PhD Completion Process

Congratulations!

As a PhD student, you have spent spend significant time at the University of Rochester taking courses, completing research in your field, completing milestones and are now ready to complete your degree.

The final requirement in earning a PhD degree is the completion and defense of the doctoral dissertation. Understanding the steps and associated deadlines in the dissertation submission and degree conferral process is necessary to establish a successful plan. For complete descriptions of the process, please review the Regulations and University Policies Concerning Graduate Students.

The page below is organized by before, during and post-oral defense. Please read the page in it’s entirety and email questions you have to UnivGradEducation@UR.Rochester.edu

Doctoral Qualifying Exam / Admission to Candidacy

All PhD programs must administer a qualifying examination as part of the PhD program requirements. The qualifying examination may be either written or oral or both, at the discretion of the department/program, and must be passed at least six months before the final examination may be taken.

The associate dean of a school certifies that a student has passed the qualifying examinations and is recommended for candidacy.

For more details, please review page 12 of the Regulations and University Policies Concerning Graduate Students.

Planning for the Final Oral Exam / Dissertation Defense

At least six months before you plan to defend your dissertation, you should contact the graduate coordinator of your program for details regarding the submitting the defense. During the months leading up to the anticipated defense, your graduate coordinator will walk you through the process and explain any department specific nuances.

Pay careful attention to the five PhD degree cycle deadlines. In each degree cycle, there is a deadline for the last day to complete your degree requirements. There are no exceptions to the deadlines. If a deadline is missed, your name cannot be approved by the Council on Graduate Education and presented to the Board of Trustees until the following degree date.

The oral exam/defense/dissertation is approved at multiple levels of the University. Starting with the program, oral exam/defense/dissertation committee, school graduate deans and the University Dean of Graduate Education. You will receive emails a few days before your defense confirming that the approvals for the defense have all been received.

PhD academic calendar

PhD students can reference their specific academic calendar in the drop-downs below.

To enable review by the Graduate Education Offices in the Schools and University Graduate Education, online dissertation committee and program director approvals must be completed the following number of working days before the defense:

SMD and SON: At least 10 working days before the defense
AS&E, Warner and Simon: At least 15 working days before the defense
ESM: At least 20 working days before the defense

A minimum of five working days must elapse between the approval of the candidate’s School Dean to advance the record to University Graduate Education and the day of the defense. This time has been included in the schools’ lead times listed above.

Defenses may be held during regular business hours on any University working day with the exceptions listed below. See calendar below for additional non-working days.

Monday, May 31: The University is closed in observance of Memorial Day. This day cannot be counted as a working day.

Monday, June 20: The University is closed in observance of Juneteenth. This day cannot be counted as a working day.

Monday, July 5: The University is closed in observance of Independence Day. This day cannot be counted as a working day.

Wednesday July 27, 4 p.m.: Last day to submit final corrected dissertation to the ProQuest website to fulfill degree requirements for an August 2022 degree conferral.

Wednesday, August 31: Fall semester begins.

Wednesday, August 31: August 2022 PhD date.

Monday, July 4: The University is closed in observance of Independence Day. This day cannot be counted as a working day.

Wednesday, August 31, 4 p.m.: Last day for students who have completed defenses to submit final corrected dissertation for October 2022 degree to the ProQuest website without having to register for Fall 2022. AFTER THIS DATE, SUBMISSION OF DOCUMENTS FOR DEGREE COMPLETION REQUIRES REGISTRATION FOR THE FALL SEMESTER.

Monday, September 5: The University is closed in observance of Labor Day. This day cannot be counted as a working day

Wednesday, September 6, 4 p.m.: Last day to submit final corrected dissertation to the ProQuest website to fulfill degree requirements for an October 2022 degree. NOTE: Students must be registered for the Fall 2022 Semester if submitting documents after August 31.

Friday, October 7: October 2022 PhD conferral date.

Monday, September 5: The University is closed in observance of Labor Day. This day cannot be counted as a working day.

