What Excelsior placement costs, in plain terms
We charge a flat fee per placement, and you pay only once your mentor and site are confirmed. There is no per-hour meter and no charge for a search that does not finish. This page explains why a flat fee fits Excelsior when per-clinical-hour pricing does not, exactly what the fee covers, and why not one dollar of it ever goes to your volunteer mentor.
How much does a capstone mentor matching service cost?
Our capstone mentor matching service costs a single flat fee per placement, and you pay it only after your mentor and practice-experience site are confirmed. We quote your fee up front, before you commit to anything, so there are no surprises and no hourly clock running in the background. One fee covers the whole job: the mentor, the site, and support scoping your capstone project. If we cannot line up a placement you are willing to approve, you do not pay the placement fee. That is the simplest, most honest way we can price work whose entire value is getting you matched.
Why is it a flat fee and not per clinical hour?
It is a flat fee because Excelsior has nothing for an hourly rotation rate to attach to. Most placement services price per clinical hour because they sell nurse-practitioner rotations, where a student needs hundreds of direct-care hours shadowing a licensed provider and the service bills for each one. Excelsior offers no nurse practitioner program, no APRN track, and no DNP. Its graduate nursing is indirect care only: an independent capstone project supervised by a volunteer mentor across 135 practice-experience hours. There is no per-hour NP rotation to sell, so charging by the clinical hour would be a pricing model borrowed from a product Excelsior does not have. A flat per-placement fee matches what the work actually is.
The distinction that drives our price: your Excelsior capstone is one project with one mentor at one site, approved by faculty. It is not a stack of billable clinical hours. So we price the placement, not the hour.
When do you pay?
You pay only once your mentor and site are confirmed. Nothing is due while we are still searching, and nothing is due if we cannot deliver a match you approve. This is deliberate: it keeps our incentive pointed at the only outcome that matters to you, an approved mentor and a secured site in time for your capstone term. You approve the plan first, then payment follows the confirmed placement, not the other way around.
What does the fee cover?
The fee covers every piece of the search and coordination Excelsior leaves on your shoulders. Here is what is inside it.
| Included | What we do |
|---|---|
| Mentor sourcing | Find a master's-prepared, specialty-matched professional willing to volunteer as your mentor. |
| Mentor verification | Confirm the graduate degree and specialization expertise before you commit. |
| Site coordination | Secure the practice-experience site and coordinate any affiliation agreement with the program. |
| Compliance | Shepherd your CastleBranch background check, drug screen, and immunization records to clearance. |
| Project support | Help you scope an independent capstone project the site will host and faculty will approve. |
Do you ever pay the mentor?
No, and this matters. The Excelsior mentor is a volunteer by definition, and we never pay the mentor any part of your fee. Everything you pay covers our own work sourcing, verifying, and coordinating; none of it changes hands as a payment for a mentor's participation. Paying someone to serve as your mentor would be inappropriate and out of step with how Excelsior defines the role, so we simply do not do it. When you pay us, you are paying for the search and the legwork, full stop.
A note on the wider market
It helps to know what you are comparing against. The nurse-practitioner placement market has trained many students to expect per-hour pricing and large hour totals, because NP rotations genuinely involve hundreds of direct-care hours. That context does not carry over to Excelsior, and it is worth being skeptical of any service that tries to price your Excelsior capstone as if it were an NP rotation. Your program is indirect care, one project, one mentor, 135 hours. We price it that way, quote it up front, and tie payment to a confirmed match so the cost tracks the value you actually receive.
Pricing questions, answered
How much does a capstone mentor matching service cost for Excelsior?
We charge a flat fee per placement that covers the mentor, the practice-experience site, and capstone project support. You pay only once your mentor and site are confirmed, so there is no charge for an unfinished search. We quote your fee before you commit.
Why do you not charge per clinical hour?
Per-clinical-hour pricing exists because most services sell nurse-practitioner rotations billed by the hour. Excelsior has no NP or APRN programs, and its graduate work is indirect-care practice experience around an independent project, so an hourly rotation rate has nothing to attach to. A flat per-placement fee fits Excelsior's model honestly.
When do I pay?
You pay only once your mentor and practice-experience site are confirmed. If we cannot line up a placement you approve, you do not pay the placement fee. That keeps our incentive aligned with actually getting you matched.
Does any of the fee go to the mentor?
No. The Excelsior mentor is a volunteer, and we never pay the mentor. The fee covers our own work: sourcing and verifying the mentor, coordinating the site and any affiliation agreement, and shepherding CastleBranch compliance. Paying a mentor to participate would be inappropriate.
What does the placement fee cover?
It covers sourcing a master's-prepared, specialty-matched mentor, securing the practice-experience site, coordinating any affiliation agreement, shepherding your CastleBranch background, drug screen, and immunization records, and helping you scope an approvable capstone project. In short, all three things Excelsior leaves to you.
Get your placement quote
Tell us your Excelsior program, your city, and your capstone term. We will come back with a plan and a flat fee you approve before anything is confirmed.
Related
The affiliation agreement
What the agreement between your site and Excelsior is, why it can slow a capstone, and how we shepherd it.
CastleBranch compliance
The background check, drug screen, and immunization tracking that runs alongside your placement.
DIY vs a placement service
An honest side-by-side of running the search yourself versus handing it to us: time, stress, and risk.