A Comparison of Graduate Program Outcomes Based on Entry Requirements

Over the last 100 years, educational entry into the practice of dietetics has periodically evolved to meet the current and future needs of the profession. The establishment of the Future Education Graduate Model, now called Graduate Programs (GPs), in 2017 is the most recent change. One substantial change was to allow programs to set their own prerequisites or use the well-established accredited Didactic Programs in Dietetics (DPDs). This change widened the opportunity to enter GPs from the more than 600 DPDs to any college offering a bachelor’s degree with the individualized GP prerequisites taken at any accredited US or internationally recognized institution. This facilitated and expanded opportunity may support our goal to increase professional diversity. As the first Future Education Graduate Model program in the country at Rutgers University School of Health Professions, we chose to have both the DPD and program-specific prerequisite course routes to admission. This year, as part of the quality evaluation, we compared the success of both groups on admission standards, programmatic success, and results of the Registration Examination for Dietitians (RD exam) for the first 3 cohorts. We also compared our findings with other health care professions, as this is a new opportunity within nutrition and dietetics. J. Tomesko is an associate professor and program director, D. Cohen is an associate professor, and J. Bridenbaugh is an assistant professor, Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences; S. J. Parrott is a professor, Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, and director, Methodology and Statistics Support Team; E. Peters is a program assistant; and Julie O'Sullivan Maillet is a professor, Department of Clinical and Preventive Nutrition Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, School of Health Professions, Newark.