UTRGV's 2026-27 academic calendar for nursing students
UTRGV runs one calendar for the whole university, and the School of Nursing works inside it: 16-week fall and spring semesters, a set of summer sessions, and 7-week modules for the Accelerated Online programs. Fall 2026 runs August 26 to December 10 and Spring 2027 runs January 19 to May 13. Below are the full dates, the start term for every nursing program, and how the clinical courses sit inside the terms.
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The 2026-27 terms and their dates
The School of Nursing has no calendar of its own. Its courses follow UTRGV's six traditional terms (fall, spring, Mini Summer, Summer I, Summer II and Summer III), and a traditional graduate semester lasts 16 weeks, the frame every FNP and PMHNP clinical course is built on. These dates are from UTRGV's 2026-27 calendar PDF and calendar page.
| Term | Classes run | Census day | Last day to drop |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 | Aug 26 to Dec 10 | Sep 11 | Nov 5 |
| Spring 2027 | Jan 19 to May 13 | Feb 3 | Apr 8 |
| Mini Summer 2027 | May 17 to Jun 4 | May 18 | Not listed |
| Summer I 2027 | Jun 7 to Jul 13 | Jun 10 | Jul 1 |
| Summer II 2027 | Jul 15 to Aug 20 | Jul 20 | Aug 11 |
| Summer III 2027 | Jun 7 to Aug 20 | Jun 22 | Jul 30 |
Summer III is the long session: the calendar files it under the Summer I term, so both open June 7 and Summer III runs on to August 20. Fall finals are December 4 to 10; spring finals are May 7 to 13.
The 7-week Accelerated Online modules
UTRGV's Accelerated Online Programs run on 7-week modules, two in each of fall, spring and summer. In the School of Nursing, the RN to BSN is built on them: its class start dates match the module calendar. The graduate NP courses run by semester instead.
| Module | Class begins | Census | Class ends |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fall 2026 I | Aug 26 | Sep 1 | Oct 13 |
| Fall 2026 II | Oct 21 | Oct 27 | Dec 8 |
| Spring 2027 I | Jan 13 | Jan 20 | Mar 2 |
| Spring 2027 II | Mar 10 | Mar 16 | Apr 27 |
| Summer 2027 I | May 5 | May 11 | Jun 22 |
| Summer 2027 II | Jun 30 | Jul 6 | Aug 17 |
Do not mix these modules up with the “two 7-week rotations” in NURS 6612 and NURS 6613. Those rotations sit inside the FNP course's 16-week semester, and nothing UTRGV publishes ties them to the Accelerated Online dates. Build your preceptor schedule around the fall or spring semester your course belongs to.
Start terms and application deadlines by program
Every UTRGV nursing program admits in fixed terms, and three of the four graduate programs take a single intake a year. The dates below are the ones UTRGV lists on its graduate application-deadlines table and the School of Nursing's undergraduate application page; check the cycle you are applying for before you rely on a date.
| Program | Start term(s) | Deadline or window UTRGV lists | Delivery |
|---|---|---|---|
| MSN-FNP | Fall only | Jul 1, extended to Jul 31 | Campus, Edinburg |
| Post-master's FNP certificate | Fall and Summer I | Jul 1 (extended Jul 31) for fall; Apr 1 for Summer I | Campus based, 16-week semesters |
| PMHNP certificate | Summer I only | Opens Sep 2; closes Apr 1 (flyer) or Apr 2 (deadlines table) | 100% online |
| DNP | Fall only | Jul 15, extended to Jul 31 | 100% online |
| BSN (generic) | Spring and fall | Spring 2027: Apr 1 to May 31, 2026. Fall 2027: Nov 1, 2026 to Jan 8, 2027 | Brownsville and Edinburg |
| ABSN (for a second bachelor's) | Spring, summer and fall | Summer 2027: Sep 1 to Oct 31, 2026. Fall 2027: Dec 1, 2026 to Jan 31, 2027 | Brownsville and Edinburg |
| RN to BSN | Spring, summer and fall | Spring 2027: Aug 20 to Nov 20, 2026, with classes from Jan 13, 2027 | Online, 7-week modules |
One mismatch: the School says the generic BSN starts each spring and fall, yet the 2026-27 roadmap shows students entering the nursing courses in a fall term. For bachelor's clinicals, see BSN clinicals and the RN to BSN guide.
The PMHNP Summer I question
UTRGV gives the PMHNP certificate one intake, Summer I, and sells it as an accelerated one-year program, but no UTRGV page says which summer session that start uses: the five-week Summer I or the eleven-week Summer III that the calendar counts as part of the Summer I term. The removed graduate FAQ, read from an archived copy, adds to the doubt: one answer said the program begins every June, a later one said May.
For placement, the fall matters more than the first class day. The same FAQ put the first clinical hours in the program's second semester, the fall, during NURS 6475 and NURS 6476, with students joining a clinical group several weeks before those courses. The public syllabi fit a summer, fall, spring year: NURS 6475 and NURS 6476 carry Fall 2025 dates and NURS 6620 a Spring 2026 date.
