Nutritional Sciences, PhD
Doctorate in Nutritional Sciences
Curriculum
The program focuses on research and students gain extensive experience in their areas of choice. All students take a core set of classes, including macronutrients and micronutrients in human nutrition, research methods, statistics for experimenters, emerging topics in nutrition and grant writing.
Beyond core classes, students work with faculty advisors to develop individual plans of study to meet their goals. The program offers specializations in bioinformatics, community/public health nutrition, molecular biology, statistics and more. All students participate in research and complete 15 to 40 dissertation hours.
Students entering with a master's degree must complete 60 hours of coursework. For those with a bachelor's degree, 80 hours are required, and students earn the master's degree after successfully completing 30 credit hours.
Research and Faculty
All graduate faculty possess a PhD and/or Registered Dietitian credentials and integrate personal experiences and research into the curriculum. The department's robust research portfolio includes the role of micronutrients in cancer, diet effects on the microbiome, international nutrition, metabolic risk indicators, nutrition and fitness for military and first-responders and obesity prevention programs and policy.
Research Areas:
Research Labs:
Meet our faculty
College research initiatives
Department of Nutritional Sciences graduate studies
Admissions
The PhD program requires the following courses for admission:
- Biochemistry (undergraduate or graduate level)
- Physiology (undergraduate or graduate level)
- Graduate level nutrition (six credits)
- Graduate statistics (three credits)
If the master's degree is in a subject area other than nutrition, 30 hours undergraduate or graduate courses related to nutritional sciences are required. For those who do not meet these requirements, conditional acceptance may be considered.
You must identify an advisor who is willing and able to take you on as a PhD student before applying to our program and note that in your application.
Graduate student resources
Additional admission prerequisite information
To apply to the Nutrition, PhD program, submit the following:
- Graduate College application
- Submit transcripts from all previously attended institutions (3.0 undergraduate GPA required)
- Current resume/vita
- Three professional letters of recommendation
- Personal goals statement (1-2 pages)
- If English is a second language, applicants must submit results for TOEFL or IELTS tests.
* GRE is not required. - Background check
Application deadlines:
- Pre-select students: November 22 (Fall)
- Domestic students: July 1 (Fall) & November 1 (Spring)
- International students: February 1 (Fall) & August 1 (Spring)
Cost & Assistance
Paid graduate research or teaching assistantships are available. Most doctoral students receive some financial support from the department. Assistantships depend on faculty availability and student interest.
Assistantships and support
Cost
Financing graduate school
Scholarships