Thesis/Dissertation Requirements

The M.S. degree requires a thesis, and the Ph.D. degree a dissertation, to be completed and successfully defended before the degree can be awarded. (In the discussion that follows, the term ``thesis'' is used to refer to both.) The supervisory committee must give preliminary approval of the thesis prior to the defense. The thesis defense can be scheduled after this approval. To schedule the defense, contact the Graduate Coordinator. The student must provide one copy of the thesis to the chair of the supervisory committee at least three weeks before the thesis defense, and one copy to each of the other committee members at least two weeks prior to the defense. A complete draft of the thesis must be delivered to the Graduate Coordinator one week prior to the announced time of defense. This copy will be made available for public access. Students are encouraged to place an additional copy on the CS Department web pages at least one week prior to the announced time of defense. Students are expected to offer each committee member a bound copy of the thesis once it is completed.

After successfully defending the thesis, the student must obtain approval from the Final Reader (typically the supervisory committee chair), department chair, and Dean of the Graduate School. A draft of the final thesis must then be presented to the Thesis Editor. Successful completion of the thesis defense must be reported to the Graduate School at least four weeks before the last day of examinations in the final semester. Students should also read the document regarding copyright notices provided by the department and declare their intentions regarding granting the department the right to photocopy the thesis before notifying the Graduate Coordinator of completion of the thesis defense.

The student has one month after the defense to make any revisions prior to submitting the thesis to the Graduate School Thesis Editor. There will be at most two additional months to complete any changes required by the Thesis Editor before final acceptance. If either of these deadlines are not met, the candidate must redo the oral defense of the thesis. The final thesis must be filed one week before the end of the semester of graduation.

CONTENTS