Clarkson clinical deadlines, laid out as a working calendar
Clarkson College's last published paperwork schedule puts the site and preceptor agreement due on Nov. 1 ahead of a spring course, March 1 ahead of summer and June 1 ahead of fall. Health systems that take placement requests close their windows a month or more before those dates, so your real calendar starts earlier than Clarkson's.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Clarkson program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
The three Clarkson dates, and how current they are
The current catalog sets the principle, preceptor and site approval before registration, but prints no paperwork dates. Those come from two sources that match each other, the 2021-22 graduate student handbook and the clinical sheets Clarkson revised for each NP track in November 2023: the agreement for your next clinical or practicum course is due by the first of November, March or June, for spring, summer and fall respectively. The 2020-21 handbook used the same three dates.
Clarkson has since removed those documents from its public site, and no 2026 source we found restates the dates or confirms that the agreement is still filed through DocuSign. Treat them as the last published schedule and check this term's version with your Graduate Nursing advisor or the current handbook, which Clarkson provides on request.
The next three terms on one calendar
Here is every dated item that touches a clinical course, term by term. Health-system rows come from each system's own page unless noted; the Clarkson rows come from the documents above and from the 2026-27 and 2027-28 academic calendars.
| Item | Spring 2027 | Summer 2027 | Fall 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nebraska Medicine NP application window | Sept. 1-Oct. 1, 2026 | Jan. 1-Feb. 1, 2027 | Apr. 1-May 1, 2027 |
| Children's Nebraska application (My Clinical Exchange) | Oct. 1, 2026 | Feb. 1, 2027 | June 1, 2027 |
| Avera or Sanford request (Clarkson's July 2025 page) | Oct. 1, 2026 | Mar. 1, 2027 | July 1, 2027 |
| Clarkson site and preceptor agreement | Nov. 1, 2026 | Mar. 1, 2027 | June 1, 2027 |
| Classes begin | Jan. 7, 2027 | May 13, 2027 | Aug. 19, 2027 |
| Qualified First/Verified initial deadline | Jan. 30, 2027 | May 30, 2027 | Sept. 30, 2027 |
Graduate Weekend for NRS 830 | Feb. 6-7, 2027 | Jun. 5-6, 2027 | Sept. 18-19, 2027 |
| Semester ends | Apr. 28, 2027 | Aug. 4, 2027 | Dec. 8, 2027 |
The Avera and Sanford dates come from an archived July 2025 copy of Clarkson's resources page for graduate nursing and may have moved since. For fall 2026, which is already under way, the one date left is the Sept. 30, 2026 compliance deadline. The full term structure, sessions and census days are on the semester calendar page.
Counting back from a spring 2027 start
Seen as a sequence, one spring term looks like this for an NP student who wants the widest choice of sites.
- Early September 2026: settle the preceptorNebraska Medicine's spring window opened Sept. 1 and shuts Oct. 1, and its placement office counts on a month or more to process a request.
- By Oct. 1, 2026: health-system requests inChildren's Nebraska's spring deadline and the Avera and Sanford date from Clarkson's 2025 page both land here. Children's says late applications are denied.
- By Nov. 1, 2026: agreement submittedThe site and preceptor agreement for your spring course, with the site's legal name and every provider you will see patients with.
- November and December: contract and sign-offsCompliance confirms or opens the site contract, a job Clarkson allows up to two months for; the preceptor adds credentials; Graduate Nursing approves.
- Jan. 7, 2027: first week of classUnder the 2021-22 handbook, an agreement still open when this week ends can force a withdrawal.
- Jan. 30, 2027: compliance deadlineThe initial Qualified First/Verified deadline for spring. A student out of compliance cannot attend clinical.
- Feb. 6-7, 2027: Graduate Weekend
NRS 830students pass the skills sign-off in Omaha before any hours in that course count.
