Dietetics and Nutrition

Dietetics programmes train the clinicians who translate nutrition science into what a patient actually eats — assessing nutritional status, designing medical nutrition therapy for kidney disease, diabetes, cancer and critical illness, counselling patients, and running food service for hospitals and schools. It is a science degree with a clinical internship attached, and as of 2024 it is a graduate-level profession.

The degrees this program covers

⚠⚠⚠ Read this before choosing a bachelor's: since 1 January 2024 the Commission on Dietetic Registration has required a GRADUATE DEGREE to sit the registration examination for dietitians. A bachelor's in dietetics is no longer sufficient on its own, and anyone establishing eligibility for the first time from that date needs a master's or doctorate. ⚠ Florida's public footprint is small and the change squeezes it: only 4 public institutions award the dietetics bachelor's (FIU 76, UNF 52, UF 33) and only THREE award the master's — FIU 41, UNF 28, FSU 12, about 81 a year for the whole state. ⚠⚠ A separate and much shorter rung exists at the technical-college level: the dietetic technician certificate, which is a real job and not a route to the RDN. ⚠ The graduate degree does NOT have to be in nutrition — any accredited master's or doctorate qualifies — but the ACEND-accredited coursework and the supervised practice hours are separate requirements that do not move.

Careers this program leads to

Each one sets out the courses along the way, the licence or certification at the end, and the sources behind it.

Public Health Professional

⚠⚠⚠ The job most students picture when they say public health is the smallest one in the federal data. Epidemiologists: 12,300 employed in the whole country, about 800 openings a year, and entry is effectively 100% graduate. The jobs are in health education (71,800, $64,070) and community health work (65,100, $51,850, high-school entry). ⚠⚠ Florida's own numbers say the same thing from the other side — 579 master's degrees against 560 bachelor's, at just 8 institutions, every one a university.

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Dietitians assess nutritional status and design the medical nutrition therapy that treats kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, critical illness and failure to thrive. ⚠ A median of $76,400 with 8% growth. ⚠⚠⚠ And the thing a Florida student must not get wrong: since 1 January 2024 the national credential requires a GRADUATE DEGREE, while the Florida licensing statute still says a bachelor's — three sources disagree about what this career needs, and this page sets out which one binds.

Careers that name this program, but not as a route

Chef, Cook and Baker

⚠ The licensed neighbour, for hospital, school and special-diet food service.

Fitness Professional and Exercise Physiologist

⚠ Named because it is licensed in Florida and therefore marks the legal boundary of what a fitness professional may advise — and because the two credentials together are a much stronger practice than either alone.

Programs similar to this one

Neighbouring fields that share much of the same coursework, and often the same employers. ⚠ Read these before you commit to a major — which doors a neighbouring degree keeps open is the part no catalog tells you, and it is far cheaper to change now than later.

Nursing 78 Florida schools

⚠ The comparison that decides it for many students, and it is stark on access: nursing runs at 78 Florida institutions against 6 here, and reaches licensure from an associate degree. ⚠⚠ Dietetics now requires a master's and is taught at three institutions at that level, so geography and the graduate requirement constrain this choice far more than grades do.

Medical Laboratory Science 14 Florida schools

⚠ Named as the other small, science-heavy clinical programme taught at only a handful of Florida institutions — both are laboratory-and-evidence disciplines with narrow footprints and long credential chains. ⚠⚠ Laboratory science reaches its credential from a bachelor's; dietetics now needs a master's, which is the practical difference between them.

Culinary Arts, Baking and Culinary Management 46 Florida schools

⚠ The licensed neighbour. Hospital and school food service, special diets and menu planning for health all meet dietetics, and nutrition advice beyond general guidance is regulated in Florida.

Kinesiology, Exercise Science and Sport Management 16 Florida schools

⚠ The pairing clients ask for and degrees rarely deliver. Nutrition advice beyond general guidance is REGULATED in Florida — dietetics is licensed — so a trainer without that credential has a legal limit on what they may say. ⚠⚠ APK4163 Nutrition for Sport and Exercise Science is the shared course.

Public Health 14 Florida schools

⚠ Named because community nutrition sits inside public health practice and the two programmes share students, WIC and SNAP-Ed employers, and much of the behaviour-change coursework. ⚠⚠ The dietitian credential is a licensed one in Florida where health education is not, so a student weighing the two is weighing a licence against a broader field.

Florida public institutions offering this program

6 institutions awarded a credential in this field in 2023, at these levels: Associate, Bachelor's, Certificate (12 weeks-1 year), Doctorate (research/scholarship), Master's, Postbaccalaureate certificate. A school appears here if it awards anything in the field, however limited its offering — a technical college teaching only practical nursing has a nursing program. Listed alphabetically, not ranked.

Florida International University

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's · Postbaccalaureate certificate

Florida State University

Bachelor's · Master's

Hillsborough Community College

Associate

Lindsey Hopkins Technical College

Certificate (12 weeks-1 year)

University of Florida

Bachelor's

University of North Florida

Bachelor's · Doctorate (research/scholarship) · Master's

Source: federal IPEDS completions data for 2023, first majors only — the most recent year published. ⚠ It records what was awarded, which is strong evidence of what is offered, but a program launched since 2023 will not appear here. Check the institution’s own catalog before applying.

Updated 21 September 2026. ⚠ Program pages describe a field of study, not one school’s degree — always read the catalog of the institution you are applying to.