55 Deadlines

Under no circumstances can the steps to completing a thesis or dissertation be shortened or amended to meet a student’s need/desire to graduate by a certain date. The quality of the thesis or dissertation has priority. Whenever possible, the director and readers may make all due efforts to accommodate external time constraints (e.g., necessity to complete the degree in order to obtain a job), but they are under no obligation or constraint to approve substandard work in order to accommodate a student’s plans.

The deadlines for defending theses and dissertations and for submitting the final, polished copies come early in the semester of completion and are published in the Graduate Studies Calendar and announced by the graduate program each semester.  Students are responsible for knowing the deadlines they must meet in order to graduate and to make sure they complete their work in good time to meet those deadlines.

Missing a Graduate College deadline may result in a delay in graduation. Students should not expect the director of the thesis or dissertation to issue reminders about approaching deadlines, though the director should be involved in planning the timeline for completion. Good planning in consultation with the director and honest assessment of what one can do should allow for sufficient planning to meet the deadlines. Realistically, students should expect the process to run longer than outlined in the initial timeline—it almost invariably takes longer than initially planned or expected.