The emphasis areas within the MS in Dietetics are designed to help students gain expertise in certain specialty areas of dietetics. Students who wish to receive a MS in Dietetics degree with an emphasis area are required to take a minimum of 12 credits from the selected emphasis area.

Counseling Emphasis: Correlates advanced counseling skills with advanced nutritional knowledge. This emphasis will better enable dietitians to provide nutritional counseling to their clients, in particular to those with psychosocial issues that accompany chronic diseases and eating disorders. The graduate becomes knowledgeable about the roles, functions, and relationship of the nutrition counselor to the client, and more proficient in the counseling role through simulated and experiential learning.

Professional Writing Emphasis: The professional writing emphasis prepares dietitians to communicate nutrition information effectively and to advance within their field. Students may select from among a variety of professional writing courses that will equip them with the advanced skills required to create compelling proposals and grants, informational manuals, brochures, newsletters, dynamic web text, technical documents for health professionals, peer reviewed articles for academic journals as well intriguing articles that translate scientific information for consumer newspapers and magazines.