Keiser's graduate calendar, term by term
Keiser's Graduate School runs three 16-week semesters a year, each split into two 8-week terms called Term A and Term C, and every graduate nursing course, practicums included, lives inside one of them. Below are the 2026 and 2027 start dates from Keiser's calendar and catalog, what one or two courses at a time means, and how to plan a practicum against those Mondays.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Keiser program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your Keiser course.
Three semesters, six terms
The graduate year has three 16-week semesters. Winter runs from January into May, Summer from May into August, and Fall from late August or September to December. Each semester holds a pair of 8-week terms, named Term A and Term C, and every term opens on a Monday.
The letters match Keiser's undergraduate calendar, where each semester holds four 4-week terms lettered A through D. In fall 2026, the graduate Term A and Term C starts, Aug 31 and Oct 26, land on the same Mondays as undergraduate Terms A and C.
Graduate nursing courses run the full 8 weeks, and the catalog lets you carry one or two at a time. The FNP program page brands this as one class at a time while allowing two, and it treats a single course per 8 weeks as part-time study.
2026 and 2027 term start dates
Keiser's Graduate School Academic Calendar gives the 2026 starts, and the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog, effective Aug 31, 2026, gives the 2027 starts.
| Semester | Term A starts | Term C starts |
|---|---|---|
| Winter 2026 | Mon, Jan 12, 2026 | Mon, Mar 9, 2026 |
| Summer 2026 | Mon, May 11, 2026 | Mon, Jul 6, 2026 |
| Fall 2026 | Mon, Aug 31, 2026 | Mon, Oct 26, 2026 |
| Winter 2027 | Mon, Jan 11, 2027 | Mon, Mar 8, 2027 |
| Summer 2027 | Mon, May 10, 2027 | Mon, Jul 5, 2027 |
| Fall 2027 | Mon, Aug 30, 2027 | Mon, Oct 25, 2027 |
Counting from the starts alone, most terms follow each other exactly eight weeks apart. Two gaps are wider: nine weeks between the Winter C and Summer A starts in both years, and eleven weeks across the year-end holidays, from Oct 26, 2026 to Jan 11, 2027. The calendar PDF shows each term's end date, breaks and holidays.
Where Keiser's calendars disagree
Three calendar problems are worth knowing before you build plans around a date.
- The 2027 section of the Graduate School Academic Calendar PDF shows four 4-week terms, A to D, while the Graduate Catalog's 2027 calendar shows two 8-week terms, A and C. The catalog governs graduate programs.
- The catalog's 2026 graduate calendar carries year typos, printing Easter as 04/03/25 and Veterans Day as 11/11/25.
- Keiser's web page titled Nursing Academic Calendar still displays 2012 dates, so it is no guide to current terms.
The catalog file is also the newer of the two graduate sources, updated in September 2026 against the calendar PDF's March 2026 file. If two sources clash over a date that touches your practicum, ask course faculty or the Clinical Coordinator which one governs.
How a practicum fits inside one term
Each FNP practicum occupies a single 8-week term beside its didactic course, so it opens on one of the Mondays above and closes eight weeks later. Preceptor evaluations fall at week 4 and week 8, and Keiser asks students to spread hours through the whole term rather than cramming them into blocks. For the 120-hour practicums, the FNP program page expects around 15 or 16 hours of clinical time weekly, and the 8-week pacing page works through the math course by course.
Taken back to back, the five FNP practicums fill 40 weeks, a figure the program page itself uses, and the FNP practicum courses page lists them in order. DNP Clinical Practice follows the same pattern at 120 hours and 15 a week, and WHNP clinicals run in 8-week terms too. Because each theory and clinical pair must be graded and closed before the following pair opens, one missed term shifts every practicum after it.
Planning your preceptor search against the dates
Keiser's FNP guidance is to start planning about three months before a course begins. On this calendar that is roughly one and a half terms ahead. For a practicum opening Jan 11, 2027, the search belongs in early October 2026, before Fall Term C has even started, and the three-month lead time page turns that into a full working timeline.
