Nutrition Department

Dietetic Internship Admission Requirements and Selection Considerations

Admission Requirements

Candidates for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dietetic Internship must meet the following requirements:

1. Successful completion of a Didactic Program in Nutrition and Dietetics accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics as evidenced by an original Verification Statement signed by the Program Director. The Verification Statement must be obtained prior to the NIH Dietetic Internship start date.

2. Successful completion of a minimum of a Bachelor's degree from a US regionally-accredited college or university or a foreign equivalent as evidenced by an official transcript. (Foreign degrees must be evaluated by an independent agency to validate the foreign degree is equivalent to at least a bachelor's degree conferred by a US regionally-accredited college or university. The summary section of the evaluation report must state "from a regionally accredited institution.") The degree must be obtained prior to the NIH Dietetic Internship start date.

3. Submission of a completed application for the NIH Dietetic Internship through the Dietetic Internship Centralized Application Service (DICAS) following the specific directions under the "Application Process" section of the NIH Dietetic Internship website.

Selection Considerations

All applications are initially screened by the following criteria:

1. Completeness
   A completed application through the Dietetic Internship Centralized Application Service (DICAS) following the specific directions under the "Application Process" section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Dietetic Internship website is required.

2. Grade Point Average
   Applicants should have an overall undergraduate Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.3 or higher (based on a 4.0 system), an overall graduate GPA of 3.5 or higher (if applicable), and an overall DPD GPA of 3.3 or higher.

3. Work/Volunteer Experience
   Applicants should have 400 total hours or more of nutrition/dietetic/research-related volunteer and work experience over the past 5 years. Having experience in clinical and research areas is very beneficial due to the program's concentration in Clinical Nutrition Research.

4. Recency of Experience
   Applicants with a Verification Statement issued 5 or more years ago should have continuing education or experience in the field of nutrition and dietetics for the past 3 years.

Applications meeting these criteria and/or viewed as competitive are reviewed by the Program Director and Application Review Committee, scored according to standardized criteria, and ranked by these preliminary scores. Top applicants are then contacted for telephone interviews in March. The interviews are an opportunity for applicants to share additional information about their qualifications, demonstrate their critical thinking skills, and learn more about the NIH Dietetic Internship as needed.

After thorough discussions of competitive applicants, the Application Review Committee ranks applicants for the matching process.