The rumor says nothing moves until January. The application calendars disagree, loudly.
Four big systems have now dated their winter and spring cohort windows. The first opens Friday. If you are a new grad RN, or you graduate by December, this is the week the January plan stops being abstract and starts having deadlines with times of day attached.
What changed
UCLA Health dated its Spring 2027 residency window. Applications open September 4 and close September 11 at 5pm Pacific, a window of exactly seven days, with eligibility reaching back to June 2025 graduates who hold less than six months of inpatient RN experience. Interview invitations start mid October, and offer decisions land by December 18 for a March start.
Four windows, five weeks
Baylor Scott and White opens external applications September 7 and closes September 27. Interviews run from October, and the winter cohort starts January 25.
Texas Health posts its winter cohort positions on September 24 for a February 22 start. Its fall cohort is open right now with an October 19 start, and the system runs an information session September 1 and an application workshop September 3.
Mayo Clinic Arizona closes October 5 for its own February 22 cohort, while Rochester simply takes applications the 1st through the 8th of every month.
The packet decides more than the window
The standard asks are a resume, unofficial transcripts, references, and a written clinical story, and a seven day window is not enough time to build them from scratch. Build the packet once, this week. Then reuse it across every program that opens.
Read the commitment line first
An offer is a contract before it is a celebration. Texas Health's program carries a fifteen month work agreement that begins on day one of the residency, and it wants boards passed before the start date rather than before you apply. Each program sets its own rule. The posting is where that rule lives, so read it there, not in a group chat.
Eligibility windows run wider than the folklore says, too. UCLA counts graduates back to June 2025, so months of quiet applying do not take you out of the cohort race.
What to watch
September 24 is the next posting date after this week's windows close. Torrance Memorial says its spring recruitment opens in late January. And if a program you want is not on this list, its careers page will name the cohort calendar; most systems post the dates months ahead.
Sources
- UCLA Health new graduate programs, read August 31, 2026.
- Baylor Scott & White students and graduates, read August 31, 2026.
- Texas Health graduate nurse program, read August 31, 2026.
- Mayo Clinic nurse residency programs, read August 31, 2026.
- Torrance Memorial timing: the hospital's residency page, updated August 13, 2026.
- On the board behind this piece: 347 residency or fellowship titled postings were live on the Nursing Mastery job corpus at the same read, 176 of them stating new grads welcome.
