Program overview

This four-year curriculum includes coursework in the role of nutrition in disease prevention and treatment, nutrition counseling and education, food science, and food service management, as well as hands-on practicum courses. For more information on application and admission requirements, program costs, financial aid opportunities, distance education, prior assessed learning, program schedule, and program completion requirements, please review the Program Guide.

Mission, Goals, and Objectives

The mission of the Didactic Program in Dietetics is to promote understanding of the scientific underpinnings of nutrition and their translation to effective, evidence-based practice, thereby preparing graduates for supervised dietetics practice programs leading to eligibility for the CDR credentialing exam to become registered dietitian nutritionists.

Program Goal #1: Graduates will be effectively prepared for supervised practice programs leading to CDR credentialing as Registered Dietitian Nutritionists.

• Objective 1.1: At least 80% of program students complete program/degree requirements within three years (150% of the program length).
• Objective 1.2: At least 40% of program graduates apply for admission to a supervised practice program before or within 12 months of graduation.
• Objective 1.3: Of program graduates who apply to a supervised practice program, at least 80% are admitted within 12 months of graduation. 
• Objective 1.4: The program’s one-year pass rate (graduates who pass the registration exam within one year of first attempt) on the CDR credentialing exam for dietitian nutritionists is at least 80%.
• Objective 1.5: At least 75% of supervised practice program directors responding to a survey will rate program graduates’ preparation for supervised practice as “satisfactory” or better using a 5-point scale, where 4 is “satisfactory”.

Program Goal #2:  Program graduates will be effectively prepared to practice at the highest level as demonstrated by an ability to read and appropriately apply nutrition research findings and evidence-based guidelines to practice.

• Objective 2.1:  On average, program graduates will rate how well the program helped them build knowledge and skills in their “ability to locate, interpret, evaluate, and incorporate information from research literature and evidence-based guidelines into evidence-based practice” as “satisfactory” (2) or better on program graduate surveys.
• Objective 2.2: On average, supervised practice program directors will rate graduates’ preparation, compared to other students in their program, in their “ability to locate, interpret, evaluate and incorporate information from research literature and evidence-based guidelines into evidence-based practice” as “satisfactory” or better on program director surveys.

Program outcomes data are available upon request by contacting the program director.

The Dietetics Concentration of the Nutrition Major is accredited as a Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) 

Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND)
120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2190
Chicago, IL 60606
800-877-1600 ext. 5400
https://www.eatrightpro.org/acend