Five Mississippi schools offer nutrition or dietetics degrees, spanning an associate transfer degree through the master’s. In-state tuition and fees at the public universities run roughly $7.7K to $10.1K a year, against a state average near $8.8K. Bachelor’s degrees take four years; the graduate routes add one to two more.
Four of the five carry ACEND accreditation, which is unusually dense for a state this size, but they divide by route. Southern Miss, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State run accredited undergraduate coursework; Ole Miss and Mississippi State also run graduate routes that include supervised practice. Jones County Junior College is a transfer degree. Mississippi separately requires a state licence to provide medical nutrition therapy, so the national credential alone is not enough to practise here.
Nutrition Programs in Mississippi — Comparison Table
| School | Credentials | Est. Cost | Format | RD Pathway |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg |
BS Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited DPD MS Nutrition and Food Systems — fully online MS Nutrition and Food Systems, Dietetics Practice — includes internship |
~$9K/year in-state | Campus in Hattiesburg; master’s fully online | Yes — DPD plus a master’s with dietetics practice |
| University of Mississippi University |
BS Dietetics and Nutrition — accredited DPD MS Food and Nutrition Services — Coordinated Program supplies supervised practice |
~$9.3K/year in-state | Campus based | Yes — didactic then coordinated graduate practice |
| Mississippi State University Mississippi State |
BS Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, Food and Nutrition concentration — accredited DPD MS — 30 credits, thesis Dietetic internship — DI or DI with MS |
~$10.1K/year in-state | Campus based | Yes — DPD, plus an accredited internship on the same campus |
| Delta State University Cleveland |
BS Family and Consumer Sciences, Nutrition/Dietetics — 136 credits, 1,200 practice hours | ~$7.7K/year in-state | Campus based | Check first — listed as a coordinated program, but confirm current status |
| Jones County Junior College Ellisville |
AA Food & Nutrition and Dietetics — two-year transfer | Community college rates — verify | Campus based | No — transfer pathway into a four-year dietetics degree |
Costs are approximate in-state figures for tuition and mandatory fees, drawn from state board decisions rather than individual school pages, and exclude housing. Out-of-state rates run substantially higher. Verify current rates directly with each school before applying.
Which Mississippi Nutrition Program Fits You
Choose Southern Miss if you need to study online at graduate level. Its Master of Science in Nutrition and Food Systems is delivered fully online and built for working professionals, covering advanced clinical nutrition, food systems management, and practice-based research. A separate Dietetics Practice concentration folds in the internship.
Choose Ole Miss if you want the didactic degree and the coordinated practice in one place. Its Coordinated Program serves as the supervised practice component of the Master of Science in Food and Nutrition Services, so a student can move from the bachelor’s into practice hours without changing institutions.
Choose Mississippi State if you want an accredited internship on the same campus as your degree. It runs the DPD inside the Food and Nutrition concentration and operates its own dietetic internship, available either alone or paired with a master’s. Enrolment in the dietetics track is limited.
Choose Delta State if cost is the binding constraint. It is the least expensive four-year option in the state and has held tuition flat while other Mississippi universities raised theirs. Confirm the current accreditation status before you commit.
Choose Jones County Junior College if you want two cheap years first. The associate transfers into state universities through Mississippi’s articulation agreement, and it covers the chemistry, anatomy, physiology, and microbiology that dietetics degrees require anyway.
Mississippi Nutrition Schools
University of Southern Mississippi
USM in Hattiesburg runs its nutrition programs through the School of Kinesiology and Nutrition and offers the state’s most flexible graduate delivery.
- BS Nutrition and Dietetics — accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- MS Nutrition and Food Systems — fully online, two concentration options
- MS Nutrition and Food Systems, Dietetics Practice concentration — includes the dietetic internship
The undergraduate curriculum is science-heavy, covering nutrient metabolism, food microbiology, and diet-disease relationships, and points toward clinical dietetics, community nutrition, food service management, and research. The online master’s is the differentiator: it is designed around working professionals rather than full-time campus students, with nine program-specific scholarships available.
The program advertises strong exam and internship placement figures, but publishes them without a cohort or year attached. Ask the department for current outcome data with the reporting period specified before treating those numbers as decisive.
University of Mississippi
Ole Miss houses dietetics in the Department of Nutrition and Hospitality Management within the School of Applied Sciences, and covers both the didactic and the supervised practice stages.
- BS Dietetics and Nutrition — four-year accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
- MS Food and Nutrition Services — the Coordinated Program serves as its supervised practice component
The structure is the appeal. Rather than finishing a bachelor’s and entering the national internship match as an outside applicant, a student can continue into the coordinated graduate program and complete practice hours in place. The program combines graduate coursework with exposure across education, research, and practice.
