Career Opportunities With a Master's in Nutrition

In recent decades, Registered Dietitian Nutritionists have taken a more holistic approach to their field: Less “eat this, not that” and more of an all-encompassing look at how individual needs, medical conditions and cultural preferences interact.

Today, the job has evolved into something even more complex. Registered Dietitian Nutritionists study the interaction of an individual’s diet, environment, genetics and microbiome and design custom-tailored plans rather than make one-size-fits-all recommendations.

As a result, a growing number of jobs in the field are reserved for those with advanced degrees, such as a master’s in nutrition. Whether you’re interested in healthcare, sports and wellness, research, education or food safety, a graduate degree in nutrition can lead the way to a great career.

 

What Do You Study in a Master’s in Nutrition Program?

A typical master’s in nutrition program lasts four semesters, during which you learn to care for individuals while also gaining a big-picture perspective on community health. Classes cover topics such as metabolism, food science, disease management, caring for the clinically ill, research techniques and ethics. Your program might allow you to focus on a particular area, such as maternal and child health or public health. 

Some also qualify students to sit for the Registered Dietitian (RD) or Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) exam, which leads to an advanced credential widely recognized in the field. As of 2024, only those with a master’s in nutrition are eligible for RD/RDN certification.

At the same time, you gain hands-on experience working directly with patients and conducting simulations, all under the supervision of expert faculty. These real-world interactions teach you to communicate clearly, solve problems and make decisions under pressure — all skills employers value.

 

Supervised Internship Experience

You want to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist to assist people in making healthy choices and feeling their best. Many master’s programs incorporate supervised internships that deliver hours of real-world experience before you get your degree.

Internships provide invaluable training you’ll draw on once you start your career. But they also help you choose a place where you want that career to start: Work in settings as diverse as dietetic clinics, local health departments, acute care facilities, pediatric and oncology wards and food companies as you put your knowledge to work.

 

Career Areas With a Nutritional Sciences Master’s Degree

Registered Dietitian Nutritionists work directly with patients, conduct laboratory research, establish food policy and help companies produce more nutritious food. Here are just some of the paths you can pursue with a master’s in nutrition:

Clinical Roles

Help people stay healthy, manage disease and build better dietary habits in a clinical career. You can find dietitians in a wide variety of settings, from doctors’ offices and hospitals to long-term care facilities, schools and private practice. These jobs often require you to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN).

 

Public Health

Good nutrition is a societal goal. You can bring about change on a community, state or even national level by concentrating on issues such as poverty, food security, obesity and disease. Become a community health educator, design nutrition programs and policies for government agencies and nonprofits, or ensure that students eat well at school, while teaching them good habits for eating at home.

 

Research

Researchers continue to unlock new insights into the relationship between diet, health and disease. In a master’s in nutrition program, you gain experience designing and executing experiments and analyzing data that can prepare you for a research career. You might examine obesity trends for a public health department, conduct clinical research trials for a hospital or pharmaceutical company, carry out research in an academic lab or work in a test kitchen for a food company.

 

Wellness and Education

The road to good nutrition starts with good habits. Put your skills to work showing others how to make healthy choices. Help athletes reach their full potential as a sports nutritionist or become a corporate wellness educator and provide workers with the tools to feel better and boost productivity. You can also work at a college or university to equip students with strategies they can use to take responsibility for their own health.

 

Health-Related Careers

Any discussion of keeping people healthy naturally involves diet and nutrition. And those conversations happen in all kinds of workplaces. Among emerging careers in this field, Registered Dietitian Nutritionists can find jobs working on wearable tech, developing sustainable food systems and analyzing health-tracking and population data to discover hidden connections between food and health.

 

Salary Outlook in Nutrition Careers

As our nation’s healthcare system puts a greater emphasis on preventing disease than treating it, jobs in the field are booming — and Registered Dietitian Nutritionists are in demand, too. In the next decade, jobs for nutritionists and dietitians are expected to grow by 6% with a median salary of $73,850, which is faster than the national average, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

Science, Care and Service Meet at FranU

By equipping others to understand the relationship between diet and health, nutritionists play a vital role in improving lives. With a Master of Science in Nutritional Sciences (MSNS) from Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University (FranU), you can promote better health in others while fulfilling your own calling to serve. 

FranU offers the MSNS program in two tracks:

• The Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) concentration leads to that credential and includes extensive training in our Nutrition Skills Lab and Simulation Environment Teaching Hospital (SETH).
• The thesis concentration is designed for students planning a research career or for existing RDNs who want to earn a master’s degree. This option is offered online.