Graduate education leading to a MS in Nutrition and Food Systems. There are two concentration areas, the Traditional MS (in-person or fully online) and the Accelerated Coordinated Program in Dietetics. Only University of Kentucky students admitted to the Accelerated Coordinated Program in Year 3 of the undergraduate degree program (Option B in BS in Dietetics) can enter this concentration area. The Traditional MS has a 12-hour graduate-level core emphasizing contemporary nutrition topics, such as food systems, community programming and intervention development, chronic disease diagnosis and process related to lifestyle behaviors, and a nutrition and food systems seminar. Students pursuing the Traditional MS (Plan A or Plan B) will take 6 credit hours of guided electives. The guided electives will be determined based on whether a student is following Plan A (thesis) or Plan B (special project). The Traditional MS concentration includes 6 credit hours of free electives for students in Plan A and 12 credit hours of electives for students in Plan B.
The second concentration area of Accelerated Coordinated Program in Dietetics includes an 18-hour graduate-level core that emphasizes contemporary nutrition topics, such as evidence-based practices, research methods and health behavior theories, community programming and intervention development, food systems, chronic disease diagnosis and process related to lifestyle behaviors.
The Master of Science program prepares students for careers in community, education, government, industry, non-profit, health care or private practice settings. A student in the Traditional (and in-person) concentration area may choose the Plan A - Thesis or Plan B - Project. A student in the Traditional (and fully online) concentration area can only choose Plan B.
Plan A - Thesis requires the 12-hour core, 6 hours of guided electives, 6 hours of free electives, and 6 additional hours of research credit as well as a written thesis and oral defense.
Plan B - Project requires the 12-hour core, 6 hours of guided electives, 12 hours of free electives, and 6 additional hours of special project credit as well as a special project paper and/or presentation.
Admission Requirements for the Traditional MS Concentration Area: 1. Personal Statement (This document should be one or two pages and can include your background, your preparation and your purpose for going to graduate school, and your career goals). 2. Writing Sample (This can be a paper you have written for a previous class or for publication.) 3. Three letters of recommendation. Admission to the University of Kentucky Accelerated Coordinated Program in Dietetics (ACP) is selective and competitive; students are expected to maintain a rigorous schedule in order to complete all required courses for the undergraduate and graduate degrees as well as the hours for the supervised practice within 10 semesters and three summer sessions. The ACP Concentration Area of the MS in Nutrition and Food Systems will only be available to students who were admitted to the ACP program (Option B of BS in Dietetics) during Year 3 in the University of Kentucky BS in Dietetics program. Students must have a cumulative GPA of 3.0 to apply. The application will include a personal statement, three letters of recommendation, and an interview. As such, this program is only available to University of Kentucky students. Students from other colleges and universities can apply for, and be admitted into, the UK MS in Nutrition and Food Systems, but only for the “Traditional MS Concentration Area.”
Traditional MS Plan A and B Core Courses
Traditional MS Plan A and B Guided Electives
Plan A:
Plan B:
A 500-level statistics course is a pre-requisite to the graduate program and may be taken during the existing graduate program.
Accelerated Coordinated Program Courses
Core Courses
Supervised Practice Courses
Free Elective Courses for MS NFS Concentration Areas
Students may also choose appropriate electives outside the department with the permission from the MS NFS Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).
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