Public Health Nutrition

About This Degree

This online Master of Public Health Nutrition (MPH) degree includes interdisciplinary training in nutrition-related sciences and the core public health disciplines.

What You Will Learn

Students will learn about the methods for quantifying dietary intake and nutritional status, the role of diet in disease risk and health promotion, and the design and implementation of nutrition policy and programs to improve the health of local, national, and global populations.

The land grant setting of Utah State University provides unique opportunities for the study of the relationship between human nutritional status and health with strong academic and research programs in federal and community nutrition programs, USU Extension nutrition outreach programs, nutritional epidemiology, food security, agricultural practices, and OneHealth.

This program is 100% online so you can complete the program from anywhere around the world! This program can be pursued part-time or full-time.

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At a Glance

College: College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences

Department: Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences Department

Faculty: View profiles of faculty members on the department directory.

Program Requirements

Delivery

MPH: Beaver, Bicknell, Blanding, Brigham City, Castle Dale, Cedar City, Cortez (CO), Delta, Ephraim, Heber City, Junction, Kanab, Kaysville, Logan (Main Campus), Moab, Montezuma Creek, Monticello, Monument Valley, Nephi, Online, Orem, Panguitch, Park City, Price (USU Eastern), Richfield, Roosevelt (Uintah Basin), Salt Lake, St George, Tooele, Tremonton, Vernal (Uintah Basin), Wendover

Please review our state authorizations to see if this program is offered in your state.
International students studying at USU on the F-1 or J-1 visa must have the majority of their classes each semester be face-to-face in order to meet the physical presence requirement to maintain their visa status. Students on the F-1 visa must enroll in classes at the Logan or USU Eastern campuses. Students on the J-1 visa must enroll in classes at the Logan campus.

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REQUEST INFORMATION

Please fill out this form with your information and you will get access to a degree sheet with a sample 4-year plan.
You will also be contacted via text or email to answer any questions you may have about the program.

Career And Outcomes

Career Opportunities

Graduates with an MPH degree in Public Health Nutrition can seek out diverse positions in public health with opportunities for leadership roles, professional development, and higher pay and benefits. Potential positions include public health nutritionist, nutritional epidemiologist, program coordinator, public health educator, executive director, and nutrition services supervisor to name a few. These positions can be found in a variety of governmental, academic, nonprofit, and for-profit settings including state and local public health departments, colleges and universities, health care organizations, Women Infants, and Children (WIC), food banks, food pantries, nutrition education programs such as SNAP-Ed and EFNEP, community action agencies, and anti-hunger/poverty organizations, among many others. When combined with a nutrition degree or other undergraduate science degree, the MPH degree is commonly used as a steppingstone to medical or dental school. For students interested in academic careers in public health, the MPH degree can be excellent preparation for application to doctoral public health programs.

Job Outlook

Advising

Mateja Savoie-Roskos

Associate Professor, MPH Program Director
Email: mateja.savoie@usu.edu
Office: NFS 207B
Phone: (435) 797-5777

Admission

Admission Requirements

Applicants must meet departmental requirements, in addition to requirements of the School of Graduate Studies as seen on the School of Graduate Studies Catalog Page. To be admitted to a graduate program, applicants must meet these minimum requirements:

Complete the online application.
Pay the $55 application fee.
Provide transcripts for all college/university credits.
Include a statement of purpose in your online application.
This should be a 1-page single-spaced paper that describes how the MPH Nutrition program aligns with your career goals and what you have accomplished professionally or academically that demonstrates your ability to be successful in graduate school.
3.0 or higher GPA for the last 60 semester (90 quarter) credit hours.
3 professional letters of recommendation from professors, employers, or volunteer coordinators, for example. No personal references are accepted.

The GRE is no longer required as part of the application. Applicants must have taken an undergraduate course in nutrition and statistics. Prior coursework in public health, community health, nutrition, or dietetics is desirable but not required.

Once admitted, students are required to maintain enrollment as follows:

Registered for 9 or more graduate credits or enrollment in at least 3 credits per semester to use University facilities and receive direction from their major professor.
Enrollment in at least 6 credits per semester is required if receiving an assistantship or fellowship from Utah State University.

The MPH Nutrition program is 42 credit program which includes 21 credits of public health foundational competency courses and 21 credits of public health nutrition concentration courses. This program is considered a professional program (Plan C). Students must complete an applied practice experience and write a capstone paper. Students should contact their advisor early in their program to outline an acceptable project and to be certain that all degree requirements will be met and that all appropriate paperwork has been sent to the School of Graduate Studies. Students must complete a supervised field or professional experience that takes place in the final semester of the degree. This will take place through both an applied learning experience and an integrated learning experience where students are required to demonstrate mastery of select public health competencies upon completion. Plan A and Plan B options are available under certain circumstances.

Plan Options

The MPH requires a minimum of 42 semester credit hours including 15 credits of required core courses, common to all degree options, departmental required courses, elective courses, seminars, and credits for the Plan A, Plan B, or Professional degree options described below.

Plan A option: requires preparation of a thesis, and 6 to 15 thesis credits are required. The semester(s) during which a student registers for thesis credit should correspond as closely as possible to the semester(s) in which the thesis work is done and faculty supervision is provided. The thesis for a Plan A master's degree is to be a contribution to the field of knowledge based on the student's own research, or a treatment and presentation of known subject matter from a new perspective. The student and major professor should decide upon a problem or subject for the thesis study by the end of the student's second semester of graduate study.

Plan B option: requires the production of a scholarly paper and completion of 2-3 credits of thesis research. The Plan B paper is usually a review of literature based on inquiry, systematic research, and analytic critique of the findings. The summary and conclusions developed should enhance knowledge in the discipline. Plan B papers and reports should follow the same format specifications as theses and dissertations and are expected to reflect equivalent scholarship standards, even though they may be less intensive and not demand the originality of a Plan A thesis. Plan B papers are defended but are not reviewed by the Graduate School or signed by the dean of graduate studies. Plan B papers must be submitted to the Merrill-Cazier Library.

Professional degree: A master's degree option with no thesis or Plan B paper is available. Those seeking professional degrees must complete a supervised field or professional experience, write a capstone paper about it, and give a presentation on it to the department in which the student is enrolled. Students should contact their advisor early in their program to outline an acceptable project and to be certain that all degree requirements will be met and that all appropriate paperwork has been sent to the School of Graduate Studies.