Lewis's 2026-27 academic calendar for nursing students
Lewis runs fall, spring and summer semesters, and fall and spring each hold a first and a second 8-week session. Fall 2026 runs August 24 to December 12, spring 2027 runs January 19 to May 15, and summer 2027 starts May 17. Your NP practicums follow the full 16-week term, while the MSN core follows the 8-week sessions.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your Lewis program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with preceptor and site options in your community that fit your Lewis course.
How the calendar fits graduate nursing
For graduate programs, Lewis's academic year begins on the first day of classes in August and ends when the following summer term closes in August. Within that year the catalog puts the MSN core and the Healthcare Systems Leadership and Nursing Education specialty courses in accelerated 8-week sessions, while nurse practitioner specialty courses run in "a traditional 16-week format."
That split tells you which column of the calendar to read. A term with NURS 53300 or NURS 53600 runs on the 8-week dates. A term with a practicum, such as NURS 61100 taken with its management course NURS 61000, runs on the full-term dates, and your contract request names that semester (how the 16-week NP courses work).
Codes you may meet in older Lewis schedules
- Part of term 1: the full term, sixteen weeks
- 18 and 28: the first and second eight weeks
- CL: a six-week block labeled "Clinical"; NL: a ten-week block labeled "Nursing Lab"
- Campus codes: ROM for Romeoville, OBK for Oak Brook, ONL for online, OFF for other off-campus sites
These codes come from the Fall 2024 schedule booklet, the newest one available, so confirm them in Banner Self-Service before you rely on them.
Fall 2026
| Item | Full term (16 weeks) | First 8 weeks | Second 8 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session dates | Aug 24 to Dec 12 | Aug 24 to Oct 17 | Oct 19 to Dec 12 |
| Last day to add through the portal | Sun, Aug 30 | Wed, Aug 26 | Sun, Oct 25 |
| Last day to drop with 100% refund | Tue, Sep 8 | Tue, Sep 8 | Mon, Nov 2 |
| Last day to withdraw | Mon, Nov 16 | Mon, Oct 5 | Mon, Nov 30 |
Breaks fall on Labor Day, September 7, Fall Break, October 15 and 16, and Thanksgiving, November 25 to 29. Apply to graduate by October 1. Commencement Weekend is December 11 and 12, and degrees are conferred on December 18, 2026.
For a fall practicum, the date that matters most is August 24. Lewis's contract legend lets an approved student start at the named site with the named preceptor when the requested semester begins, so a request still under review on the first class day is already using up your 16 weeks.
Spring 2027
| Item | Full term (16 weeks) | First 8 weeks | Second 8 weeks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Session dates | Jan 19 to May 15 | Jan 19 to Mar 13 | Mar 22 to May 15 |
| Last day to add | Mon, Jan 25 | Thu, Jan 21 | Wed, Mar 24 |
| Last day to drop with 100% refund | Mon, Feb 1 | Mon, Feb 1 | Mon, Apr 5 |
| Last day to withdraw | Mon, Apr 19 | Mon, Mar 1 | Mon, May 3 |
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is January 18 and Spring Break runs March 15 to 19. The Easter break is March 25 to 29 on the academic calendar but March 26 to 29 in the Registrar's PDF, so check with your instructor and preceptor if a clinical day lands on March 25. The same PDF prints the first 8-week session as beginning January 29; the calendar's January 19 is the right date.
Apply by February 1, 2027 for May graduation. Commencement Weekend is May 14 and 15, and conferral is May 21.
