What Degree Do You Need To Be A Registered Dietitian

How to Become A Registered Dietitian (Without a Bachelor's in Nutrition)

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Looking for a career change? Larn how to become a registered dietitian (RD), even without a bachelor'due south caste in diet!

One of the most common questions I get is "how did you switch career paths to become a registered dietitian (RD)?" I'm detailing every step you'll need to take if you want to become a dietitian and have a non-nutrition bachelor's degree.

How to Go a Registered Dietitian (Without a Nutrition Bachelor's Degree)

I'm finally sitting down to write this highly requested post! So many of you have asked me how to become a registered dietitian, particularly if you don't have a bachelor'due south degree in nutrition.

Well, my friends, the day has come for me to finally spill all the data I have so that you can evaluate whether or not becoming a registered dietitian is something you want to pursue. Check out how I fabricated decision for myself hither!

I'chiliad going to break upwards this lengthy, advisory post into a few sections then that information technology is piece of cake to navigate. Also, delight note that I take only recently become an RD in 2021; I do not yet accept in-depth experience practicing as an RD. Therefore, this is just an overview of my experience and what I take learned throughout the process and the very commencement of my career as a dietitian. So, please do your own boosted research!

Evaluate Why You're Interested in Becoming a Registered Dietitian (RD)

Before we go into programs, pre-requisites and all the steps on how to become a registered dietitian, we need to talk about why you want to go downwardly this career path. I actually had to dig deep to effigy out why I wanted to practise this. I had merely recovered from a long stint of disordered eating and practice. Did I want to become a dietitian considering I was still obsessed with food and wanted to control my own and others' nutrient?

I see so many individuals working to become a nutritionist, wellness double-decker, NTP, etc., who very obviously do not accept a healthy human relationship with food. Prior to starting your path, get really honest with yourself about why y'all want to pursue this career.

The Difference Between a Dietitian and Nutritionist

Allow'due south articulate this up first: a Registered Dietitian (RD) is the same thing as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN). Dietitians can use either abbreviation!

However, what is admittedly NOT the same thing equally an RD/RDN is a nutritionist. For instance, your grandma who watches Dr. Oz every day could call herself a nutritionist. It'due south an unregulated term that anyone tin can claim for themselves. Which means at that place are no educational standards or upstanding guidelines you need to follow to telephone call yourself a nutritionist.

In that location are many other "nutrition certifications" popping up nowadays: health coaches, nutritional therapy practitioners, holistic nutritionist, sports nutritionist… the list goes on. I know information technology's tempting to just go 1 of these certifications instead of going through the rigorous and expensive process of becoming a registered dietitian. But know what yous're getting into if you choose i of those paths. You lot are NOT legally able to give out personalized nutrition advice or medical nutrition therapy.

Some may think more is better to become a certified nutritionist when information technology comes to people trying to make others healthy. However, I do not meet it every bit a benefit to the field of nutrition. Consequently, information technology becomes crowded with people who think they are educated enough to diagnose people and give out advice based on bad science. I admittedly think we should brand nutrition educational activity more accessible and affordable for those who desire to become RDs. In doing so, hopefully fewer people will fall into a well-intentioned but not-helpful diet certification.

If you want to be taken seriously as a nutrition professional, I highly recommend taking the path towards becoming a registered dietitian.

The Basics on How to Become a Registered Dietitian

Here are the bones steps on how to become a dietitian:

Get a bachelor's degree. If you already have one in a non-nutrition field, no worries—nosotros'll chat about that in a minute.
Have the courses required past the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND) through an ACEND-accredited program. This tin can be either an undergraduate nutrition program or a graduate program. Withal, starting Jan one, 2024, all students must have a graduate caste to accept the RD examination.
Consummate a dietetic internship through an ACEND-accredited program.
Pass the RD examination and g et licensed in the state in which yous will be practicing.

I know those are a lot of words that might not make a ton of sense! Let's break it down. In this post I'yard focusing on how to become a registered dietitian if you already have a non-nutrition bachelor'due south degree, so keep that in mind.

1. Go a Available's Degree

If you already have a available degree's, fifty-fifty if it's not in diet, congrats! You completed pace 1.

2. Have the Courses Required by ACEND

There are quite a few means to go about becoming a registered dietitian, fifty-fifty if y'all don't take a bachelor'southward degree in diet. If yous already have a available'southward caste in an unrelated field, I highly recommend taking courses required by ACEND at the graduate level. Starting in 2024, all students who want to become a registered dietitian will need a graduate degree to sit for the exam. As a consequence, the job market will be saturated with graduate degrees. So, make sure you're competitive by getting a graduate degree.

