4+1 Accelerated MS in Nutrition
Fast-track your advanced degree with an accelerated master’s in nutrition.
Nutritionists study the relationship between food and health. If you have a gift for working with people and an aptitude for science, you’ll enjoy this field, with its strong grounding in general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, and microbiology. An accelerated master’s degree in Nutrition prepares you for careers in clinical nutrition, community nutrition, nutrition education, and other public-health focused jobs.
Our 4+1 BS/MS in nutrition is rigorous and demanding to offer high-achieving undergraduates a quick pathway to a graduate degree. You may apply through the SPHHS internal portal shown above in your junior year. This internal application is only for juniors who would like to have a provisional admission. It is optional and is NOT a required process. You must officially apply through the Graduate School during your senior year, which is a required process. Application Deadline: February 1st.
The program is 33 credits and requires the completion of 6 core courses, 1 public health course, 2 graduate seminars, and 4 electives, with 1 or 2 of these outside of nutrition (see our degree requirements page for more information).
Benefits list
Master’s Degree in One Year
The 4+1 nutrition degree is a non-thesis program (no original research or written thesis requirement), ideal if you want to get a master’s in one year versus the usual two-year nutrition master’s program. It also provides a productive “gap” year if you’re planning to apply to medical school.
CEPH Accreditation
Every program in the department of nutrition, like every other department within the School of Public Health and Health Sciences, is fully accredited by the Council of Education for Public Health, a key benefit of attending UMass.
Career-Ready Skills
Graduates of this program have the skills to assess nutritional needs, provide counseling and education, and implement dietary plans for individuals or groups. The program can also prepare you for careers as physicians, physician assistants, dentists, pharmacists, nurses, and biomedical researchers.
Featured class
Skills and techniques needed to effectively carry out community nutrition programs and nutrition education, including knowledge of agencies and programs, community assessment, legislation, nutrition education, and working with people.
Featured faculty
Lindiwe Sibeko
Department Chair, Nutrition
Focus on maternal and child health among racialized low-income populations, breastfeeding & lactation, community-engaged research, diet behaviors & adolescence
Claire Norton
Undergraduate Program Director, Nutrition
Didactic Program in Dietetics Director, Nutrition
Focus on dietetics and eating disorders
Zhenhua Liu
Graduate Program Director, Nutrition
Focus on micronutrients, traditional medicine, nutritional epigenetics, obesity and inflammation, gut microbiome, gastrointestinal health, cancer prevention
Application information & deadlines
Fall Application Deadline
Students should submit the application by Feb. 1. for entry into the fall term.
Nutrition
Offering an interdisciplinary approach to the study and application of the relationship between diet, foods, and health.