Summer 2027
Summer is a 14-week semester with shorter sessions nested inside it. Lewis publishes the sessions but not which NP practicums, if any, run in summer, so confirm your plan of study with your advisor before you line up a summer preceptor.
| Session | Start | End |
|---|---|---|
| Summer semester, 14 weeks | Mon, May 17 | Sat, Aug 21 |
| First 7 weeks | Mon, May 17 | Fri, Jul 2 |
| Second 7 weeks | Tue, Jul 6 | Sat, Aug 21 |
| 4 weeks | Mon, May 17 | Sat, Jun 12 |
| 10 weeks | Mon, May 17 | Sat, Jul 24 |
| 6 weeks | Mon, May 31 | Sat, Jul 10 |
| 8 weeks, combined with St. Augustine summer | Mon, May 31 | Sat, Jul 24 |
Summer degrees are conferred on August 27, 2027, and the application deadline is July 1.
Withdrawal, attendance and Incomplete timing
Lewis allows a W through 75 percent of a course: twelve full weeks of a 16-week course, or six full weeks of an 8-week course, and the withdraw dates in the tables apply that rule. Simply ceasing to attend is not a withdrawal and ends in an F. Graduate students speak with their advisor or program director before withdrawing.
Attendance counts from the first week. Missing the first two weeks of a 16-week course, or the first week of a 4- to 8-week course, without the instructor's approval leads to withdrawal.
If practicum hours run past the last class day, the one grade available is an Incomplete, due March 1 for fall, July 1 for spring and October 15 for summer. The grades and Incomplete page sets out the rules.
The semester named in your contract request is the one your preceptor must be ready for. Build the search back from that semester's first class day, not from the add deadline.
Planning a preceptor around these dates
Lewis publishes no deadline for filing a preceptor contract request and no rule on how many semesters ahead to file. What it does publish is a review of at least two weeks after you submit, plus extra time whenever the site needs a new affiliation agreement, which stays in review until the agency signs. Lewis's own advice is to begin practicum planning at acceptance (a term-by-term timeline).
Our placement desk plans the same way. Tell us your track and your first practicum semester, and we work back from that semester's first class day, confirm a preceptor who fits the course, and hand you the details for the contract portal with room for review and any new agreement. Then we repeat the process for each practicum that follows, with the aim of a preceptor ready before each practicum semester opens. Start on the placement request form.
Questions Lewis students ask
Does Lewis have a January term?
Yes. The January Session, or J-Term, runs January 5 to 15, 2027, before spring classes open on January 19. It is a short session between semesters. NP practicums and their management courses follow the full 16-week spring term instead, so plan clinical days from January 19 onward.
Can Lewis August graduates walk at commencement?
Yes. Lewis confers degrees three times a year, in December, May and August, but holds Commencement Weekend only in December and May. August graduates are invited to take part in the December ceremony, so a student who finishes in summer 2027 would walk with the class in December.
Do online Lewis courses follow the same calendar?
Lewis publishes one academic calendar, and its online courses are built in Blackboard on the same 8-week and 16-week lengths. Tutoring schedules are posted in Central Time, which matters if you study from another time zone. Clinical days at your site follow the practicum semester in your approved contract.
When can Lewis graduate students register for classes?
For fall 2026, graduate registration opened on April 13, 2026, and Lewis posts a registration timetable with its course schedules. You register through Banner Self-Service, reached from myLewis. Watch the Registrar's page for later terms, and register for a practicum and its paired management course together.
How long is a Lewis summer semester?
Fourteen weeks in 2027, from May 17 to August 21, with 4-, 6-, 7-, 8- and 10-week sessions inside it. NP practicums are described as 16-week courses, so ask your advisor how your plan of study uses summer before you arrange a summer preceptor or promise a site summer dates.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-25
We check these pages against Lewis's own catalog, program pages and FAQ, its contract portal and Illinois law. Your course, your track coordinator and the Clinical Placement Office have the final word.
Lewis asks you to identify your preceptor. We do the searching.
Tell us your Lewis program, where you live and when your next practicum starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course and prepare every detail the contract portal asks for, so your request goes in complete.
- Preceptors matched to the practicum: primary care for
NURS 61100andNURS 61800, acute care forNURS 62500, psychiatric care forNURS 63300 - Preceptor, license and site details ready for your preceptor contract request
- In your own community, anywhere Lewis enrolls you and your RN license is valid
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