Visit this link for the next graduate student informational session

Funding:

If I am accepted into the MS or PhD program, is funding automatic?

No. Funding recommendations are made by the Departmental Graduate Committee (for limited GTA positions) and by individual faculty (if grant-funding available).

Do I need to apply separately for funding?

You do not need to apply separately to be considered for funding. Instead, during the application process you will complete a survey that allows the Graduate Committee to learn more about our applicant pool and some of that information also assists the Department Graduate Committee in making funding recommendations.

Importantly, only complete applications received by the Department by January 15^th are eligible to be considered for available departmental financial assistance for the following academic year. Generally, we recommend international applicants ensure their application is complete by December 1^st, as the application must clear the Graduate School review process before it is forwarded to the Department. Getting everything submitted by December 1^st greatly increases the likelihood that we receive a complete application by January 15^th and that the applicant can be considered for potential funding.  

Tuition Waiver:

Unfortunately, the department does not provide application fee waivers. However, from time-to-time individual faculty members have been willing to cover this fee if they are relatively confident, they would accept a particular applicant into their lab (and if they have the available funds). Therefore, my advice is to review our faculty bios page and then contact those faculty members (in BNS or CN/ISCN, depending on which concentration you plan to apply for) who are conducting research that is of interest to you.

• $21,522 is the FY25 minimum stipend for all nine-month, 50 percent graduate assistants, graduate teaching assistants, graduate teaching associates, graduate research assistants, and graduate research associates.
• $28,696 is the FY25 minimum stipend for all 12-month, 50 percent graduate assistants, graduate teaching assistants, graduate teaching associates, graduate research assistants, and graduate research associates.

A scanned copy of your school issued transcript is acceptable to use in your application. However, if you are admitted, and accept the admission offer, you will be required to submit official transcripts to the Office of Graduate Admissions. Your official transcript(s) will need to be received before you may enroll for your second term.  

• You can find more specific details about providing transcripts as part of your application here.  

• You can learn more about how to submit your official transcripts here.  

Please consult the Graduate School English language exemption from the English Certification requirement for application to the Graduate School at UT.

Please visit the Graduate School website for accepted English certification

Please check the GPA requirement of the Graduate School website.

The Nutrition major CIP code is on the current STEM list for STEM OPT.

GRE scores are encouraged, especially for PhD students, but are not required. Applicants are encouraged to reach out to the Director of their program/concentration of interest with any questions. Dr. Ling Zhao is the Director of the BNS concentration and Dr. Marsha Spence is the Director of the CN/ISCN concentrations.  

Master

At the MS level, Nutrition offer three different concentrations: Biomedical Nutrition Science (BNS), Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics (CND), and Community Nutrition (CN). If you have not done so already, Nutrition encourages you to review the specifics of each concentration in the Graduate Catalog and identify which concentration(s) you are interested in.

Doctorate

At the PhD level, Nutrition offers two different concentrations: Biomedical Nutrition Science (BNS) and Implementation Science in Community Nutrition (ISCN). If you have not done so already, Nutrition would encourage you to review the specifics of each concentration in the Graduate Catalog and identify which concentration(s) you are interested in.

At this time, Nutrition does not have any on-line graduate programs.

You can visit Vols Online for all on-line options that UT offers.

Prerequisites for graduate study in nutrition may include…general and organic chemistry, physiological chemistry/biochemistry, physiology, statistics and introductory* nutrition. Details regarding the minimum semester credit hours expected for each prerequisite are available in the Graduate Student Handbook on the department’s website.

*For those lacking only the introductory nutrition prerequisite, the student will be required to complete this or a similar class upon admission to our program.

*For Clinical Nutrition & Dietetics pre-requisites use this link

As a program, we do not require an interview. However, individual faculty and the Department Graduate Committee may choose to conduct an interview prior to an offer of admission. If an applicant is invited to participate in an interview, they will be provided with general expectations regarding the content of the interview.

Applicants do not need to secure a faculty member before applying. However, applicants ARE required to rank their preference of faculty during the application process. Therefore, we strongly encourage potential applicants to reach out to individual faculty in their concentration of interest to learn more about their research interests and to inquire about any possible lab openings and/or funding support faculty may have available. This can assist the applicant in most appropriately ranking faculty during the application process.

Each faculty member will have slightly different ideas of what makes an applicant competitive, so this should be part of any conversation between a potential applicant and their faculty-of-interest. While not a guarantee, experience conducting, presenting, and publishing research, as well as having teaching experience may contribute to competitiveness of an application.