Dietetic Internships

The dietetic internship is a formalized post-baccalaureate educational program sponsored and usually administered by a hospital or medical school and accredited by the American Dietetic Association. The internship programs are designed to provide individual and supervised experience in order to meet the qualifications for practice in dietetics as a Registered Dietitian. The Department of Nutrition and Food Science maintains a current file on internship programs and provides advising and assistance to students who wish to apply for an internship.

For some tips on preparing for an internship, see the TIPS (Tuft's Interns Preparing Students) website.

Prerequisites for Dietetic Internship

Dietetic Internship programs are competitive and look for candidates based on their GPA and references from teachers and related work experience. Usually at least one letter of reference is required from a supervisor of a job experience.

Nutrition work experience gained as a volunteer or employee furnishes a student with valuable references. One reference may be acquired through field experience in NuFS 192; however, additional references are preferred. For additional help with references, please see Organizations that take Student Volunteers.

There are two types of dietetic internship, internal and external.

Internal Dietetic Internship

Internal dietetic internships are offered through an educational institution that contracts with local hospital and foodservice sites that agree to take interns only from that educational institution. Applying to an internal internship requires applying to that educational institution and the institution will only take their own degree students, as is the case with the internal internship at San José State University. Students are more likely to be placed through an internal internship because they do not have to compete for the internship sites with students from around the world.

External Dietetic Internship

External dietetic internships are internship sites that will take applications from students around the world for placement. Competition is fierce, since places are limited.