Southern University and A&M College Nutrition Programs

Southern University and A&M College offers 2 Nutrition and Dietetics credentials profiled here:

  • B.S., Family and Consumer Sciences — Dietetics Concentration (Didactic Program in Dietetics)
  • Dietetic Internship

The B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences also runs three other concentrations: Food Management, Nutrition, Health and Wellness, and Nutrition and Health Informatics. None of the three carries ACEND accreditation or leads to RD eligibility; Food Management is described briefly below, and the other two are named here because Southern’s own concentrations page does not describe them in the detail this profile requires.

Program Tracks Overview

ProgramEst. TuitionEst. DurationCredit Hours
B.S., Family and Consumer Sciences (Dietetics Concentration)~$39,800 total (derived)4 years (8 semesters)120
Dietetic InternshipNot clearly stated as a single total; 12 graduate credits billed at graduate rates, duration disputed on the program’s own pagesDisputed: the program’s own pages state both 9 months and 18 months12 graduate credits (does not by itself constitute a master’s degree)

Southern’s defining fact is that its own pages disagree with each other on points that matter for a prospective RD candidate. The Didactic Program in Dietetics “currently holds probationary accreditation status” by ACEND, according to the program’s own concentrations page. The separate Dietetic Internship page states its own accreditation without a probationary qualifier, but contradicts itself internally on the internship’s length (9 months in one section, 18 months in another) and its supervised-practice hour minimum (1,200 hours in one section, 1,084 in another). None of this makes Southern’s dietetics pathway unusable, but every fact below should be reconfirmed directly with the program before enrolling.

Quick Facts

FeatureDetails
Program TypesB.S. (4 concentrations: Dietetics, Food Management, Nutrition Health and Wellness, Nutrition and Health Informatics); Dietetic Internship
FormatCampus (B.S. and Internship; Southern also runs separate fully online undergraduate and graduate tuition tracks, but nothing on the pages reviewed ties nutrition/dietetics courses to them specifically)
Credit Hours120 (B.S., all concentrations); 12 graduate credits (Internship, not a full master’s on its own)
ACEND AccreditationDietetics concentration (DPD): yes, but on probationary status per the program’s own page. Dietetic Internship: yes, stated without a probationary qualifier on its own separate page. The other three B.S. concentrations carry no ACEND accreditation.
RD/RDN EligibilityConditionally yes for the Dietetics concentration plus the Internship, but the Internship’s 12 graduate credits do not by themselves satisfy the CDR’s post-2024 master’s-degree requirement; a separate master’s degree is needed. No for the other three concentrations.
Supervised PracticeDisputed on the program’s own pages: 1,200 hours in one section, 1,084 hours in another, over a duration stated as both 9 months and 18 months. Maximum 12 interns admitted per year.
SpecializationsNone formal beyond the four B.S. concentrations
Distinctive CourseworkInternship: FCSC 501 (Preprofessional Practice: Clinical Nutrition) and FCSC 502 (Preprofessional Practice: Food Service Systems Management)
Research RequirementNot applicable; no research-track nutrition master’s documented at Southern as of this review
Entrance ExamsNot stated for the B.S. or the Internship on the pages reviewed
IntakeInternship: appears to admit one annual cohort beginning in August, capped at 12 students, via DICAS
GPA Floor2.00 overall to enter the Department; a 3.0 curriculum GPA plus “B” or better in Human Nutrition and Food courses to receive the DPD verification statement
Tuition$415/credit (derived, in-state undergraduate); see Tuition section
Institutional AccreditationSACSCOC

B.S., Family and Consumer Sciences (Dietetics Concentration)

The estimated tuition for the B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences, Dietetics Concentration, at Southern is approximately $39,800 in-state and $69,200 non-resident (120 credits across 8 semesters at Southern’s published full-time rate; derived, see Tuition). The program requires 120 credit hours and is a conventional four-year, eight-semester sequence.

Southern houses nutrition inside the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, one of four concentrations under a single B.S. degree title. Admission to the department itself is open (24 completed semester hours, 2.00 GPA), which is a materially lower bar than the competitive, capped admission processes at Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State; the selectivity at Southern shows up later, in the requirements to actually receive a verification statement.

Dietetics Concentration Curriculum

Southern’s program page describes the DPD’s course content (food, nutrition, nutrition therapy, foodservice systems management, business, economics, computer science, culinary arts, sociology, plus biochemistry, physiology, microbiology, anatomy, and chemistry) without publishing a full numbered curriculum checklist of the kind Louisiana Tech, Nicholls, and LSU each publish. Confirm the exact course sequence and credit distribution against the current University Catalog rather than this list, which is descriptive rather than a checklist.

