Off-campus Food Science MS Program

The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Food Science and Human Nutrition (FSHN) department is proud to offer food science and human nutrition courses at the Oak Brook, IL academic outreach location. These courses are taught on weekday evenings or Saturdays.

Many of our students are working professionals who are pursuing a Master of Science degree in food science on a part-time basis. The off-campus M.S. degree program was created in 1973 and over 190 students have obtained their M.S. degrees through the program.

Admission

For admission to the Graduate College, a baccalaureate degree is required. It is desirable, but not required, that this degree be related to physical, biological, agricultural or engineering sciences. Necessary background courses include physics, calculus, general chemistry, organic chemistry and microbiology. If your background is deficient in these areas of study, you will be expected to remove deficiencies through additional study. Correspondence courses, other distance education courses, or traditional classroom courses can be taken to satisfy prerequisite requirements.

The TOEFL is required of all students who have studied in a non-English speaking institution prior to attending and have not had 2 of the last 5 years of full time study at an English speaking institution, or are receiving an advanced degree (MS equiv or better) from an English speaking institution.

Information about applying: When applying online, please select 10KS0037MSX [Food Science and Human Nutrition (Off Campus)-MS]. Letters of reference and transcripts should be sent to Dawn Bohn at the address below. (Official transcripts are those that are sent directly to us from the university that you attended.) For our off-campus program, the GRE exam is not required.

Course Offerings

The program schedules two courses during the fall and spring semesters and one course during summer session II. Enrollment ranges from 10 to 30 students per course. Courses cover topics such as food chemistry, food microbiology, food engineering, food packaging, human nutrition, water activity, membrane separations, experimental design, sanitation, biochemistry, and fermented and distilled beverages. Faculty members from U of I at Urbana-Champaign teach the courses in a condensed format (i.e. a week's worth of courses are taught in one evening or on Saturday morning).

Off-campus courses are coordinated through Academic Outreach. Please visit their site to learn more about off-campus courses and to register for courses. You do not need to be admitted to the Graduate College before enrolling in courses.

View the Current Courses Offered

View the multi-year course plan 

Academic Outreach Special Announcements

Chicago MS Program Degree Completion Requirements

To earn the M.S. Degree, 32 hours of coursework must be completed. Subject to departmental approval, up to 12 hours can be earned prior to acceptance into the program or from another institution. In addition, all students will complete a final oral examination upon completion of their coursework. Students generally take from 3-5 years to complete the program to get the M.S. degree.

The Guide for Students provides more detailed information about the program.

For More Information

Our mailing address is:

Please address all inquiries to Dawn Bohn [(217) 333-0881 or via e-mail: dbrehart@illinois.edu]