Nutrition and Dietetics, MS

Learn How To...

• Teach people at all stages of the lifespan to prepare healthful, delicious foods; prevent and manage medical conditions and disease states with individually tailored nutrition plans, interventions, and counseling.
• Conduct physical assessment, anthropometrics measurements, body composition analysis, client interviews and counseling sessions.
• Improve access to healthful, affordable food for everyone!

Nutrition and Dietetics Program Highlights

• Two-year, full-time coordinated master’s program allows you to earn the MS in Nutrition and Dietetics degree and complete the required supervised practice hours (internship) concurrently.
  • Graduates will receive the verification statement required to sit for the RDN credentialing exam
• You do not have to apply separately for internship or find your own preceptors.
• Hybrid program with a mix of in-person and online learning.
• Wide variety of supervised practice sites and locations throughout the tri-state area to tailor each student’s experience.
  • Supervised practice coordinator facilitates all site rotation placements—no need to worry about finding your own sites or preceptors
• Access to state-of-the-art healthcare simulation center to provide hands-on, interactive learning experiences and interprofessional collaboration activities
• Small class sizes with individualized attention (14–18 students per cohort)

Comprehensive and Holistic Curriculum

Our program offers a strong focus on culinary nutrition as well as a vigorous clinical coursework. Issues related to food equity and access are addressed throughout the program. This comprehensive curriculum is designed to prepare students for successful careers in a wide variety of settings.

The depth and breadth of coursework is appropriate for students with undergraduate degrees in dietetics and other health-related fields, as well as career changers who have decided to pursue the field that they are most passionate about.

Take Food and Nutrition Courses Like…

• ND 560: Nutrition Assessment to understand and utilize the nutrition care process to make decisions, identify nutrition-related problems, and determine and evaluate nutrition interventions.
• ND 600: Community and Public Health Nutrition to explore various food assistance programs, public health initiatives, and the effect of public policy on the health and nutrition status of population groups.
• ND 660: Food and Nutrition of World Cultures to gain an understanding of the relationships between food and culture, traditional health beliefs and practices, and enhance culinary skills.
• ND511: Functional Foods and Integrative Nutrition introduces students to the integrative and functional approach to nutrition assessment and patient care.

Supervised Practice (Internship) Rotations

Supervised practice experiences are divided into four rotation categories:

• Food service management (150 hours)
• Community nutrition (300 hours)
• Clinical nutrition (350 hours)
• Elective rotation of your choice (200 hours)

Students will gain experience at sites such as farm-to-table restaurants, K–12 school food programs, large scale commercial food service operations, Federally Qualified Health Centers, food assistance programs, regional academic hospital systems, long-term care facilities, eating disorder centers, integrative and functional nutrition practices, private practices in a wide variety of specialty areas, and much more.

Additional Opportunities and Experiences

• Hone your culinary nutrition skills in our culinary focused courses at the state-of-the-art Zwilling Cooking Studio
• Work alongside Pace faculty in the Nutrition and Dietetics Teaching Kitchen providing culinary nutrition education for the entire Pace Community.
• Engage in clinical case-study based learning activities, simulation experiences with standardized patients, and body composition analysis activities to prepare you for real-life interactions with patients and clients
• Engage in interprofessional education and collaboration activities alongside future colleagues from several health professions within the College of Health Professions, including occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, nursing, and physician assistants
• Collaborate with Pace undergraduate athletes and provide nutrition education to help optimize their performance.
• Participate in Foodcultureology™ study abroad experiences that examine food and eating at the intersection of the interrelated areas of nutrition, anthropology, sociology, history, and gastronomy.

Accreditation Information

Pace University’s Coordinated MS in Nutrition and Dietetics program has been registered by the New York State Education Department (NYSED) and has been granted full accreditation by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics (ACEND^®). The program received 7-year initial accreditation in January 2022. The next onsite visit from ACEND^® will be scheduled within academic year 2027/2028.

ACEND^® is the accrediting agency for education programs preparing students for careers as registered dietitian nutritionists or nutrition and dietetics technicians, registered. ACEND^® can be contacted by:

• Email: ACEND@eatright.org
• Phone: (800) 877-1600, ext. 5400
• Mail: 120 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 2190, Chicago, IL 60606-6995

Graduates of these programs who are verified by the program director are eligible to write the Commission for Dietetic Registration (CDR) examination for dietitians and dietetic technicians. Note that after January 1, 2024, a master’s degree will be required to write the CDR registration examination for dietitians.

Dietitian Career Opportunities

Where Dietitians Are Employed

Our graduates work as RDNs in many different settings, such as:

• Acute care/large academic hospital centers
• Long-term care/skilled nursing facilities
• Eating disorder and mental health practices (in-patient and outpatient)
• Lifestyle focused disease prevention and management organizations
• Outpatient settings, such as bariatric centers
• Food-service directors
• Private practices, with specialties such as weight loss, GI nutrition, functional and integrative nutrition, sports and fitness nutrition, and much more!