Department of Health and Human Performance, College of Education and Human Development • Radford, VA • Campus • $369/Credit (Undergraduate, In-State Tuition)
Radford offers 1 nutrition degree, with an ACEND-accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics inside it:
- B.S., Foods and Nutrition (Nutrition and Dietetics concentration is the DPD; a Foods and Nutrition concentration issues no verification statement)
Program Tracks Overview
| Program | Est. Tuition | Est. Duration | Credit Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.S. Foods and Nutrition | $12,952/yr in tuition and fees (2025-26, full time); $558 per credit part time (2026-27) | 4 years: two years of prerequisites, then two years of upper-division work | 120 (82 in the major); an archived 2024 page said 122 |
Radford is a single-degree program: a bachelor’s with a DPD concentration, taught in person by registered dietitians in upper-division classes. It has no master’s degree, no Coordinated Program, and no current dietetic internship, so graduates complete the rest of the RD route elsewhere. The program advertises 100% internship placement and an 84% first-time exam pass rate, but neither figure carries a year, a cohort, or a definition on Radford’s current pages.
Quick Facts
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Format | Campus: in person on the Radford campus, with a field experience course (NUTR 364); no online or hybrid option found |
| Credit Hours | 120 total per the 2025-26 and 2026-27 catalogs, 82 of them in the major |
| ACEND Accreditation | Yes — Didactic Program in Dietetics only. ACEND’s decisions pages show one Radford entry, full and continued accreditation in January 2021, and none in 2020 or 2022 through 2026. No term end date was found, and Radford’s current program page makes no accreditation statement |
| RD/RDN Eligibility | Not directly. The DPD issues a verification statement, then graduates need an ACEND-accredited dietetic internship and a graduate degree before the national exam. Radford provides neither |
| Supervised Practice | Not part of the degree. Radford’s credentialing page says the internship that follows requires a minimum of 1,200 supervised-practice hours, applied for through DICAS and the D&D Digital match |
| Reported Outcomes | Radford’s page claims a 100% placement rate for competitive dietetic internships and an 84% first-time RDN exam pass rate, both undated. A 2020 news release defines the 100% as every senior who applied, about eight students |
| Admissions | A separate internal upper-division application with a 3.0 cumulative GPA, nine prerequisite courses at a C or better, and a March 31 deadline for fall (from archived 2024 pages); no enrollment cap is documented |
| Tuition | In-state undergraduate: $369/credit tuition (2026-27), $361 (2025-26); out-of-state $953 and $916; plus mandatory fees of $5 technology and $184 comprehensive per credit, with a $20 capital fee for out-of-state students |
| Institutional Accreditation | SACSCOC (Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges), reaffirmed in 2023 |
Bachelor of Science, Foods and Nutrition
The estimated cost for a full-time in-state student was $6,476 a semester in 2025-26, or $12,952 a year, made up of $4,349 in tuition and $2,127 in fees. For 2026-27, tuition rose to $369 per credit and the comprehensive fee to $184, which brings the part-time in-state total to $558 per credit; a full-time 2026-27 total was not published on the pages reviewed.
Concentrations
- Nutrition and Dietetics: 15 credits (NUTR 414, 415, 425, 426, 436), the DPD that earns a verification statement
- Foods and Nutrition: 15 credits of electives, a 2.0 GPA requirement, and no verification statement
You Should Know
Radford’s pages conflict in several places. Its current program page lists no concentrations while the catalog lists two. Its catalog says a verification statement needs a 2.8 overall GPA and a C or better in all nutrition courses, while an archived 2024 page said 3.0. Its prerequisite lists also differ between the catalog and the archived page, for example BIOL 106 versus BIOL 105 and MATH 125 versus MATH 137. The accreditation program is called a DPD in the catalog and a DPND on another page. The detailed admissions and accreditation pages are only readable through 2024 archive copies, so confirm current rules with the department.
Admissions
- A separate upper-division application, due March 31 for fall enrollment for current students; cohorts begin each fall
- A 3.0 cumulative GPA from all schools attended (per the archived page)
- Prerequisites with a C or better: introductory nutrition, general and second chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology, microbiology, statistics, psychology, and math
Radford describes no cap or competitive selection beyond the GPA and prerequisite gate. Cohort size was not found.
Tuition
Radford charges undergraduates $369 per credit in tuition for in-state students and $953 for out-of-state students in 2026-27, plus mandatory per-credit fees.
- In-state undergraduate: $369/credit tuition (2026-27), $361 (2025-26); out-of-state $953 and $916
- Mandatory fees per credit: $5 technology and $184 comprehensive in 2026-27 ($173 in 2025-26); a $20 capital fee applies to out-of-state students only
- In-state part-time total: $558/credit in 2026-27 ($369 plus $5 plus $184), and $539 in 2025-26
- Full-time 2025-26 in-state: $6,476 a semester ($4,349 tuition, $2,127 fees)
Be aware that:
Radford’s Board of Visitors raised 2026-27 in-state undergraduate tuition by 2.25% and out-of-state by 4%. The full-time band is 12 to 18 credits for 2026-27 and 12 to 16 for 2025-26, so multiplying the per-credit rate by 30 overstates a full-time year. The nutrition degree carries no program-specific fee that was checked here.
Official figures are on Radford’s Bursar per-credit tuition page.
Why Choose This Nutrition Program?
Best suited for in-person undergraduates who want an accredited DPD with registered dietitians teaching the upper-division courses, and who plan to find a graduate program and internship elsewhere.
Students planning the full RD route get the didactic piece in a single degree, with Radford’s credentialing page laying out the internship, master’s, and exam steps that follow.
Students who want food and nutrition without the credential can take the Foods and Nutrition concentration, which has a lower GPA bar and issues no verification statement.
The honest trade-off is that the pathway ends at the bachelor’s: Radford has no master’s, coordinated, or current internship option, and its advertised placement and pass-rate figures lack the year and cohort needed to judge them.
Accreditation
Radford is institutionally accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), most recently reaffirmed in 2023, which governs credit transfer, graduate admission eligibility, and federal financial aid access across the university.
ACEND’s decisions pages list Radford’s Didactic Program in Dietetics once, under full and continued accreditation in January 2021, with no probation, candidacy, closure, or reorganization entry in 2020 or 2022 through 2026. ACEND’s pages give no term end date, and the ACEND directory was not queried. An older Radford internship site cites accreditation as of July 2003 and appears stale; no current Radford internship was found. This covers only the Nutrition and Dietetics concentration.
The Commission on Dietetic Registration has required a master’s degree for first-time exam eligibility since January 1, 2024. Radford’s DPD verification statement is the first step; graduates still need an accredited internship or Future Education Model graduate program, a graduate degree, and the national exam.
More Nutrition Degrees in Virginia
- George Mason University - Fairfax
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- Virginia State University - Petersburg
- Virginia Tech - Blacksburg