More program details are available here.

You Should Know

The DPD “currently holds probationary accreditation status” by ACEND, according to Southern’s own program page. Probationary status is a real, recognized ACEND designation, distinct from full accreditation or candidate status, typically applied when a program has fallen short of one or more accreditation standards and is working to correct it. A probationary program’s current graduates can still generally be eligible to apply to supervised-practice programs, but the status itself signals risk that a fully or newly accredited program does not carry. Ask the program directly what the probation covers and its expected resolution timeline before enrolling.

Southern’s own DPD requirements are more explicit than most about students who are not on track: advisors are directed to counsel students who have not hit required GPA and grade benchmarks to consider “related career options that do not require dietetic registration” rather than continuing toward a verification statement they are unlikely to receive. This is unusually candid self-disclosure and is worth taking at face value: the program’s completion requirements (a “B” or better in every Human Nutrition and Food course, a “C” or better in every other required DPD course, and a 3.0 curriculum GPA) are meaningfully higher than the 2.00 GPA needed just to graduate from the university.

Other Concentrations

Food Management prepares students for foodservice and hospitality management roles (airlines, cruise lines, hospitals, universities, correctional facilities, catering) and explicitly does not prepare students for a dietetics credential; it includes practical internships as part of its own coursework, separate from the ACEND-accredited Dietetic Internship. Nutrition, Health and Wellness and Nutrition and Health Informatics are named on Southern’s site but were not described in comparable detail on the pages reviewed; confirm their current curricula directly with the department.

B.S. Admissions

  • Open to any student who has completed 24 semester hours in University College with a 2.00 GPA; transfer students accepted
  • To receive the DPD verification statement: a “B” or better in every Human Nutrition and Food course, a “C” or better in every other required DPD course, and a minimum 3.0 curriculum GPA
  • 2.00 overall GPA required for university graduation generally, materially below the DPD’s own 3.0 benchmark

Dietetic Internship

Southern does not publish a single fixed tuition total for its Dietetic Internship; it includes 12 graduate credits (FCSC 501 and FCSC 502) billed at Southern’s graduate rates (see Tuition), plus the internship’s own supervised-practice component. The program’s own pages disagree on how long it runs: one section states “nine months,” another states an “18-month duration,” and a third describes it as “a 9 month or 40 week program” beginning in August and ending in May.

The Internship is a real, separately accredited program: Southern states it “is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics,” without the probationary qualifier attached to the DPD. That makes Southern one of three schools in Louisiana running its own dietetic internship, alongside Louisiana Tech and Nicholls State; LSU runs none.

Dietetic Internship Curriculum

  • FCSC 501: Preprofessional Practice: Clinical Nutrition (fall semester)
  • FCSC 502: Preprofessional Practice: Food Service Systems Management (spring semester)
  • Rotations in community dietetics, food service management, and clinical/MPA nutritional science, ranging 1 to 6 weeks each
  • A comprehensive examination at the end of rotations, requiring an 80% score to pass

More admissions and program details are available here.

You Should Know

Twelve graduate credits do not constitute a master’s degree, and no dedicated M.S. in nutrition, dietetics, or food science was found published at Southern as of this review. Since the CDR has required a minimum of a master’s degree (in any field) for RDN exam eligibility since January 1, 2024, a Southern DPD-plus-Internship graduate needs a separate master’s degree from Southern or elsewhere to become exam-eligible; the internship’s 12 credits alone do not close that gap. The internship page references an “MPA Nutritional Science Degree Plan” without explaining what that credential is or how it relates to the 12-credit internship curriculum. Ask the program directly whether a full graduate degree is built into the internship, offered concurrently, or left entirely to the applicant to arrange elsewhere, since the page as published does not make this clear.

Dietetic Internship Admissions

  • DICAS online application
  • Video Interview Questionnaire (SUDI)
  • Maximum 12 students admitted per year
  • Begins in August; ends in May per the completion-requirements section (contradicted elsewhere on the same page, see above)

Tuition

Southern publishes a genuinely flat full-time undergraduate rate rather than a strict linear per-credit one: general fees total $4,979.00 for 12 or more credit hours per semester, in-state. Dividing that by 12 derives an effective rate of about $415 per credit. A separate flat Out-of-State Fee of $3,675.00/semester (undergraduate) or $3,223.00/semester (graduate) is added on top of the resident total for non-residents, rather than a wholesale non-resident tuition schedule.

