Request your Ball State preceptor placement
The form on this page tells a placement advisor your Ball State track, your next NUR course, where you live and the term the course opens. You hear back promptly. If you would rather talk first, the chat and the message buttons on this page reach the same placement desk.
Send your placement request
Pick your program and clinical start, add your city and state, and put your next NUR course in the message box.
The four details that start a search
A placement advisor can begin with four facts. Everything else can follow in conversation.
- Your Ball State track: the MS in Nursing FNP, the post-master's FNP certificate, the DNP and its cognate, or the Nurse Educator or Leadership and Management concentration.
- Your next NUR course: for example
NUR 682orNUR 673, plus any later course you would like to plan now. - Your city and state: add your county if you live outside a metro area, since rural searches are planned differently.
- The start term: fall, spring or summer, and the year the course opens.
Unsure what your next course is? Tell us that instead. Your plan of study, or the catalog's course order, settles it quickly, and the clinical hours planner shows every track's courses side by side.
Details that sharpen the search
These are optional, but each one saves a round of questions and keeps early options from falling through:
- Where you work and which unit or clinic, since Ball State rules out clinicals in your own unit or clinic.
- The days of the week you can be in clinic, and any weeks you already know you are away.
- Practices that have already said yes, no or maybe, and any agency that asked for its own contract instead of Ball State's standard affiliation agreement.
- Hours still owed from an earlier course, or an Incomplete you are working off.
- What your clinical packet or course faculty have told you about preceptors for this course.
- American Data Bank items that expire before the course ends.
Where each detail goes on the form
The Program menu lists Ball State's tracks, plus "Not sure yet" and an option for preceptors. The Clinical start menu runs from "In a clinical course now" to "More than 6 months away", which tells your placement advisor how much runway the search has. City and state has its own box, and the Message box is the place for your NUR course number, hours still needed and anything from the list above.
Your name, email and phone let your placement advisor reply in whichever way reaches you best. The note under the button explains how replies work and links our privacy policy.
What happens after you send it
- A placement advisor picks it upYour request reaches the placement desk directly, and you hear from a placement advisor promptly.
- A short conversationYou confirm the course, the setting it needs, your schedule, your workplace and whether your state is authorized for your program.
- Your plan and quoteYou see which courses the search covers and what it includes. The cost guide explains what moves the price.
- The searchPractices matched to the course are approached, each one checked against Ball State's rules and asked about the standard affiliation agreement.
- Your preceptor, site and backupYou receive the preceptor and site, the agency contact for the agreement, what your clinical packet needs from them, and a second agency for the same term.
- Ball State's reviewYou submit through Ball State as your packet directs. Course faculty and the School of Nursing review and clear the site, and American Data Bank must show you compliant before hours count.
Prefer to chat or message first?
Tap the chat button to talk with the placement desk without leaving this page; it suits a quick check, like whether we cover your state or course. The WhatsApp and text buttons start a message on your phone that lands at the same desk, handy if you are on shift and would rather reply between patients.
Whichever you choose, the same four details help: track, next NUR course, city and state, and start term. A conversation that starts in chat can move to the form, or the other way round, without starting over.
If your clinical course is close
Under Clinical start, pick "In a clinical course now" or the within-three-months option, and say in the message what has happened: no preceptor yet, a preceptor who withdrew, or an agency that stopped responding. That tells your placement advisor to work the request with that urgency.
Tell Ball State as well. Your course faculty and the Graduate Clinical Placement Coordinator support students when placement problems arise, and they need to know before a term's paperwork deadlines pass. For steps you can take in the meantime, read what to do this week.
Preceptors and practices
Nurse practitioners and physicians who would host Ball State FNP students can use this form too. Pick the preceptor option in the Program menu and tell us your specialty, which courses suit your caseload and which days are open. The page for preceptors explains what each course asks and how Ball State's agreement reaches your office.
Questions Ball State students ask
How soon will a placement advisor reply to my request?
Promptly. Your request lands with the placement desk the moment you send it, and a placement advisor gets back to you by email, phone call or text, whichever your details point to. If your clinical course is already under way or opens within weeks, choose that option under Clinical start and say so in the message.
Do I need my plan of study before I send a request?
It helps but is not required. Ball State emails graduate plans of study after admission. If you have yours, include your next two clinical courses and their terms. If not, send your track and start term, and your placement advisor works from the catalog's course order until your plan arrives.
Can I send a request before my first clinical course?
Yes, and it is the best time. Ball State's graduate handbook suggests planning clinical experiences at least a year ahead, and the catalog warns that proof of 500 hours worked as an RN may be requested before clinical courses begin. A request made before NUR 634 lets your placement advisor plan the courses that follow in order.
Does sending the form commit me to a placement?
No. Sending the form starts a conversation with a placement advisor. You see the plan and the quote for your course before deciding anything, and you can ask questions by chat, message or email at any stage along the way.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-26
We check these pages against Ball State's own catalog, graduate handbook, program pages and State Authorization Map, and Indiana rules. Your course faculty, your advisor and the Graduate Clinical Placement Coordinator have the final word.
Ball State asks you to find your preceptor. We find one near you.
Tell us your Ball State track, where you live and when your next clinical course starts. We find preceptors near you who fit the course, confirm the practice will sign Ball State's affiliation agreement, and line up a backup, so the School of Nursing can clear the site before the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: pediatrics for
NUR 682, women's health forNUR 684, adult primary care forNUR 681andNUR 683 - Outside your own unit or clinic, in a state where Ball State's program is authorized
- Across Indiana, from Muncie to Evansville, and in the other states Ball State accepts
Start your placement plan
Program, city and start date is all we need to begin.