Defense and Graduation

Graduation Application

Graduation Checklist

Document Requirements

Scheduling

ETD Process

PHD Survey

Printing and Checkout

Email Forwarding

Department Graduating Checklist

Apply for graduation via AIM before the deadline – Indicate if you plan to attend graduation. If you change your mind about attending, please be sure to let the Graduate Program Administrator know as we need to know who will be participating in graduation. You must be enrolled for two credits in the semester in which you defend.

International students only: Apply for OPT, if desired, at least three months before your graduation date. It is vital that you work closely with International Services to remain in status.

Send Graduate Program Administrator a copy of your thesis/dissertation AT LEAST one week and a day before your defense.

Schedule a date, time, and room for your defense. Assure your entire committee will be in attendance. Reserve the room through the department secretary. Send the Graduate Program Administrator the date, time, and room.

Present and defend your thesis/dissertation.

After your defense put the finishing touches on your dissertation/thesis if/as required by your committee.

Prepare your thesis or dissertation and submit your ETD on gradprogress.sim.byu.edu (on ETD tab). Information on the ETD can be found at https://gradprogress.sim.byu.edu/res.ources For ETD technical support, go to the multi-media lab in the media center on the fourth level of the HBLL (library), or call 801-422-5627.

After you submit your ETD it will be reviewed separately by 1) Graduate Studies, 2) Department, 3) Dean's office, and 4) Graduate Studies, and approved or disapproved. If disapproved, complete whatever is required and resubmit it until it is approved. The ETD is a requirement for graduation and must be submitted and approved before submitting the thesis/dissertation online for printing.

Once approved at the 4th level and the last step, go to printandmail.byu.edu, scroll to the bottom, click on Order Theses or Dissertations, and order at least 1 copy of your thesis/dissertation. Please make sure to send this copy to C100 BNSN. You must give verification of your print order to the Graduate Program Administrator in order to be cleared for graduation. (Things to know for placing your order: choose the blue cover, and gold foil for the text on the cover) You are required to pay for the copies yourself.

Ph.D. students only: Complete the online doctoral survey (SED) and UMI form. The notices will be given to you on the day of your defense. Your graduation will be delayed if they are not submitted promptly.

Schedule an exit interview with the graduate program secretary. He/She will send an email to start this process.

A few days before leaving campus, ask the Graduate Program Administrator for the "Checkout Form" or print it here. Complete and return it to her.

Please set up a lifetime e-mail forwarding service by visiting http://alumni.byu.edu/ and following the link "Lifetime E-mail Forwarding" under Related Links. By keeping it updated, you will allow us to remain in contact with you in the future.

ALL requirements, including credits, ETD and hard copy submission, and doctoral survey (PhDs only), must all be completed by the designated deadline from Graduate Studies. If not, a student's graduation will be delayed and they will be required to register and personally pay for two credits in the subsequent semester.

Department Requirements

Graduate Studies Requirements

Minimum Standards for Submitting Dissertations and Theses

ACS Style Guide (use this for formatting your content)

Thesis/Dissertation Template

All students should project at least one semester in advance what semester they will defend. You will be registered for all remaining credits for that semester. It is vital that you are registered for at least two credits in the semester of your oral defense of your dissertation/thesis. (Spring and Summer terms equal one semester.)

A dissertation/thesis represents the culmination and “crown jewel” of a student’s graduate research program. For the thesis or dissertation to be acceptable and to be an original contribution to a student’s area of study, students need to be able to think and write critically, to demonstrate research abilities, and can analyze and articulate data in either writings or presentations. Furthermore, the thesis/dissertation should be a well-organized, well-written, comprehensive compilation of the student’s work. Students should expend significant effort to arrange and present their experimental work in an understandable and logical manner. This will help students to prepare a formal written presentations for their future career. The dissertation/thesis is taken very seriously by the examination committee.

It is wise to prepare an outline for examination and approval by your faculty advisory committee. However, your dissertation/thesis should demonstrate your own creativity and personality. There are no rigid requirements for the dissertation/thesis organization, but aspects noted in the following sections should be covered. Different formats or sequences might serve better for your dissertation/thesis, but these guidelines provide a framework for your evaluation of the adequacy of your presentation.

A. The first chapter should be an introduction to your entire dissertation/thesis. This introductory chapter should summarize others’ major contributions to your area of investigation and give a reader who is not familiar with your field a good background for your work. This introduction could be a comprehensive review of a small area, or a review confined to a specific part of a large area in which your dissertation/thesis fits. In either case, the importance of your research should be established, and a description of how and where your work fits into the field should be included. Your subsequent divisions could be separate chapters, if your dissertation/thesis represents one major project. If other chapters describe a series of studies, it might be preferable to include comparable sections within each chapter. A summary and conclusions chapter should present a candid assessment of the successes and short-comings of your research, and suggest recommendations for further work to extend and/or clarify your discoveries.

B. Your experimental section should be written with the goal of making your work readily available for straightforward repetition and/or extension by others. Excessive details for well-known procedures, or repetition of closely analogous items, should be avoided, but sufficient explicit information should be included to allow ready duplication of your work. The highly condensed style used by many professional journals, which often requires significant interpretation and/or secondary experimentation by skilled researchers, is not adequate for your dissertation/thesis.

C. A results section should present the major findings of your dissertation/thesis clearly and concisely without undue repetition of experimental details and conditions, except where necessary to emphasize or clarify key points.

D. A discussion section should not just recapitulate your results, but should also critically evaluate and discuss your results in the context of your overall effort and the larger research field. Combination of results and discussion sections might be appropriate in some cases.

Your faculty advisory chair should work with you until your dissertation/thesis is of publication quality. “First draft” efforts with numerous spelling, grammatical, computer format (spacing and font problems), and other errors should never be presented to your examination committee. Such a preliminary effort would be embarrassing to you and to your faculty advisory chair, since it reveals a glaring lapse of professionalism.

The members of your faculty advisory/examination committee have the responsibility to read carefully and evaluate critically your entire dissertation/thesis. Your dissertation/thesis does not have to be perfect, but you should desire, and seriously attempt, to make it your best effort. Journal editors, referees, and grant evaluation panels place significant emphasis on professionalism, scientific accuracy, and ethics demonstrated in manuscripts submitted for publication and proposals submitted for research funding. Your dissertation/thesis will usually represent a major independent effort in this demanding aspect of professional research and formal writing.