NAU's semester calendar, read for clinical planning
Northern Arizona University runs 16-week fall and spring semesters, a four-week winter session and summer sessions of three to twelve weeks. For FNP students that calendar fixes the rhythm of all three practicums, NUR 661 in summer, NUR 663 in fall and NUR 665 in spring, and the preceptor paperwork for each one comes due months before its first clinical day.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your NAU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your course.
How NAU divides the year
The Registrar builds each fall and spring semester around a 16-week session, with shorter 5-week and 8-week sessions nested inside it. A 4-week winter session fills the stretch from mid-December to early January. Summer is looser: sessions of 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 weeks, each with its own first day.
NAU describes its online graduate nursing programs as semester-based, so MS and certificate courses move with the fall, spring and summer terms rather than on rolling starts. What the public pages leave out is which session length each NP clinical course uses. Your syllabus in Canvas and your course faculty give the first and last clinical day for your section.
That missing detail changes more than it seems. A practicum squeezed into an 8-week summer session asks for a very different weekly load than one spread over 12 weeks, which the pacing guide works through hour by hour.
Term dates approved through spring 2028
The Arizona Board of Regents approves NAU's fall and spring dates years in advance, and the Registrar posts that list as a PDF running through spring 2031. The terms most current NP students will touch are these, with summer taken from the Registrar's own session tables.
| Term | Starts | Ends and degrees conferred |
|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | Aug. 24, 2026 | Dec. 11, 2026 |
| Spring 2027 | Jan. 11, 2027 | May 7, 2027 |
| Summer 2027 | May 10, 2027 (earliest sessions) | Aug. 3, 2027 |
| Fall 2027 | Aug. 23, 2027 | Dec. 10, 2027 |
| Spring 2028 | Jan. 10, 2028 | May 5, 2028 |
December commencement lands on conferral day itself, while spring ceremonies spread over two days: May 7-8, 2027 and May 5-6, 2028. If your plan of study closes with NUR 665, those May dates are the ones to hold.
Inside a term: census, drops, sub-sessions and finals
The Registrar's 2026-27 tables fill in the dates between the first and last day. Census sits exactly three weeks into each semester, and the second and third short sessions open while longer courses are mid-stream.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sept. 2, 2026 | Last day to drop a fall course without a W |
| Sept. 14, 2026 | Fall census |
| Sept. 28 and Nov. 2, 2026 | Second and third fall 5-week sessions open |
| Oct. 19, 2026 | Second fall 8-week session opens |
| Nov. 30 to Dec. 4, 2026 | Last week of fall instruction; finals Dec. 7-10 |
| Dec. 14, 2026 to Jan. 8, 2027 | Winter session |
| Feb. 1, 2027 | Spring census |
| Feb. 15 and Mar. 29, 2027 | Second and third spring 5-week sessions open |
| Mar. 8, 2027 | Second spring 8-week session opens |
| Mar. 15-19, 2027 | Spring break |
| May 3-6, 2027 | Spring finals |
| May 10, June 1 and July 6, 2027 | Summer sessions open (3, 8 and 12 weeks; first 5-week and 10-week; second 5-week) |
What census and the drop deadline change for your account or aid is spelled out on the Registrar's important dates page. Read it before you add, drop or swap a clinical course.
Where the FNP practicums sit in the year
NAU's 2022-23 FNP Clinical Guidelines set the three family practicums in a fixed order: summer, then fall, then spring. Each opens the next through prerequisites, and the guidelines push a practicum lost to late paperwork into the next academic year. The progression rules explain what that does to your standing.
| Practicum | Term | Hours | Green Form cutoff, 2022-23 form |
|---|---|---|---|
NUR 661 | Summer | 180 | March 31 |
NUR 663 | Fall | 300 | June 30 |
NUR 665 | Spring | 300 | October 31 |
The 2021-22 form asked for the same requests by March 1, June 1 and October 1; the Green Form guide covers both versions, and your FNP Program Coordinator confirms which applies to your cohort. PMHNP students take NUR 680 instead, and NAU publishes no term-by-term map for it, so ask your program coordinator how its units fall across your semesters.
Breaks, holidays and weekends
The 2022-23 guidelines keep FNP students out of clinical during university breaks, holidays and weekends unless the FNP Program Coordinator approves it beforehand. On the 2026-27 calendar that removes spring break, March 15-19, 2027, from your NUR 665 weeks, along with any university holiday that falls on a weekday.
