Curriculum and Program Experience
One year. Three semesters. Student to nutrition professional.
The MS in Integrated Nutrition is a 12-month program completed across three consecutive semesters — summer, fall, and spring.
From your first weeks, graduate coursework, Supervised Practice Experience, applied research, and professional development happen side by side. What you learn in class shapes what you do in practice, and what you encounter in practice gives new meaning to what you discuss in class. That is what integrated means here.
On this page
Your Year in Integrated Nutrition
Summer: Build the Foundation
You start with graduate coursework and your first Supervised Practice Experience. This semester is about getting oriented — applying graduate-level nutrition knowledge, learning professional practice expectations, and working with preceptors. You will also begin shaping ideas for your applied project.
Fall: Expand Your Experience
Coursework continues alongside supervised practice throughout the Memphis area, and the work grows more complex as your confidence does. This is the semester to explore the breadth of dietetics. Your applied project takes shape as you identify a question worth pursuing.
Spring: Bring It Together
Your final semester pulls everything forward. You will complete advanced supervised practice, finish and present your applied project, and wrap up your ACEND competencies and practice hours.
You graduate with your Master of Science, more than 1,000 hours of supervised practice, and a clear path to the RDN credential.
Graduate Coursework
36 credit hoursCompleted across three semesters and designed to strengthen both your scientific foundation and your ability to apply it in professional practice.
Coursework covers nutrition assessment and intervention, research methods, counseling, food systems and management, pharmacology, and other areas essential to contemporary dietetics practice.
Format and Technology
Courses are delivered in a hybrid format — online learning combined with approximately one day of in-person class each week. That schedule leaves roughly 32 hours a week for Supervised Practice Experience.
Students need reliable internet access and a computer capable of running University-supported learning platforms, videoconferencing, and other course technologies.
Course Sequence
Summer
- HMSE 7010 Research Methods (3)
- NUTR 7481 Clinical Nutrition Internship (3)
- NUTR 6112/7205 Nutrition Assessment (3)*
Fall
- NUTR 7412 Cellular Nutrition 1 (3)
- NUTR 7305 Advanced MNT (3)
- NUTR 7481 Clinical Nutrition Internship (3)
- HPRO 6400 Statistics for Health Sciences (3)*
Spring
- NUTR 7422 Cellular Nutrition 2 (3)
- HPRO 7950 Applied Project (3)
- NUTR 7481 Clinical Nutrition Internship (3)
- NUTR 6010/7522 Management in Dietetics (3)*
- NUTR 7780 Health Counseling (3)*
*Part of the ABM curriculum. These courses are taken only by students who did not complete the ABM program.
Program Calendar
Integrated Nutrition is a full-time program that follows the University of Memphis academic calendar. Supervised practice schedules are provided by the program and vary by rotation site, so they may differ from the traditional class schedule.
Supervised Practice Experience
You will not wait until the end of your coursework to start practicing what you are learning. Supervised practice begins in your first semester and continues throughout the program.
1,000+ hoursCompleted across the year at healthcare, community, foodservice, and nutrition-related sites throughout greater Memphis, typically up to 32 hours each week.
Some of it happens without leaving campus. Integrated Nutrition students work with Registered Dietitian Nutritionists in the Tiger Food Lab teaching kitchen, campus dining, the Student Wellness Center, and Tiger Athletics.
A few practical notes. The program coordinates all placements and secures preceptors, so you are not responsible for finding your own sites. Students provide reliable transportation to and from assigned sites, and travel distances vary. All required experiences are completed through the U of M program; prior supervised practice or professional experience does not substitute for required rotations.
Your Applied Project
Every student completes an outcomes-based applied project — your chance to take something that genuinely interests you and examine it through the lens of evidence-based practice.
With faculty mentorship, you will identify a meaningful question, develop an appropriate approach, evaluate outcomes, and communicate what you found. Along the way you will build skills in research, program evaluation, data interpretation, professional writing, and presentation.
Whenever possible, we encourage students to connect their project to their supervised practice and career goals.
Learn From Faculty Who Know the Field
Our faculty bring experience from across clinical nutrition, nutrition support, sports and performance nutrition, culinary nutrition and teaching kitchens, community nutrition, research, food systems, and counseling.
16 studentsCohorts are capped at 16, so faculty have time to learn your interests, recognize your strengths, push you when it counts, and help you connect graduate coursework to the career you are building.
Already a U of M Dietetics Student? Get a Head Start.
Accelerated Bachelor's to Master's
If you are completing your BS in Dietetics at the University of Memphis, you do not have to wait until graduation to start your master's. ABM lets eligible students take up to 12 credit hours of approved graduate coursework that counts toward both degrees.
12 hours of coursework, 24 hours of degree progress
Nearly $11,000Because ABM courses are taken at undergraduate tuition rates, participating students can save nearly $11,000 in tuition across both degrees — and enter the 36-hour MS with one-third of their graduate coursework already complete.
Who Is Eligible?
- Current University of Memphis Dietetics students
- Within 40 credit hours of completing the undergraduate degree
- Cumulative GPA of 3.25 or higher
You will still complete the full 12-month Integrated Nutrition program and Supervised Practice Experience, with fewer graduate course hours left to finish.
Timing matters. Graduate courses must be approved in advance to count toward both degrees. Talk with your Dietetics faculty advisor as you approach your final 40 credit hours, before you register for upper-division courses.
What You Will Leave With
By graduation, you will have:
- Earned 36 graduate credit hours and your MS in Integrated Nutrition
- Completed more than 1,000 hours of Supervised Practice Experience
- Met all required ACEND competencies
- Gained experience across multiple areas of nutrition practice
- Completed and presented an outcomes-based applied project
- Built relationships with faculty, preceptors, and professionals throughout Memphis
- Met the educational and supervised practice requirements to pursue the RDN credential
More than a degree and a stack of hours — you will leave knowing more about the profession and more about where you want to take your career.