It’s a match!

For the second year in a row, FACS dietetics students achieved a near perfect match rate for post-graduate dietetic internships.

Dietetics students who graduated in 2017-18 set a record high for the department at a match rate of 97 percent. The 2018-19 match rate is 95 percent. The national average is about 50-60 percent.

“I could not be prouder of our students for their hard work and tenacity throughout the internship match cycle,” said Emma Laing, director of the undergraduate dietetics program within

the department of foods and nutrition. “It is an arduous process, so when there is a match, students feel a huge sense of accomplishment knowing their hard work paid off and they are on to the next phase of their career.”

The process to match students with dietetic internships is similar to the computer matching process used to determine medical residencies.

Students seeking to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist must first complete coursework in an accredited program – the FACS dietetics major is a Didactic Program in Dietetics accredited by the Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics – then finish 1,200 hours of supervised practice in an accredited internship.

Following successful completion of the internship, students then have to pass the national comprehensive Commission on Dietetic Registration RDN exam.

“To obtain a dietetic internship is prestigious,” Laing said. “Despite the national match rate being as low as it has been in recent years, our students feel more secure in that their program produces a much higher match rate.”