What shapes the cost of UC placement help

Why there's no figure on this page

A search for an FNP student's first practicum near a large metro and a search for a PMHNP student's psychotherapy preceptor in a rural county are different jobs. The first may turn on finding a clinic that takes students at all; the second on finding a master's-level licensed therapist willing to supervise a nurse practitioner student through Internship I. One posted number would be wrong for most people who read it.

So we price each request after reading it. Once we know your track, course, state and term, a placement advisor can see what the search involves and put a figure in writing. Until then, the most useful thing we can offer is an honest account of what moves that figure, which is what the rest of this page does.

What goes into a quote

• Your track and its preceptor rules. Some tracks narrow the field sharply: AGPCNP students can't train where they work, midwifery students need a CNM or CM for half their hours, and PMHNP students need a licensed therapist for their first internship and prescribers after that.
• Where you live and how crowded it is. An area where many schools' students are already asking the same clinics is harder than one where few are. Rural areas can be thin on the right specialty.
• How close the deadline is. A search months ahead of the packet date is a different job from one squeezed against it, or against the end of week 2.
• How many preceptors your track needs. FNP, AGPCNP and PMHNP students need at least three over the program, and FNP and AGACNP students can't keep one preceptor for all three semesters.
• Specialty settings. Intrapartum and birth experience, pediatric acute care, a Level III NICU and hospital acute-care units draw from a small pool of clinicians.
• Site paperwork. A site that wants its own contract instead of UC's, or one of the eight systems UC lists for a CSC check before first contact, adds steps.

Costs that sit outside our quote

Some clinical costs come from UC's rules and the sites themselves, and they're yours whoever finds the preceptor. The Student Handbook names travel, temporary housing, site fees, extra drug screens, fingerprinting and extra background checks as the student's responsibility, and UC's Critical Requirements page says the costs of those requirements fall on you too.

Site fees vary because, as UC puts it, each site sets its own fee structure for clinical activity. Cleveland Clinic and Atrium Health write an administrative fee into the affiliation agreement, and UC collects it from the student to pass on; other sites may bill you directly. Those fees go to the site, not to the preceptor and not to us. The clinical site fees page covers how to ask about them early.

The written quote comes first

Before you commit to anything, you get a written quote for your request. Read it the way you'd read any contract for a service you're paying for, and ask about anything that isn't clear before you agree.

• Which track, course and term the quote covers, and how many preceptors it includes.
• What we do: the search, help with the preceptor's side of the Preceptor Application and the site details your CSC needs, and staying on call if a preceptor drops.
• What counts as a completed search, so the finish line is clear from the start.
• The terms, including what happens if a preceptor withdraws or UC declines one.

If a quote doesn't answer those points, ask. A clear answer in writing protects you more than a quick yes.

What you're paying for

A quote pays for the part of a UC placement that eats the most time: the search, run by specialists in UC's process. We look for in-person preceptors and sites near you that fit your track's population, setting and hour rules, vet each one's credentials, license state and fit with your track before their name reaches you, and ask about the agreement, onboarding and any site fee on the first call.

Then we help your preceptor with their half of the Preceptor Application and gather the site's administrative contact for the Educational Affiliation Agreement, all ready ahead of your packet Friday. Through the term we stay on call, and if a preceptor withdraws, we start searching again right away. UC suggests questions to ask any match company about cost, refunds, commitments and vetting; our guide to choosing a placement service answers each one, and your own search versus your CSC's options versus paid help compares the routes.

What stays in UC's hands

Your CSC vets every preceptor the same way whoever found them, and that's exactly why we screen against UC's rules first. UC's standard affiliation agreement usually needs six weeks or more, and a site's own contract can run past six months, so we raise the agreement on the first call rather than after a yes.

The end-of-week-2 cutoff also stands. If no site is secured by then, UC's track documents tell students to drop the course by the drop date, while a full refund is still available, or face administrative withdrawal or a failing grade. The delayed graduation page describes what a lost term can mean for your plan of study.