Registration windows and modules M1 to M6 at Sacred Heart

Three registration windows a year

The MSN and Post-MSN Certificate guide covers the year in one line: registration for fall (M1 and M2) "opens in April, for the spring semester (M3 and M4) in October, and for the late spring/summer semester (M5 and M6) in February." Each window opens a few months ahead of the term it serves: April for a term starting at the end of August, October for early January, February for late April.

Your academic advisor approves each term's registration, and the guide expects that approval every term, not only the first. First-term registration and your plan of study go through the Enrollment Coordinator and the Student Services Coordinator. The plan of study is the document that tells you which clinical course falls in which window, so keep it beside your preceptor search.

Closing dates for each window sit with the registrar and your advisor. What matters for clinicals is the order of events: approval of the site and preceptor first, registration second, the course third.

NP courses run 16 weeks, across two modules

FNP and PMHNP clinical courses are longer than a module. The post-master's certificate pages give courses as 16 weeks long, and the online curriculum page gives a semester of 15 to 16 weeks. The registrar puts MSN/FNP on its Special Trimester calendar: fall from August 31 to December 12, 2026, spring from January 4 to April 23, 2027, and late spring from April 26 to August 6, 2027.

Registration for these semesters uses the same April, October and February windows, which puts two dates close together for FNP students. Spring registration opens in October, while the week-10 deadline for a spring clinical course falls inside the fall course, around early November. If approval is still moving when the window opens, the clinical course waits for it. The week-10 deadline page sets out that timetable.

The hybrid BSN-to-DNP and the hybrid post-master's DNP follow the registrar's semester calendar instead: fall from August 31, spring from January 19, summer 1 from May 24 and summer 2 from July 7. The registrar also lists an online PM/DNP under the Special Trimester calendar, so check which version you are enrolled in.

Course-load rules that shape clinical modules

The usual online MSN load is a single course in each module. More than one needs academic advisor approval and good academic standing, and the guide asks for advisor approval of every term's schedule.

Three rules touch clinical modules directly. NU 619 has to be taken alone, with no other course beside it. The practicum and capstone pairs NU 672 and NU 673, NU 680 and NU 681, and NU 690 and NU 691 cannot be taken together. And CNL, Nursing Education and NMEL courses with clinical hours last eight weeks like every other course, so a practicum's hours fit inside a single module.

Sacred Heart's sources disagree on flexibility. The online FAQ says students can adjust their course load term by term without formal approval, while the guide requires advisor approval. When the two differ, the student guide and your advisor are the safer reference.

Timing your search to your module

We work from your plan of study. Tell us which module or semester holds your next clinical course and we count back from it three ways: the placement deadline, the registration window and, when the site has no Sacred Heart agreement yet, the contract lead time. The earliest of those three dates becomes the one we plan to.

From there we find a preceptor in your community who fits the course, assemble the preceptor documents the approvals depend on, and give you the contracting contact your CRF asks for, so approval is finished before registration opens. Our how it works page shows the full service, and the form on this page starts your search.