Registered Dietitian Pathway Options
Nutritional Sciences MS students who are interested in pursuing careers as a Registered Dietitian (RD) should review the information and resources below.
Pathway to Registration Eligibility: There are many pathways to RD eligibility, find more information from the Commission on Dietetic Registration HERE.
In summary eligibility requirements include:
1) Completion of a Bachelor's degree
2) Completion of an Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics
3) Completion of an ACEND accredited Dietetic Internship
The University of Hawaii at Manoa offers an ACEND accredited Didactic Program in Dietetics (DPD) through the Bachelor's of Science in Dietetics program. Nutritional MS students with Bachelor's Degrees in non-dietetics or nutrition fields can complete the required DPD courses as MS students in order to be eligible for the Dietetic Internship.
For a list of the UHM DPD courses see the Dietetics Program website HERE.
Some of the previous academic work MAY be equivalent to the DPD required courses. Prior to admission, applicants should complete the Course Equivalency Table HERE to get a sense of how much coursework is needed.
Upon admission to UHM, transcripts will be evaluated for course equivalency. The UH Admissions office will not evaluate coursework for graduate students so the Dietetics Program faculty and staff review all course evaluations that are not in the UH transfer database. Accepted MS Nutrition Sciences students should email the completed table, transcripts, and course syllabi for the courses they are seeking evaluation of to the Dietetics Program Director for review.
Students who already possess a DPD Verification statement from an ACEND accredited program AND who were not matched to a Dietetic Internship via DICAS are encouraged to apply to the MS Nutritional Sciences RDN Concentration. This concentration requires admission or good standing in the MS Nutritional Sciences program AND the UHM Individualized Supervised Practice Pathway (ISPP). Visit the ISPP website for more information on how to apply and other program details.
Dietetics Program Director: Monica K Esquivel PhD RDN CSSD (monicake@hawaii.edu)