Understand Your Pathway Options for Becoming a Dietitian

Once y'all make up one's mind you're ready to begin your path towards becoming a dietitian, it's time to go serious almost researching your options. There are two main pathways y'all tin can pursue if you already accept a bachelor's degree in a non-diet field:

Didactic program + DICAS. Some graduate programs just embrace the required coursework. You lot will then need to utilise to DICAS, which is a matching system for dietetic internships. This option requires two applications: i for the graduate program and one for the internship.
Coordinated plan. Other graduate programs combine the coursework and the internship in one diet programme. Typically y'all complete the internship afterward you've finished the required courses. Since this selection but requires one awarding, these programs are highly competitive.

Start past researching graduate programs. Click here to search for didactic programs in different states (option one); make sure to click the box "only programs that result in a graduate degree." Click hither to search for coordinated programs (choice two); brand sure to click the box "simply programs that result in a graduate degree."

Identify the Prerequisite Courses You May Need to Have

Know that different programs will have different pre-requisite requirements. Once yous've chosen a few nutrition programs that yous're interested in applying for, programme out the required prerequisites you may still need to take for each program. Identify course equivalencies at your local universities where yous tin can begin taking classes and see if at that place is overlap or possibly differences between the courses each program requires.

My plan (Colorado State University) required general chemistry with lab, organic chemistry with lab, biological science with lab, biochemistry, physiology with lab OR anatomy and physiology, psychology and microbiology with lab. My available's caste is in mass communication, then I did non take most of these courses for my major. Thankfully I had decided early on enough in my undergraduate degree to go to graduate school to go a registered dietitian, so I was able to complete the required prerequisites while I was completing my unrelated degree.

If you've been out of school for awhile, I recommend considering taking classes at your customs college or state schoolhouse. It may have you up to a year to complete the prerequisites you demand before yous tin can apply to a principal's program. Don't presume that whatever class at any institution will transfer to your targeted university. I highly recommend reaching out to program directors of the programs you're interested in to ensure that the prerequisite courses you plan to have will be accepted past the program you hope to apply for.

Accept the GRE and Apply for Programs

Something else you should be thinking most is taking the GRE! Not all programs require that you take the GRE, and so exercise your inquiry and reach out to program directors to sympathise what your targeted programme requires. GRE scores last 5 years. I recommend taking it before yous start your prerequisites since y'all'll want to focus on those. I highly recommend purchasing this Manhattan Prep book of practice bug!

So you've taken the GRE, you're taking prerequisites… now information technology's time to utilize for nutrition programs you're interested in! Nearly application deadlines are in early spring (Jan—March). I highly recommend keeping a spreadsheet of the programs you're applying to to go along everything in ane place. Y'all can rail their required prerequisites, application deadlines, and other requirements (personal statements, letters of recommendations, GRE scores, GPA, etc.).

A few months afterward, you'll get your credence letter of the alphabet! Yous're on your fashion to becoming a registered dietitian! Time to PARTY! 🥦🍎🥑🍇🥕🥔

3. Consummate a dietetic internship

Fast forward a couple years—now you lot've finished all of the required courses in your graduate programme. Time for the internship!

Dietetic internships range in length. The shortest can exist around 8 months and the longest tin can be around 18 months. Internships are generally unpaid and are to exist treated as total-time jobs. They have multiple weeks-long rotations so that you tin gain exposure to the many types of jobs that registered dietitians can concord. Almost internship programs volition offer clinical, community and food service rotations, just every program is a piddling dissimilar and may place emphasis on certain disciplines in the field.

If you're enrolled in a coordinated program (option ii), your dietetic internship will exist set upwardly through your graduate program.

If yous're not enrolled in a coordinated plan (option 1), you will demand to apply to a dietetic internship through the DICAS matching system. Click here to search for dietetic internships. There is a autumn deadline and a jump deadline for applying to DICAS, depending on when you lot want to start the internship.

4. Pass the RD exam and get licensed

It's go time, baby! The last thing standing in betwixt y'all and your new career as a dietitian is the RD exam. By this signal, yous've completed your coursework and your internship, so now information technology'due south time to put everything you've learned to the test – literally. In that location are then many great resources out there to help you prepare for the exam. Get involved with study groups, consider buying exam report guides and books, and look into test preparation courses. Give yourself plenty of time to study and take it day past day! Before you lot know it, you'll be taking (and passing!) your RD exam!

Resources

ACEND
Fannetastic Food
Food Heaven Made Easy
Multifariousness Dietetics (a cracking resources for people of color who desire to enter the field of diet)

I promise this post was helpful for those of you hoping to learn how to go a registered dietitian and potentially brainstorm your path towards continuing your didactics. Please leave questions below, and I will exist happy to reply them all-time I can!