Two stretches sit between terms rather than inside them: the winter session from Dec. 14 to Jan. 8, and the three weeks from summer conferral on Aug. 3 to the fall start on Aug. 23. If a preceptor offers days in either gap, get the coordinator's answer first; the rule asks for approval in advance, not afterward.
Your preceptor's calendar counts as much as NAU's. The guidelines allow you on site only when your preceptor is there, so a preceptor's week of leave is a week with no hours. Ask about planned time off before the Green Form goes in.
Working backward from your first clinical day
- Find the real start dateYour course faculty and syllabus give the first clinical day for your section. Treat the term's opening date as a placeholder until you have it.
- Count back two monthsThe 2022-23 guidelines want every clinical document on file two months before rotations begin. For a rotation opening May 10, 2027, that points to roughly March 10. The documents deadline guide lists what goes in the file.
- Compare it with the Green Form cutoffThe 2022-23 summer cutoff is March 31, so in that example the document date arrives first. Whichever date is earlier is your working deadline.
- Allow for a site agreementA site with no affiliation agreement can take a few days to a few months, per the 2021-22 form. That time runs ahead of the cutoff, which puts the preceptor search for a summer practicum in the fall or winter before it.
- Fix the weekdaysWith breaks, holidays and your work shifts marked, agree on the weekdays you will spend at the site and check they add up to the hours.
As of late September 2026, the next cutoff on the 2022-23 form is October 31, for spring 2027 rotations.
Why NAU students plan their terms with us
We start from your term, not from a generic list. Your placement advisor reads your plan of study against NAU's calendar, sets the Green Form and two-month document dates for each practicum, and searches for preceptors whose weekday schedules fit the weeks you actually have, with spring break and holidays already taken out.
Because we plan NUR 661, NUR 663 and NUR 665 as one sequence, a site that can host you across summer, fall and spring is asked once and early, and the paperwork for every term reaches NAU complete. When a preceptor's leave or a site's onboarding would cut into a term, we raise it before the cutoff, while there is still room to adjust. The steps are laid out in how it works; to begin, send us the term of your first practicum and your placement advisor starts the search.
Questions NAU students ask
When does NAU's spring 2027 semester start and end?
Spring 2027 runs from Jan. 11 to May 7, 2027, with spring break March 15-19, finals May 3-6 and commencement May 7-8. On the usual FNP sequence this is the NUR 665 term, so a spring preceptor should be on the Green Form before the October 31 cutoff printed on the 2022-23 form.
What is NAU's census date for fall 2026?
The Registrar lists Sept. 14, 2026 as fall census and Feb. 1, 2027 as spring census, each three weeks after the term opens. The last day to drop a fall course without a W was Sept. 2. For what census means for your account or aid, use the Registrar's important dates page or your graduate nursing advisor.
Can NAU FNP students do clinical hours during winter session?
NAU's published FNP sequence uses summer, fall and spring, and the 2022-23 guidelines need the FNP Program Coordinator's advance approval for any clinical on a break. The four-week winter session, Dec. 14 to Jan. 8, is outside that map, so ask the coordinator before planning any hours there.
When are NAU's fall 2027 and spring 2028 terms?
The ABOR-approved list puts fall 2027 at Aug. 23 to Dec. 10, 2027 and spring 2028 at Jan. 10 to May 5, 2028, with spring commencement May 5-6. This guide's census and break dates cover 2026-27 only; the Registrar's important dates page carries the detail for later years.
Which summer session does NUR 661 use?
NAU's public pages leave that out. Summer 2027 sessions open May 10 (3, 8 and 12 weeks), June 1 (first 5-week and 10-week) and July 6 (second 5-week), all finishing by Aug. 3 conferral. Your NUR 661 syllabus and course faculty confirm the clinical window, which sets how many hours you need each week.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against Northern Arizona University's own catalog, program pages and published nursing documents. Your program coordinator and course faculty have the final word.
NAU welcomes a preceptor you arrange. We arrange one close to home.
Tell us your NAU track, your town and your next practicum. We line up preceptors who fit the course and Arizona's preceptor rule, confirm the site's approval, and gather the CV, license and certification the Green Form needs, well before NAU's cutoff.
- Preceptors matched to the course: all-ages family primary care for FNP, psychiatric settings for PMHNP
- License, experience and certification checked against the rule NAU applies, before the Green Form goes in
- All three FNP practicums planned together, near home instead of a long drive away
Start your placement plan
Track, town and next practicum is all we need to begin.