Why health-system windows come first
Anyone hoping for a spot in a large system has to decide well before Clarkson's own date. Nebraska Medicine shuts its spring NP window on Oct. 1, a month ahead of Nov. 1, and Children's Nebraska sorts its applications at a "Match Day" held roughly three months ahead of each term. Neither promises a spot: Children's assigns preceptors by availability, and Nebraska Medicine's earlier request sheet, once posted by Clarkson, told students outright that a request did not amount to a placement.
Children's also limits its advanced practice students to five kinds (CRNA, NNP, PNP-AC, PNP and PMHNP), so FNP and AGACNP students are not among them. Each system's route is compared on the health-system requests page, and the request platform itself is covered in the My Clinical Exchange guide.
One date does not line up. Clarkson's 2025 page gave July 1 for Avera and Sanford fall requests, a month after the June 1 agreement date. Ask your advisor how the two fit together before relying on the later one.
Dates inside the semester
Once classes start, the clock keeps running. The handbook's first-week completion rule, explained on the approval before registration page, comes first. After that, the handbook wants hours paced steadily, half of them in the log by midterm; the pacing guide converts that to hours per week.
Compliance runs on its own schedule. Clarkson moved its health and safety tracking from CastleBranch to Qualified First/Verified in mid-2026, and the platform's initial deadlines fall on Jan. 30, May 30 and Sept. 30. The health and safety page carries the checklist.
How we build your calendar
Clarkson students choose us because we plan every one of these dates for them, across the whole program rather than one term at a time. At intake we map your clinical courses to terms, mark each health-system window and Clarkson date that applies to you, and start the search early enough for the agreement to be ready well before Nov. 1, March 1 or June 1, leaving time for Compliance to draw up a contract where the site has none.
We keep that calendar current as you progress and move quickly when a date is near; the need a preceptor fast page explains the short-notice route. Send your course and start term through the form below.
Questions Clarkson students ask
When is the Clarkson DocuSign deadline for spring 2027?
The most recent published rule sets Nov. 1, in both the 2021-22 handbook and the rotation sheets of November 2023, which points to Nov. 1, 2026 for a spring 2027 course. Neither document is on Clarkson's website anymore, so confirm the date with your Graduate Nursing advisor before you plan around it.
I missed the Nov. 1 date. Can I still take my clinical in spring?
Contact your advisor right away. Under the 2021-22 handbook a course could not be registered for without a submitted form, unless the student had a pending My Clinical Exchange request or had lost a preceptor unavoidably. If you can submit a complete agreement quickly, ask whether a late form can still be considered for the term.
Why does Nebraska Medicine close earlier than Clarkson?
Nebraska Medicine runs its own placement process, which begins with an online application and, by its own account, takes at least one month. Its NP windows close Oct. 1, Feb. 1 and May 1, each about a month before the matching Clarkson date, so a student using that route applies a month or more ahead.
Are the health and safety deadlines the same as the paperwork deadlines?
No. Qualified First/Verified, Clarkson's compliance platform since mid-2026, sets its own first deadline each term, on the 30th of January, May and September for spring, summer and fall. Falling out of compliance keeps you out of clinical even when your preceptor agreement is fully approved.
Do the dates apply to the Nursing Education and Administration practicums?
Yes. In the 2021-22 handbook the Nov. 1, March 1 and June 1 dates cover the form for any upcoming clinical or practicum course, which includes NRS 894 and NRS 898. Those practicums file their own versions of the agreement form.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Clarkson College's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your course faculty and Graduate Nursing advisor have the final word.
Clarkson asks you to find your preceptor. We make the search the easy part.
Tell us your Clarkson track, your city and your next clinical course. We line up preceptors who fit the NRS course and Clarkson's rules, gather the details the site and preceptor agreement asks for, and flag early whether the site needs a new affiliation agreement.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages primary care for FNP, acute care units for AGACNP, psychiatric providers for PMHNP
- License, experience and site details checked against Clarkson's rules before the agreement is filed
- Every clinical course planned in sequence, close to home in a state where Clarkson's graduate nursing meets requirements
Start your placement plan
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