Sacred Heart University's nursing course calendars for 2026-27

Match your program to a calendar

The registrar's 2026-27 graduate calendars are Semester-Level Programs, Trimester-Level Programs, Special Trimester Programs and Eight-Week Modules. The catalog adds only that add/drop and withdrawal deadlines "vary for different programs," so the first job is finding the row that names your program.

One more reference complicates the picture: the MSN guide sends NP students to the "SHU Online Academic Calendar" for a course's withdrawal date without saying which registrar page that means. When a date will drive a decision, confirm it with your advisor.

Semester-Level dates for the hybrid DNP programs

The two hybrid DNP programs run on five terms. Late spring lasts two weeks, and the two summer sessions hold the summer courses the FNP/DNP web plan schedules each year.

Campus intensive days for these programs fall inside the same terms; the residencies page explains how often hybrid students come to Fairfield.

Fifteen weeks, sixteen weeks or modules?

Sacred Heart describes the length of an online NP course in several ways, and the difference matters when you and a preceptor divide up the hours.

• SHU Online FAQ, MSN FNP: part-time study "with one class (occasionally two classes) per 15-week semester."
• Catalog, post-master's FNP and PMHNP certificates: "Courses are 16 weeks in length."
• Online MSN curriculum page: a semester duration of 15 to 16 weeks.
• MSN guide: registration is framed by modules M1 to M6, yet NP deadlines sit in week 10 of NU 552 and of each clinical course, which only works if those courses outlast a single eight-week module.
• Registrar: MSN/FNP on the Special Trimester calendar, whose terms span 15 or 16 calendar weeks.

Plan preceptor hours to the first and last day shown for your own course, in the Blackboard course site and your MySHU class schedule, not to a general week count, and raise any surprise with your advisor before the term begins.

Clinical hours and the edges of a term

The hybrid FNP/DNP guide states the boundary plainly: "Clinical hours cannot be completed before the semester start date & must be finished by the semester end date." Hours outside the Semester-Level dates above do not count toward the course.

Online MSN and certificate students are bound by the clearance rule instead. Nothing counts until the Cleared for Clinical email arrives, and then only at the approved site under the approved preceptor; hours logged while non-compliant or with an unapproved site or preceptor are deleted from E*Value; the Cleared for Clinical guide covers what triggers it.

When hours run short, online FNP students have a formal way to keep going: NU 600 Continuous Enrollment, which carries no credit and lets MSN/FNP students stay registered while they complete required clinical hours. An incomplete grade is the other route, and its deadlines appear in the grades and progression guide.