WilmU's academic calendar and your practicum timeline

How the WilmU year is built

WilmU's registrar describes an academic year made of three semesters, six accelerated blocks and a set of weekend modulars. Every semester carries two kinds of course side by side: 15-week courses that run its full length, and block courses that fill either its first seven weeks (Block 1) or its last seven (Block 2).

A reading week follows each block. In Fall 2026, for example, Block 1 ends October 18, its reading week starts October 19, and Block 2 opens October 26. Weekend modulars keep their own drop and withdrawal deadlines, apart from the semester and block dates.

For a practicum, the format decides how your hours spread out. If GRN 7121 ran across a full semester, its 175 hours would average under 12 a week; packed into one 7-week block, the same hours would come to 25 a week. WilmU's catalog entries for the NP practicums do not say which format they use, so put that question to your track's Assistant Chair before you and a preceptor agree on a weekly pattern.

Which format WilmU's nursing courses use

WilmU states the format for some nursing courses and leaves others open. Here is what its curriculum pages and the 2026-27 graduate catalog say.

• DNP core courses run in 7-week blocks.
• GRN 9001, the first DNP Project course, runs across a 15-week semester. The project courses after it run in 7-week blocks, and continuous enrollment is required through the project phase.
• GRN 8121 to GRN 8124, the Leadership concentration's experiential engagement courses, run in 15-week semesters and are taken one at a time.
• MSN in Nursing Leadership courses run in 7-week blocks, with new classes starting every 8 weeks.
• The RN to BSN also starts classes every 8 weeks, and most associate-degree RNs finish its 15 courses in 18 months at two per block. NUR 430, the community capstone, is offered in semester format only.
• The eight NP practicums, GRN 7121 to GRN 7124 and GRN 7221 to GRN 7224, have no published format.

The hours tied to each DNP Project course are laid out on our DNP project courses page, and the full hour picture for every program sits on clinical hours.

Planning a preceptor search around the calendar

WilmU publishes no lead time for lining up an NP preceptor, so the safest plan works backward from what the calendar and catalog do give you.

1. Find your first practicum termBefore GRN 7121 come four courses: GRN 7101, GRN 7103, GRN 7104, then GRN 7105. It runs in the same semester as GRN 7106 and GRN 7107. GRN 7221 shares its term with GRN 7203. Your plan in MyWilmU Degree Works shows where those land.
2. Ask whether it is a block or a semester courseThat answer sets the weekly hours you ask a clinician to host. Your track's Assistant Chair can answer it, as can the program handbook.
3. Clear credentialing before the term opensClinical credentialing clearance has to be complete before clinical courses, at the point the program handbook sets. Our clinical credentialing guide covers it.
4. Leave room for the site's own intakeSome health systems post their own lead times. TidalHealth, for one, wants its preceptorship request form in hand 90 days or more ahead of the start.
5. Mark drop/add and withdrawal datesIf a start slips, these two dates decide which options stay open.

Every search we run is timed to these dates. Send us your cohort, your course and your term, and we look for a preceptor whose availability matches the weeks you need, with the license and credentials organized well before your first clinical day. Tell us about your course.