florida’s accredited programs so far, and a UF Online option that cuts undergraduate cost further make UF the value play among the schools built so far.

Choose the MS-DI’s pediatric track if you know you want pediatric nutrition. Placement at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital or Nicklaus Children’s Hospital is a specific, named specialization not documented at any other Florida or Louisiana school profiled so far, though it is competitive within an already-competitive program (up to 2 of 8 annual seats).

Choose UF over FIU if you want to keep external options open. UF’s MS-DI recruits nationally through DICAS, so a DPD graduate from another school can still apply; FIU’s internship is closed to everyone but FIU’s own M.S. students. UF’s own DPD graduates get a lighter-weight DICAS-free path, not an exclusive one.

The honest drawback: the MS-DI is still genuinely competitive at only 8 seats a year, UF’s own catalog language stops short of promising placement even for UF’s own graduates, and the program’s own credit-count breakdown (33 graded plus 9 S/U) does not cleanly reconcile against its own published course list, which is worth asking the program to clarify directly.

Accreditation

The University of Florida is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), which governs the university’s authority to award degrees, the transferability of its credits, admission to its graduate programs, and eligibility for federal financial aid. This institutional accreditation covers every program described here.

Programmatic accreditation is narrower and comes from the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND), the only accreditor relevant to RD eligibility. ACEND accredits two named programs at UF: the Didactic Program in Dietetics, delivered through the B.S. in Dietetics, and the combined MS-Dietetic Internship program.

Two credentials named here fall outside that ACEND scope: the B.S. in Nutritional Sciences and the plain research M.S. in Food Science and Human Nutrition. This is standard for a pre-health science track and a research-only graduate degree sharing a department with an accredited program, and is not itself a deficiency.

Graduates of the DPD may apply to ACEND-accredited supervised-practice programs, including UF’s own MS-DI or programs at other institutions. On completing the MS-DI, which combines the graduate-degree and supervised-practice requirements in one accredited program, graduates become eligible to sit for the CDR’s national RDN examination once they also meet current Commission on Dietetic Registration requirements. Graduates of the Nutritional Sciences major or the plain research M.S. alone are not RD-eligible on those credentials.

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