How to Become a Registered Dietitian

Are you thinking about becoming a registered dietitian or in the process of becoming one? If so, this blog will help you learn more about how to become a registered dietitian and what to know before you start. 

I will share about my journey to becoming a registered dietitian (RD) and about my dietetic internship to give you an idea of what the experience could look like (though everyone’s will be different).

Steps to Become a Registered Dietitian

Let’s start with the end in mind, then come back to how to get there.

To become a registered dietitian you have to pass the CDR licensing exam (like a board exam). This is not a test you can just study for and take. You must meet very specific and rigid requirements first and become verified to sign-up for the exam. Here are the steps to become a registered dietitian:

1. Obtain a degree in nutrition from a didactic program accredited by ASCEND which prepares you for a dietetic internship.
2. Complete a rigorous dietetic internship (more about this below)
3. You will receive a verification statement that allows you to schedule your RD exam.
4. Study for the RD exam for several weeks, and then pass it to become a licensed registered dietitian.
5. In most states, you will have to become licensed as a RD in your specific state. I did not have to do this because I live in California and it is not required here.

Educational Requirements to Become a Registered Dietitian

Before you sign up for college, make sure that the nutrition degree is accredited and will properly prepare you to become a registered dietitian. Many schools will note this on their nutrition programs, but if not you can contact them to find out.

If you’re a career-changer like me, the process is more nuanced and will likely require a post-baccalaureate degree. If your degree was in science or nutrition, then you might have the prerequisites necessary and can jump right into an accredited program. Some required courses include microbiology, chemistry/organic chemistry, statistics, anatomy and physiology.

I was lost at the beginning of this process trying to find a program when I realized that so many courses were required. I ended up finding a brand new post-baccalaureate program before they had even accepted their first group of students. I emailed the director and found out all of the courses that I would need to apply to the program. This was a lot of back and forth of sending her course descriptions to make sure they would fit the requirements. Once I had this part figured out, I completed my prerequisites at a local community college. This took 1.5 years, including summer classes. In my last spring semester, I applied to the post-baccalaureate program and was accepted to start in the fall.

Dietetic Internships

Your school should help you prepare and apply for dietetic internships and explain how they work. Once your degree or certificate is complete, this is the next required step.

This internship is not like what you may have done in college if you had to do one for a prior degree. You don’t just find a place of your choice to get some extra experience that may be fairly laid back. Dietetic internships are kind of like a residency for doctors. They have specific standards you must meet in order to sit for the RD exam. Most people do this full-time, but part-time is also an option if you need to work at the same time.

Dietetic internships are not usually paid and they are not free. It’s almost like another year of college, so expect to spend anywhere from about $8,000-12,000 on your internship depending on where you apply to and match with. Between my degree and internship, I spent about $23,000 and my post-baccalaureate program was fairly inexpensive compared to some programs and much less than an undergrad degree. Luckily, scholarships do exist for both if finances are a challenge.

Applying to a Dietetic Internship

Getting an internship is a bit like applying to college. To get a dietetic internship you must apply through DICAS and applications are only accepted twice per year – spring and fall. You can apply while you’re in school, but you must be in your last semester of your didactic program or have completed it. You need letters of reference/recommendation from teachers, a resume, a minimum GPA, and a personal statement.

You apply to however many schools or programs you want (you have to pay to apply to each one), then most programs will also require an interview of some sort. I had live Zoom interviews (during COVID pandemic in-person interviews weren’t happening) and one where I had to submit a video about myself as a sort of “sales pitch” as to why they should choose me.

Then you go through a matching process via D&D Digital. To “get matched”, you order your program choices by priority. So, let’s say University of Michigan is your first choice, then U of M has to put you as their first choice as well to get matched. If they put you as second, you won’t match. This means you should consider not only which program you most want to get into, but also if you think they’ll choose you. The good news is that if you don’t match, there’s a second round of matching that may offer you a chance to still get into a program. 

Having prior nutrition-related experience is important. If you don’t match, this may be one of the reasons, and you can use the time before you apply again to get experience. You’ll want to get some experience before applying. Some options that work well are food service, such as working as a waitress, cook, catering, or in a hospital. Food bank volunteering is another option, or getting another nutrition certification like I had. 

Local vs. Distance Dietetic Internships

When choosing programs to apply to, consider if you want to do a distance program or a local one like your University program if they offer an internship or combined program. Here are some of the pros and cons of each to consider:

Benefits of a local program

•  You will be given pretty much everything to you, such as having your internship rotations and preceptors chosen for you.
• You won’t have to move.
• The quality of rotations is likely quite good and education will be robust. 
• Good variety of locations.
• A large amount of work in hospitals. 
• You may have more opportunities to spend time with your cohort/classmates and share the experience and challenges together.

