May Graduation Timeline and Faculty Down Time

On behalf of the Doctoral faculty, I extend well wishes for all students actively engaged in developing their dissertation proposals or writing their dissertations.  We greatly appreciate your time and effort in these matters.

The faculty are in agreement that a dissertation needs to be signed off prior to "Walking" at the May graduation.  Because the dissertation is a developmental process, the time required for completion tends to be longer than what many students anticipate when first beginning. Therefore, we are outlining deadline dates for completing various phases of the dissertation process. 

The timeline below begins with the signing off of the dissertation, and pertains to students who are planning on completing the dissertation during Spring Semester, in time for May graduation.  Note that many students complete their dissertations during Summer or Fall Semesters and, therefore, are already on the list to "walk" in the May graduation ceremony.

SIGNING OFF ON THE DISSERTATION APRIL 15

The light is shining brightly at the end of the tunnel!

April 15 is set as a sign-off deadline in order to give the Dean of the School an opportunity to give an initial perusal of the dissertations prior to graduation. 

FIRST FULL DRAFT OF THE DISSERTATION TO THE COMMITTEE CHAIR FEBRUARY 1

Typically a dissertation requires 2 to 3 revisions before it is ready for full committee review.  Following the committee review, there tend to be more changes required in preparation for the final draft (the draft to be published). If this first full draft requires more than 3 revisions before it goes to committee, then there may not be sufficient time to complete the dissertation before April 15.

DISSERTATION PROPOSAL IS DEFENDED  DECEMBER 1

This December 1 deadline may only work for students who are able to work on their dissertations full time.  Time is needed to do an adequate job of collecting and analyzing data.  If this process is rushed then the dissertation quality will suffer.  This process tends to take longer than students anticipate.  For some students defending Summer Semester is a more reasonable timeframe.

COMPLETE PROPOSAL SEMINAR  SPRING OR SUMMER

BEFORE MAY GRADUATION

The proposal seminar is designed to help students develop their dissertation proposals.  A goal of the course is to have students complete the first full draft of their dissertation proposals (Chapters I, II, and III), which can then be further refined with the assistance of their dissertation chairs.  However, some students may be ready to defend by the end of the semester they are enrolled in Proposal Seminar. This happens only when students enter the course with their literature review nearly completed and have a good grasp of what the literature says about their topics.  Many students defend during the semester after completing Proposal Seminar.

Please note that to be enrolled in Proposal Seminar students need to submit a petition (see doctoral homepage conceptual framework) and they must have gained candidacy status.

The petition must be submitted at least 60 days in advance of when the semester begins, Copies of the petition must be given to the dissertation chair and to the faculty member who will be teaching Proposal Seminar that particular semester.

FACULTY DOWN TIME

The faculty has what we call "down time," time when we can focus on our own research and get prepared for the next semester.  During this time, faculty members are not available to read candidacy papers, dissertation proposals, or dissertations.  These times are as follows:

Mid May to the beginning of Summer Semester (third week in June) End of Summer Semester and the beginning of Fall Semester All Holiday breaks.