What shapes the cost of your Clarkson placement
Every quote from our placement desk is built around your own Clarkson situation: the track and NRS course, the hours and specialty minimums, where you live, and the weeks remaining until Clarkson's paperwork date. Share those through the form, and a placement advisor sends back a quote for the plan that fits, its scope spelled out in writing.
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 course you need filled
Clarkson's clinical courses ask for very different preceptors, and the course is the biggest single input to a quote. A general NRS 832 primary care placement draws on a wide pool of MDs, DOs, PAs and NPs seeing patients of all ages. Other courses narrow the field sharply.
NRS 840sets a floor of 110 hours with a provider in pediatric primary care, andNRS 842sets 120 with someone in women's health.- AGACNP courses need NP preceptors who are acute care certified, on the unit type each course names, from short-stay units in
NRS 861to ICU or emergency care inNRS 864. - PMHNP courses need a psychiatrist or PMHNP, and
NRS 856reserves 50 of its hours for a licensed therapist with a master's degree. - The
NRS 894andNRS 898practicums need one educator or administrator with an MSN and two years in the role for all 150 hours. - DNP students need an external subject-area expert to mentor the project.
A course that needs two kinds of provider, or a rare specialty, takes more search work than one that needs a single generalist, and the quote reflects that. The course-by-course detail is in our clinical hours guide.
One course or the whole sequence
Clarkson runs clinical courses strictly one per term, so an MSN NP student works through five courses and 750 hours across five or more terms, and a BSN to DNP student through the same five at 975. You can ask us to fill the next course only, or to plan the whole sequence at once.
Planning the full run usually makes each placement easier to secure, because we can ask a preceptor about two consecutive courses, line up the pediatric and women's health hours early, and start each search a term ahead. You can also start with the course in front of you and extend the plan later; the quote shows whichever scope you choose.
Where you live and train
Clarkson's clinical sheets want the preceptor licensed in the same state as the clinical, and that state must be one that Clarkson's workbook marks Meets for graduate nursing. Within that, location changes the search. A metro area with several health systems offers more candidates than a rural county, where each possible site carries more weight. Some state rules also trim the pool: Clarkson's November 2023 sheets rule out PA preceptors in four states, Arizona, Florida, Maryland and Oklahoma.
How far you will travel matters too. A student willing to drive an hour opens up more sites than one who needs a clinic within fifteen minutes, and telling us your real radius up front keeps the quote accurate. Our state authorization guide lists the states where Clarkson's graduate nursing answer is Meets.
How much time is left
Timing shapes both the work and the quote. Clarkson's paperwork dates, as printed in the 2021-22 handbook and the 2023 clinical sheets, fall on Nov. 1 (spring term), Mar. 1 (summer) and Jun. 1 (fall), and any site still lacking an affiliation agreement adds as much as two months of contracting. Starting a whole term early leaves room to approach the best-fit preceptors first.
A course that has already started compresses everything: the agreement has to be wrapped up during week one, and hours ahead of final approval are not counted. We take on urgent searches, and our urgent placement page explains how they run. When a monthly early-reservation offer is showing on this site, it applies as described there.
Site paperwork and your own limits
Some variables come from Clarkson's rules and your own situation rather than the course. A site that already has an affiliation agreement with Clarkson is quicker to bring on than one that needs a new contract through the Compliance office. If you work in a health system, your hours there must be in a department other than your own, which shifts where we look. Family members are ruled out, as are preceptors with under two years of experience.
Personal constraints count as well: a fixed night-shift schedule, weekend-only availability, or a PMHNP student who wants part of the hours by telehealth (Clarkson permits as many as 300 telehealth hours, with you present alongside the provider). Tell us these at the start and the plan is built around them. Our preceptor rules guide lists every Clarkson requirement we check.
What every quote covers
Whatever the scope, the service inside the quote is the same full placement, built around Clarkson's own process:
- A search for preceptors and sites that fit the NRS course, near you and in an approved state.
- Screening against Clarkson's rules: license in the clinical state, two years of experience, related practice, the PA and FNP limits.
- The preceptor and site details the DocuSign agreement form asks for, including the site's exact legal name.
- An early flag on whether the site needs a new affiliation agreement.
- Follow-through until Clarkson's advisor, Compliance office and course faculty have what they need.
- A replacement search if a preceptor withdraws during the course.
Clarkson's own charges, such as tuition and its clinical platforms, are billed by Clarkson and are separate from our quote. Every approval decision rests with Clarkson, meaning the Graduate Nursing advisor, the Compliance office and course faculty; what we deliver is a complete, rule-fitting request on the first pass.
Questions Clarkson students ask
Why does each Clarkson student get an individual quote?
Because the work differs so much. A PMHNP student needing therapist hours in a small town, an FNP student needing a pediatric preceptor in a metro area, and an education student needing one MSN-prepared educator are three different searches. An individual quote prices the plan you actually need.
Does a rush request change the quote?
It can. A course that starts in weeks, or has already started, needs a faster, more intensive search than one planned a term ahead, especially if the site needs a new affiliation agreement. Contact us as early as you can; even a few extra weeks widens the choice of preceptors.
Can I get a quote for one clinical course and add more later?
Yes. You can start with your next course, such as NRS 830 or NRS 856, and extend the plan once it is working. Planning several courses together lets us line up specialty hours and next-term preceptors earlier, so ask your placement advisor to show both options.
Are Clarkson's charges part of your quote?
No. Tuition and any Clarkson charges for its clinical platforms or the Graduate Weekend are set and billed by Clarkson. Our quote covers our placement work only: the search, the rule checks, the agreement details and the follow-through to approval.
What happens if my preceptor withdraws after placement?
The replacement search is part of the service in every quote. Your placement advisor goes back to the search at once, looks for someone who meets the same Clarkson rules, and prepares the new agreement details, since hours with a new preceptor count only after the new paperwork is approved.
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
Track, city and next clinical course is all we need to begin.