Published full-time semester totals, Fall 2026:

  • Undergraduate, 12+ credits/semester, resident: $4,979.00
  • Undergraduate, 12+ credits/semester, non-resident: $8,654.00 ($4,979.00 plus the $3,675.00 out-of-state fee)
  • Graduate, 12+ credits/semester, resident: $5,669.00
  • Graduate, 12+ credits/semester, non-resident: $8,892.00 ($5,669.00 plus the $3,223.00 out-of-state fee)

Estimated Totals by Credential (derived)

  • B.S., Dietetics Concentration (120 credits / 8 semesters): approximately $39,832 resident, $69,232 non-resident, using the published full-time semester total × 8
  • Dietetic Internship (12 graduate credits): using Southern’s part-time graduate fee table, 6 credits/semester across two semesters runs approximately $3,946 resident in tuition and fees for the coursework alone. This excludes whichever additional terms the supervised-practice component spans, since the program’s own pages do not agree on that duration.

Be aware that:

  • The state hub’s cited figure of $9,959 resident annual tuition and fees for Southern matches this profile’s full-time semester total closely: $4,979.00 × 2 = $9,958.00, a one-dollar rounding difference. This is the most consistent tuition match found across the four Louisiana schools documented so far.
  • An Access Fee to e-book courses and materials ($26.50/credit hour) is billed on top of tuition and is not capped at 12 hours; a full-time student pays this on every credit hour enrolled, not just up to a full-time threshold.
  • Southern’s own Dietetic Internship page internally disagrees on both duration (9 months vs. 18 months) and required supervised-practice hours (1,200 vs. 1,084), which makes any cost estimate tied to internship length uncertain. Treat the totals above as a floor, not a ceiling.
  • Rates cited here come from Southern’s own Fall 2026 Schedule of Fees and Expenses. Verify current rates against Southern’s Tuition & Fees page for your specific term and classification.

On tuition alone, Southern is the least expensive of the three schools with a published in-state four-year dietetics total documented so far, and the cheapest of the two schools running their own internship. That cost advantage comes bundled with the state’s least settled documentation: a probationary DPD, an internship page that contradicts itself on length and hours, and no clear published route from the internship’s 12 graduate credits to the master’s degree CDR now requires.

Why Choose This Nutrition Program?

Best suited for students who want an HBCU dietetics pathway with open admission and the lowest sticker price among Louisiana’s accredited routes, and who are willing to independently verify accreditation status and program details before relying on them.

Choose Southern if cost and open access matter most. A 2.00 GPA and 24 completed hours are enough to enter the department, well below the competitive, capped processes at Louisiana Tech and Nicholls, and the four-year bachelor’s total is the lowest of the three schools with a clear in-state figure so far.

Choose Southern’s internship if you want to stay in Louisiana for supervised practice and are comfortable with some uncertainty. It is a real, separately accredited program, one of three in the state, admitting up to 12 interns a year. But its own pages cannot agree on how long it lasts or how many hours it requires, and its 12 graduate credits do not add up to the master’s degree the CDR now requires, so plan for a separate graduate degree regardless of where the internship is completed.

The honest drawback, and the reason this profile leans so heavily on direct verification: Southern’s own published materials contain more internal contradictions than the other three Louisiana schools combined, on exactly the points (accreditation status, internship length, supervised-practice hours, and the path to a master’s degree) that determine whether a graduate actually becomes RD-eligible. None of this means the program does not work; multiple published outcome goals (an 80% one-year CDR pass rate target, 75% of graduates sitting the exam within 12 months) suggest a functioning program behind the inconsistent web pages. It does mean a prospective student should call the program directly and get current answers in writing before enrolling on the strength of the website alone.

Accreditation

Southern University and A&M College 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 Southern: the Didactic Program in Dietetics, delivered through the Dietetics concentration of the B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences, and the Dietetic Internship. The two currently carry different published statuses: the DPD’s own page states probationary accreditation, while the Internship’s own page states accreditation without that qualifier. Confirm both directly with ACEND or the program before treating either as settled.

Three credentials named here fall outside ACEND’s scope: the Food Management, Nutrition Health and Wellness, and Nutrition and Health Informatics concentrations. This is standard for non-clinical concentrations sharing a department with an accredited program and is not itself a deficiency.

Graduates of the Dietetics concentration DPD may apply to ACEND-accredited or probationary-status supervised-practice programs, including but not limited to Southern’s own. On completing supervised practice together with a graduate degree, meeting current Commission on Dietetic Registration requirements, graduates become eligible to sit for the CDR’s national RDN examination; Southern’s own Internship credits alone do not supply that graduate degree. Graduates who complete the DPD’s knowledge requirements without entering an internship may instead sit for the Dietetic Technician, Registered (DTR) exam. Graduates of the other three concentrations are not RD-eligible on those credentials.

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