Now the arithmetic (ours, not UTRGV's). If Fall 2027 opens in late August, as Fall 2026 did on August 26, a June 7 start leaves roughly 80 days. UTRGV's PMHNP guidelines allow 30 to 90 days for an affiliation agreement, and that assumes clean paperwork, so a home-state site chosen after classes begin can run right up against the fall. Starting the search in the spring, before Summer I, is the safer plan. More in the PMHNP certificate guide and PMHNP practicum courses.
How clinical courses line up with the terms
For the FNP, the only sequence UTRGV has published is the 2019 program of study. It places the courses with clinical hours like this:
| Course | Clinical hours | Full-time term | Part-time term |
|---|---|---|---|
NURS 6305 Advanced Health Assessment | 45 | Year 1 spring | Year 2 spring |
NURS 6347 Role Development for the Nurse Practitioner | 45 | Year 1 summer | Year 2 summer |
NURS 6310 Advanced Practice Health Promotion | 45 | Year 2 fall | Year 1 fall |
NURS 6311 Advanced Practice Rural Health Nursing | 45 | Year 2 spring | Year 1 spring |
NURS 6612 Family Nurse Practitioner I | 224 | Year 2 fall | Year 3 fall |
NURS 6613 Family Nurse Practitioner II | 336 | Year 2 spring | Year 3 spring |
Several 2026-27 prerequisites no longer fit the full-time order (the catalog now puts NURS 6310 ahead of NURS 6347), so follow the plan of study your advisor prepares with you. The 45-hour figures for NURS 6310 and NURS 6311 come from 2022 and 2023 syllabi.
NURS 6612 sets 16 clinical hours a week and NURS 6613 sets 24, each over two 7-week rotations: by our count, 14 of the semester's 16 weeks, with little slack for a late start. Certificate students take the same three specialty courses in catalog order, NURS 6347 before NURS 6612 before NURS 6613.
The DNP has no published plan of study; its project syllabi are dated Summer I 2026 (NURS 8210), Fall 2025 (NURS 8211) and Spring 2026 (NURS 8512). See DNP project hours.
Working backward from a term start
The calendar is fixed; the preceptor search is the part you control. These checkpoints use lead times from UTRGV's own documents.
- Mark your clinical termFind the semester your next clinical course belongs to and its first class day: August 26 for Fall 2026, January 19 for Spring 2027, June 7 for Summer I 2027.
- Allow for a new affiliationIf your preceptor's site is not on UTRGV's approved list, the Clinical Request Form starts an affiliation agreement that can take 30 to 90 days. Counting back 90 days (our arithmetic) lands on October 21, 2026 for a Spring 2027 course and March 9, 2027 for a Summer I course.
- Watch course-level due datesDeadlines for naming a preceptor are set course by course, not program-wide. In Summer 2025, for example, the
NURS 6347calendar set a June 12 due date for the clinical preceptor request. - Leave a week for paperworkFNP syllabi want your signed preceptor paperwork and the weekly time report in hand a full week ahead of the first clinical date on your schedule.
Our placement desk starts every search from these dates, so your preceptor's details reach UTRGV early. How it works shows the steps, and the Clinical Request Form guide covers the affiliation side.
Questions UTRGV students ask
When does registration open for Spring 2027 at UTRGV?
UTRGV's 2026-27 calendar opens Spring 2027 registration on Monday, October 26, 2026, through ASSIST in myUTRGV. If your spring course carries clinical hours, start the preceptor search earlier than that, because an affiliation agreement can take longer than the gap between registration and the first class day.
Does UTRGV hold a commencement ceremony in the summer?
No. The 2026-27 calendar lists no summer ceremony. Commencement falls on December 11 and 12, 2026, after the fall term, and on May 14 and 15, 2027, after the spring. FNP students on the published plan finish with NURS 6613 in a spring semester, which lines up with the May ceremony.
When are Thanksgiving and spring break at UTRGV in 2026-27?
Thanksgiving break is November 26 to 28, 2026, and spring break is March 15 to 20, 2027. The calendar also marks Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the Easter holiday (March 26 and 27), Memorial Day and Juneteenth. Whether a clinical shift may fall in a break is for your course faculty and preceptor to agree.
Do UTRGV's PMHNP courses follow the 7-week online modules?
Nothing UTRGV publishes says so. The PMHNP certificate is fully online, but its syllabi are dated by semester (Fall 2025, Spring 2026) and UTRGV describes the certificate with 16-week semesters. The Accelerated Online modules belong to programs such as the RN to BSN.
Is the Mini Summer term used for nursing clinicals?
UTRGV limits the Mini term (May 17 to June 4, 2027) to special learning experiences such as study abroad, internships, research initiatives and service learning. No graduate nursing syllabus we reviewed puts clinical hours there; plan clinical time around Summer I, Summer III or the long semesters.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UTRGV's own catalog, course syllabi, School of Nursing pages and Texas Board of Nursing rules. Your course faculty and the School of Nursing have the final word.
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