Deadline

Full-time and part-time students must attempt the proposal defense no later than the end of the third long term after completing the core/breadth requirement. The proposal defense cannot be held before fulfilling the core/breadth requirement.

The proposal defense must be completed at least one term before the dissertation defense.

The deadline to defend a dissertation proposal during a given semester is the official close of term outlined by the Academic Calendar. Dissertation proposals that occur after this date will be considered as completed during the subsequent semester.

Dissertation Committee

The thesis or dissertation committee form needs to be filed one semester before one semester before the Ph.D. proposal defense.

Proposal Defense Announcement

All defenses are open to the general public and need to be publicly announced at least 14 days (2 weeks) before the event. To create or edit a public announcement, please complete the online COSC defense announcement form. Before you submit the announcement, confirm that you have the room reserved. Do not submit an announcement if a room has not been reserved.

View upcoming and previous defense announcements.

Proposal Submission to Committee

Students are expected to submit the proposal document/paper to all committee members at least two weeks (14 days) before the proposal defense date. If the document is not submitted in a timely manner, the committee may postpone and reschedule the proposal defense.

Proposal Document

The student must prepare the dissertation proposal document using the NSM PhD dissertation template and present the proposal to the dissertation committee. The proposal document should include an overview of the proposed work, relevant related work, completed work, and a plan for the work to be completed in the dissertation. The presentation should cover the same topics in the proposal document, and include a listing of coursework completed, publications, and a proposed timeline for key activities to complete in the dissertation. The proposal document should be submitted to the dissertation committee at least two weeks before the proposal defense.

Proposal Defense Evaluation Form

The dissertation committee chair will submit the Proposal Defense Evaluation Form to the Director of Graduate Studies and PhD Graduate Academic Advisor summarizing the student’s performance of the proposal defense and assign an overall evaluation of satisfactory (pass) or unsatisfactory (fail). A student will be informed of the outcome and upon receiving a satisfactory evaluation the student becomes a Ph.D. candidate.

Permitted signature types: actual phsyical signature, Adobe signature within Acrobat, electronic signature.

Deadline

The deadline to submit a defended thesis or dissertation varies each semester. Consult the NSM website for the upcoming deadline.

Thesis/Dissertation Committee

The thesis or dissertation committee form needs to be filed one semester before the MS thesis defense and one semester before the Ph.D. proposal defense.

Defense Announcement

All defenses are open to the general public and need to be publicly announced at least 14 days (2 weeks) before the event. To create or edit a public announcement, please complete the online COSC defense announcement form. Before you submit the announcement, confirm that you have the room reserved. Do not submit an announcement if a room has not been reserved.

View upcoming and previous defense announcements.

Students are expected to submit the thesis or dissertation document to committee members at least two weeks before the anticipated defense.

Submission to Committee

Students are expected to submit the thesis or dissertation document to committee members at least two weeks before the defense date.

Templates

Make sure to follow the template from the Graduate School to format and organize the front matter of your Thesis or Dissertation.

LaTeX Users

You can use this LaTeX style file to format your thesis/dissertation according to the Graduate School requirements for the front matter. The LaTeX style file also contains some formatting of the main text, but make sure to additionally follow the NSM instructions given in the PDF above.

Additional useful information for LaTeX users:

1. Use of the Overleaf (online LaTeX build and editing system) is recommended. It is free for individual use and works well once the style file is uploaded as part of a project.
2. The style file has all the examples and documentation on how to customize/use the included features and directives.
3. Some minor modifications might still be required to fine-tune the way images and tables are rendered and to meet the guidelines. This cannot be included in the style file, and the author will have to format that as part of writing the LaTeX document.

Thesis/Dissertation Approval Form

Make sure to use the Thesis/Dissertation Approval Form (from the Graduate School) to collect the signatures from your committee members. This form will need to be given to the NSM Office of Academic Affairs when you submit your Thesis or Dissertation. Note that the following types of signatures will be allowed: actual signature, Adobe signature within Acrobat, electronic signature.

Submission to College

• Submission Instructions (effective August 2021)

If you have published part of your Thesis or Dissertation in scientific articles, make sure to follow the additional instructions about copyright in the PDF below and to consult the PDF document Publisher Policies on Pre-Published Content. If you need to send a request for permission to the publisher, you can use the letter template (in WORD) below.