Ole Miss notes that Mississippi does not license Nutrition and Dietetic Technicians, so the technician route has no state recognition here. It also states it has not determined whether its curriculum meets licensure requirements outside Mississippi — check that directly if you intend to practise in another state.
Mississippi State University
Mississippi State runs dietetics through the Department of Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, and is the only Mississippi school offering the degree and an accredited internship on one campus.
- BS Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion — the accredited DPD sits inside the Food and Nutrition concentration
- MS Food Science, Nutrition and Health Promotion, Nutrition — 30 credits, thesis and defence required, 3.0 GPA minimum
- Dietetic internship — available as an internship alone or combined with the master’s
The internship is the differentiator, and it is ACEND-accredited in its own right. Students who complete the DPD apply to supervised practice, and having an accredited internship in the same department removes some of the geographic uncertainty that DPD graduates elsewhere face.
Entry to the DPD requires a 3.0 GPA and a C or better in required courses, and enrolment is limited. The master’s is research-oriented, built around advanced biochemistry and statistics with a personalised study plan, rather than a clinical credentialing route on its own.
Delta State University
Delta State in Cleveland offers nutrition and dietetics inside a Family and Consumer Sciences degree, and is the cheapest four-year option in the state.
- BS Family and Consumer Sciences, Nutrition/Dietetics concentration — 136 credit hours, at least 1,200 supervised practice hours, 2.8 GPA minimum
Coursework covers medical nutrition therapy, food science, community nutrition, and management, with rotations across clinical, community, and food service settings and a capstone requirement. Delta State has deliberately held tuition flat while other Mississippi universities raised theirs, as part of a broader effort to protect access for lower-income students.
Accreditation needs a direct check. Directories list Delta State as a coordinated program and the university has publicly referred to one, but the most recent confirmation we could locate is several years old, and bachelor’s-level coordinated programs were widely restructured after the 2024 graduate degree requirement. Contact the program director before enrolling.
Jones County Junior College
Jones County in Ellisville is a two-year public college. Its Associate of Arts in Food and Nutrition and Dietetics is a transfer degree, not a terminal credential.
- AA Food and Nutrition and Dietetics — roughly two years
The curriculum pairs general education with chemistry, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, and nutrition coursework — the science base every dietetics bachelor’s requires. Credits move into state universities through Mississippi’s articulation agreement.
The value depends entirely on the transfer landing where you need it. Confirm the articulation with your intended four-year school before enrolling, and note that Mississippi does not license dietetic technicians, so this degree is a stepping stone rather than a route to independent practice.
How to Choose a Nutrition Program in Mississippi
Who supplies your supervised practice
All three of the larger universities produce a verification statement, but they differ in what follows. Ole Miss offers a coordinated graduate program, Mississippi State runs its own accredited internship, and Southern Miss folds practice into a master’s concentration. That makes Mississippi unusually well supplied compared with states where DPD graduates must compete nationally for placement.
Delivery and cost spread
Southern Miss is the only Mississippi school delivering a nutrition master’s fully online; everything else is campus based. On cost, the spread between the cheapest and most expensive four-year option is only a few thousand dollars a year in state, so location, accreditation, and practice route should weigh more heavily than price.
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. Supervised practice runs to a minimum of 1,000 hours. A Mississippi bachelor’s alone no longer qualifies anyone, so plan the graduate step from the start.
Where you can start
Jones County, Delta State, Southern Miss, Ole Miss, and Mississippi State all accept students with no prior college coursework. The graduate routes at Ole Miss, Mississippi State, and Southern Miss require a bachelor’s first, and the coordinated and internship options generally require an accredited verification statement.
Nutrition Licensure and Credentials in Mississippi
Mississippi operates practice exclusivity: providing medical nutrition therapy requires a state licence, not merely the national credential. Licensure runs through the Mississippi State Department of Health’s Office of Licensure, with an application fee around $100 and the Licensed Dietitian designation on approval.
The state does not license Nutrition and Dietetic Technicians, so the NDTR route carries no state recognition in Mississippi. Alongside the licence, CDR requires an ACEND verification statement, a master’s degree, supervised practice hours, and a passing exam score. Confirm current fees and regulations with the Department of Health before relying on them, as they change through rulemaking.
Before applying anywhere in Mississippi, verify three things directly with the school: the current ACEND accreditation status of the specific concentration you are entering, particularly at Delta State, that the tuition rate quoted matches the coming academic year, and — if you are starting at Jones County — that the articulation agreement to your intended university is still active. Individual school profiles for these programs are in progress and will be linked here as they publish.