Your first practicum's date depends on the courses before it. By the catalog's prerequisite chain, NUR602A lands no earlier than term five, even carrying two courses every term, and the first clinical course page explains which courses stand in front of it. Keiser does not publish fixed start months for the FNP, WHNP or DNP, so your advisor's plan of study is the document to work from.
Undergraduate terms for RN to BSN students
RN to BSN students follow the undergraduate calendar: the same three 16-week semesters cut into four 4-week terms, with one course at a time. Fall 2026's four undergraduate starts are Aug 31, Sep 28, Oct 26 and Nov 23. The program's 45-hour community clinical has to fit that shorter rhythm, and the NUR4636 page shows what that means for finding a preceptor. Keiser's nurse anesthesia program is the outlier, with 16-week courses taken two to five at a time.
Across the university, Keiser describes a one-course-at-a-time model with 4-, 8- and 16-week terms in use. The campus BSN tracks describe their nursing core in 16-week semesters, and those programs arrange their own clinical rotations, so the planning on this site centers on the graduate terms and the RN to BSN clinical.
Why Keiser students plan their placements with us
We plan every search against Keiser's real term dates. Tell us which Term A or Term C your practicum opens in, and your placement advisor counts back from that Monday, so the preceptor, the practice's agreement contact and a dated clinical schedule are settled roughly three months early.
Because Keiser's practicums run back to back, we map several terms at once: NUR602A and NUR603A in adult primary care, then the pediatric and women's health terms, then the Integration Practicum. If a preceptor drops mid-term, we stay on call, find a replacement and work to protect the weeks that remain. Faculty sign-off belongs to Keiser, and a clean, complete submission is our part. See how it works or send your term through the form below.
Questions Keiser students ask
When does Keiser's next graduate term start?
As of this page's late-September 2026 update, the next graduate starts are Oct 26, 2026, then Jan 11, Mar 8 and May 10, 2027. Each opens a new 8-week term on a Monday. Keiser publishes no fixed start months for its nursing programs, so confirm your own term with your advisor.
Can I take two courses during a Keiser practicum term?
Keiser's graduate programs allow one or two courses at a time, and each FNP practicum is taken with its paired didactic course, so a practicum term already means two courses. For a 120-hour practicum, the FNP program page budgets roughly 15 or 16 clinic hours and another 6 to 8 of online coursework each week.
What is the difference between Term A and Term C?
Only their place in the semester. Term A is the first 8 weeks of a 16-week semester and Term C the second. The letters match Keiser's 4-week undergraduate terms, A through D, and in fall 2026 the graduate terms start on the same Mondays as undergraduate Terms A and C.
Where is Keiser's official graduate calendar?
The Graduate School Academic Calendar 2026-2030 is a PDF on keiseruniversity.edu, and the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog prints its own graduate calendar. Both are listed in the sources on this page. Skip the web page labeled Nursing Academic Calendar, which still shows dates from 2012.
How long do I have to finish a Keiser graduate nursing program?
The 2026-27 catalog sets five years for the FNP, WHNP, MSN and DNP, and the DNP adds an eight-year limit on its applied project phase. Part-time study at one course per term stretches the plan, so map your practicum terms early; the grades and progression page covers the related rules.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Keiser's catalogs, graduate nursing manuals, licensure disclosures and program pages. Your course, the Clinical Coordinator and the 2026-27 Graduate Catalog have the final word.
Keiser asks you to find your own preceptor. Let us run that search.
Tell us your Keiser program, your next practicum and where you live. We find preceptors who fit the course and prepare the CV, license and site details your Preceptor/Mentor Information Form needs, about three months ahead.
- Preceptors matched to the course: adult and older-adult primary care for
NUR602AandNUR603A, pediatrics forNUR604A, women's health forNUR605A - CV, license, certification and site contact ready for Keiser's review and the affiliation agreement
- Across Florida, from Miami to Jacksonville, and in the other states where you are licensed
Start your placement plan
Your program, city and next practicum term is all we need to begin.