Cons of local programs:

• You may not get a lot of choice about where you are place for rotations. 
• You may have to long drives or work crazy hours.
• Fewer elective options. 
• Could require you to move to a different city or state if you really want a specific program or can’t find something close to home

Benefits of a Distance Internship

• You get to choose your preceptors and locations.
• You can “customize” your experience to some extent to fit your future goals.
• You may not have to spend as much time in a hospital if that’s not your preference.
• More flexibility with location, types of learning, and even remote preceptors.
• You can do them from anywhere, no need to move. 
• They tend to accept many more students, so getting matched is likely easier.

Cons of Distance Internships

• You have to find your own rotations and preceptors. Nothing is given to you and your program usually won’t help much unless you’re really stuck.
• You will have to spend extra time calling various hospitals, medical professionals and registered dietitians and see if you can do an internship with them.
• It can have less of a community feel and you may never meet your cohort/classmates in person.
• The quality of rotations/preceptors/experiences could be lower and you may have less variety.
• Preceptors could back out on you last minute and you’ll have to urgently find a new rotation site.

I applied to two local programs but my first choice was a distance internship. This was because the program specifically fit my future goals, it seemed like a good personality fit, and I could jump right into the internship instead of having to do my master’s first, which was how one program structured things. As of 2024 that won’t matter for future RDs because everyone will have to do their master’s first.

My Dietetic Internship Experience

Every dietetic internship (DI) will require you to do three specific rotations: Clinical, Food Service, and Community. Some will also include electives or have another specific focus. For instance, mine had a fourth rotation for worksite wellness, and one of my classmates went to a DI that focused on business. 

Here’s a bit about my rotations to help you get an idea of what you might experience and some of the tasks you may be assigned. 

Rotation 1: Food Service

My food service rotation was at a local school district headquarters.  I spent a lot of time in and around the kitchen, as well as time in the office working on projects. My DI gave us projects in every rotation that we had to complete. For food service, I had to plan and prepare a special meal for a high school. This included ordering food, creating a HACCP plan, making the food with the cafeteria team, budgeting, determining nutrient content and making sure it fit regulations, marketing the food to increase student interest, etc. I also had to do a safety audit of the kitchen, and present to the entire food service staff at their in-service day on a few different nutrition and food safety-related topics. 

Rotation 2: Worksite Wellness

This rotation was directly with the company running my internship program. I learned about how to plan a wellness program for a company from ground zero, and had to come up with an entire program with one of my fellow interns and present it to staff. I also wrote blogs that were published, created and gave presentations for employees, created many social media posts and helped employees with their wellness programs.  

Rotation 3: Clinical

Due to preceptor availability and schedules, my clinical rotation was split up into two different locations with two different preceptors. I did half of my hours at a USC hospital, and the second half at DaVita dialysis. At USC, I did a lot of work with the bariatric and outpatient dietitian. My program also required that I present a recent case study (which was on a bariatric patient with many complications) and a journal article, as well as conduct a quality intervention project.

During this time I also had some complications that didn’t allow me to get all of the experience that I wanted, so I also contacted a few other RDs and they allowed me to shadow some of their sessions. One was a Crohn’s and Colitis specialist, and the other did pediatric tube feeds and counseling for families in this situation. These hours were not part of my clinical, they simply allowed me to get some great learning from private practice RDs to enhance my learning. At DaVita, I did a lot of patient rounding with my preceptor, as well as creating educational posters, helping with preparing labs for patients, educating patients on nutrition for kidney health and conducting a survey.  

I will say that I was not looking forward to my clinical work, especially dialysis. However, I ended up loving both of my clinical rotations, especially DaVita! It turned out to be a place where I could see myself working and loved learning so much about kidney function. I also enjoyed getting to see the same patients over and over. You never know if you might also end up enjoying rotations you wouldn’t expect. So go in very open-minded and be ready to learn and participate and you might be surprised!

Rotation 4: Community

A big benefit of my program was that they offered prior assessed learning credits. So I got credit for about half of my community hours from prior volunteer work with Los Angeles County where I taught health classes and cooking demos for employees and the community. The rest of my community rotation was at a Head Start program where I prepared and taught classes for parents, created educational handouts, and prepared data from a survey for a big project on child nutrition. While looking through surveys for a lot of my hours wasn’t exactly what I expected, I did learn a lot about nutrition during this time and what a lot of parents struggle with when feeding their children. 

The DI process took about 8 months or so, and generally most internships last at least 8-12 months. I was grateful that my experience really wasn’t stressful, and some of my rotations were only 30 hours per week due to preceptor availability, so I had some time to study and get other life things done. I didn’t have very many long drives since I found local preceptors, and all of my preceptors were such lovely people so it made for an easy experience. However, I know many internships are hectic and challenging, so mentally prepare and don’t plan to work much during this time, if at all.

Read my next blog about how I studied and prepared for the RD exam and passed on my first try! Or, you can watch it all on YouTube! If you have questions about how to become a Registered Dietitian so far, leave a comment!