Wednesday, November 23 through Friday, November 25: The University is closed in observance of Thanksgiving. These three days cannot be counted as working days.

Monday, November 28, 4 p.m.: Last day to submit final corrected dissertation to the ProQuest website to fulfill degree requirements for a December degree. NOTE: Students must be registered for the Fall 2022 Semester if submitting final documents after August 31.

Friday, December 16: Last day for dissertation defense registration approval by University Dean of Graduate Education for defenses scheduled January 2, 2023.

Monday, December 19 through Friday, December 30: Due to recess and holidays, no dissertation registrations will be completed in the University Graduate Education office. No PhD defenses may be held during this time period.

December 31: December 2022 PhD conferral date.

Monday, January 2: Defenses this day must have been registered/approved by University Dean of Graduate Education by December 16, 2022.

Wednesday, January 11, 4 p.m.: Last day for students who have completed defenses to submit final corrected dissertation to the ProQuest website without registering for Spring 2023 semester. After this date, submission of documents for degree completion requires registration for spring semester.

Monday, January 16: The University is closed in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. This day cannot be counted as a business day.

Tuesday, January 24, 4p.m.: Last day to submit final corrected dissertation to the ProQuest website to fulfill degree requirements for a February 2023 degree.

Friday, February 24: February 2023 PhD conferral date.

Tuesday, April 18, 4 p.m.: Last day to submit final corrected dissertation to the ProQuest website to fulfill degree requirements for a May 2023 degree.

Friday, May 12: University Doctoral Commencement

Writing your Dissertation

The dissertation process webpage offers several writing resources to help you get started, meet your goals, and complete your thesis/dissertation on time.

You also will want to take full advantage of internal reviews of the dissertation before uploading the thesis for defense registration, in order to minimize the number of errors in the registration version.

Final Oral Examination Committee

Page 11 of the Regulations and University Policies Concerning Graduate Students (“Redbook”) goes into detail about the make-up of the committee.

PhD Committee Matrix

Approval Process for Non-Standard Committee Membership

Approval must be obtained in writing, based on a petition that includes a rationale for the request and a CV of the proposed nonstandard member.

Contact your Graduate Coordinator to start the petition process.

Page 12 of the Regulations and University Policies Concerning Graduate Students (“Redbook”) goes into detail.

Scheduling your Defense

Contact the graduate coordinator of your program for details regarding the scheduling the defense.

Click here to Download a checklist of information needed to schedule defense

After the final oral exam / defense

Submitting your Final Dissertation

Approximately, 24 hours after oral exam, an email is sent that details out the next steps. Including uploading the final abstract and dissertation to ProQuest®, submitting a UR Research authorization form, and completing two required surveys.

UR Research Form

The libraries at University of Rochester, electronically store and publish the dissertations based on a students embargo restrictions.

You can access our database of dissertations on the UR Research page hosted by the library.

Survey Completion

There are two required survey’s for completion of the PhD Process. The University of Rochester PhD Survey and the national Survey of Earned Doctorates. The links to completing these surveys will be included in the completion memo sent post-defense.

ProQuest

We use a service called ProQuest to administer the electronic final thesis/dissertation (ETD) submission. ProQuest provides services that enable strategic acquisition, management and discovery of information collections. Once you have made any necessary revisions and the thesis/dissertation is final, you are ready to begin the submission process.

PhD Completion Confirmation

Once you have completed the steps above, you will receive an email the confirms that all of the requirements have been completed and will include a PhD Completion memo.

Diploma

We offer both an electronic diploma and a paper copy diploma to students after their graduation date. Information on ordering replacement diplomas is located on the registrar’s webpage.

Commencement

The University holds one doctoral commencement ceremony each year in May. Eligibility to walk in the May ceremony includes students that graduated between August of the previous year through August of the current year. As an example, the May 2023 ceremony is for students who graduated August 2022, October 2022, December 2022, February 2023, May 2023 and August 2023. Doctoral students are only eligible to walk once.

You will receive information about the ceremony that your are eligible to walk in during the Spring semester.