Current Students

Advisory Committee: The program director (or designated advisor) is responsible for fostering the committee appointment process. The committee should be formulated no later than the end of the 2nd semester of enrollment for masters programs, the end of the 3rd semester of enrollment for the doctor of education program, or the 5th semester of enrollment for doctor of philosophy programs. The program director (or designee) will schedule an initial meeting with the student during the first semester of enrollment to develop a plan of study at which time the process for establishment of an advisory committee will be discussed. A meeting will be called in which all committee members will assemble to discuss the responsibilities of the committee, the student’s capstone project, and frequency (and mode) of meeting. The Chair of the Advisory Committee should hold faculty rank in the same Department/Program of the student. All committee signatures are will gathered at this meeting; a copy will be submitted and to The School of Graduate Studies and Research Office, one retained by the student, and one copy retained in the Department Office. The Program Director will monitor student progress via this committee once established.

Application for Advancement to Candidacy: All graduate students must petition their program administrators for permission to advance to candidacy status. Students must be fully admitted and in good standing academically in order to meet this milestone. Timelines and requirements for admission to candidacy vary by program however general requirements include: proposal or prospectus development for programs requiring completion of a project, paper, or a thesis; successful completion of comprehensive or qualifier examinations for all doctoral programs. Masters students generally request admission to candidacy following successful completion of the required core curriculum and completion of any activities related to the culminating requirement, such as submission of a research proposal or prospectus for a thesis program. Non-thesis programs generally place this requirement on the culminating activity itself; such as completion of a comprehensive examination. Doctoral students are admitted to candidacy following successful completion of qualifier or comprehensive examinations. Whatever the timeline defined by the program, a student will not be allowed to matriculate past this point without meeting this milestone.

Thesis/Dissertation Submission Processes: The completed thesis/dissertation should be submitted to the respective committee for review and if deemed acceptable, an oral examination, consisting principally of a defense of the thesis/dissertation will be scheduled. Only students admitted to candidacy are eligible to schedule a defense. The Defense Scheduling Form is used for this purpose. The document must be submitted to the School of Graduate Studies and Research no later than 4 weeks prior to the requested date. It is the responsibility of the School of Graduate Studies and Research to inform the University community of the pending defense via publication in the e-news. The Defense Outcomes Form is a report to the School of Graduate Studies and Research on the candidate’s performance (as the oral examination is in partial fulfillment of the degree) and is expected within 5 business days following the defense. No thesis or dissertation will be reviewed by The School of Graduate Studies and Research without receipt of this documentation.

Following the defense, the Committee Chairperson will communicate the decision to the candidate. With the exception of accepting the document without any changes, the Chairperson will attach a summary of expectations and/or processes required for completion of all revisions/corrections as well as the expected timeline for completion. If the candidate fails the defense, the Chairperson will attach a summary and if/when a second examination (defense) will be scheduled. A document approved by the Committee, is submitted to the Dean of the College and finally to the Dean, School of Graduate Studies and Research for final approval. The School of Graduate Studies and Research is not responsible and will not provide editorial services for candidates.  Documents not adhering to general guidelines will be sent back to the Academic College for review. The School of Graduate Studies and Research reviews general formatting and the following content areas:

• Introduction including background, significance and scope of the study undertaken.
• Review of the Literature
• Research Methodology or Experimental Procedure
• Discussion of Research Findings
• Conclusion(s) and suggested future work

An extensive review is provided in the Thesis/Dissertation Handbook.