Dissertation Defense and Submission

Please review the following information before you plan and schedule your dissertation defense.

About submission of paperwork:

GPC (Graduate Program Coordinator) receives all paperwork for dissertation defense scheduling and materials for DGS (Director of Graduate Studies) review, to eee8@georgetown.edu. 

The Graduate School receives the electronic release form and survey of earned doctorates.

Dissertation Defense Scheduling Checklist 

Dissertation and Thesis Editing Statements

About committee membership: 

At least two members must be full-time, tenure-line Georgetown faculty (Linguistics department or otherwise).  The advisor/mentor must fall under this category.  Non tenure-line faculty, part-time faculty, and faculty members of other universities are welcome to join committees but cannot count as one of the tenure-line Georgetown faculty members.

Before your defense:

The first paperwork scheduling step is submission of the dissertation reviewers' report will be circulated through DocuSign initiated by the Graduate Program Coordinator.  The dissertation reviewers' report confirms your committee members' approval a) that the dissertation is ready for defense with no more than minor revisions and b) of the date and time for the defense. The form must be fully signed no later than two weeks before your defense, so send Erin your defense information early enough to meet that deadline.  

The abstract for the GULinguist and Grad School announcements is also due to the GPC two weeks before the defense.  The coversheet: https://georgetown.app.box.com/s/aqypuvlaryawin7gwumrom821naha8b6, filled out as completely as possible, is due to me no later than one week before the defense.

March 1 is the very final date for your defense *to take place* in order to be eligible for May graduation.  Students may schedule defenses after March 1 contingent upon committee availability**, but will not be eligible to graduate until August or December  of the following year depending on the extent of revisions.

About technology:

In person defenses resumed with the 2021-2022 academic year.  With Graduate School permission, some dissertation defenses may take place on zoom, with a set of department protocols that we will share with committee mentors ahead of the exam.  Mentors will host the defense.

Most in person defenses are scheduled in the Department conference room which has a projector available for power point presentations.  Mac users must provide their own VGA cable adapter for the projector.  Students are responsible for their own technology needs and for establishing remote connection with any professor who will not attend in person.

After your defense/submitting the dissertation for DGS review:

After revisions have been made following the defense (if required), please circulate the final version of your dissertation for committee review in whichever way you and your mentor agree is appropriate.  At the same time, please let know you have done this so I can initiate the coversheet in Docusign.  You will receive the coversheet by email from Docusign to enter your information and sign the electronic release form on page 2.  

You must submit an edited and well-formatted final draft to your committee for final review.  The editing statement must accompany the final dissertation submission to the GPC for DGS review.  Mentors may either approve the statement by email, or may (electronically) sign a word document submitted by the student.  If the DGS requires any edits after review, you must re-submit the editing statement along with your advisor's new approval of the edited dissertation.  

Final, approved dissertations are due to for DGS review no later than November 18, 2024 to be eligible for December 2024 graduation, and April 1, 2025 to be eligible for May 2025 graduation.  The DGS will make every effort to communicate a decision by two weeks, at which point you must upload the dissertation via ProQuest to the Graduate School  (http://www.etdadmin.com/cgi-bin/school?siteId=163)  The Graduate School very strongly recommends submission by December 10 and April 15 for December and May graduation respectively, to give that office time for format review.  Dissertations submitted close to or on May 1 might not be accepted in time for the student to graduate, if any formatting edits are required.

The Graduate School will let you know whether your dissertation is accepted or if they require any formatting changes.  If formatting changes are required at the Graduate School level, the dissertation does not need to undergo any further committee or DGS review.  

You must also submit the electronic release form and complete the survey of earned doctorates directly to the Graduate School.  Links to the forms are here: http://grad.georgetown.edu/academics/dissertation-thesis-information 

*"Final, approved dissertations" here means defended, revised, with the final version approved by each committee member as ready for deposit with the Graduate School.  This final version must be submitted with a written, signed statement from your advisor that it has been thoroughly checked by you and there are no typos or formatting or other errors in the dissertation.  If such errors are found, the dissertation must be resubmitted and two additional weeks are required for DGS review.

**Faculty members are not obligated to participate in defenses in summer months.  

About graduation in general: 

Degrees are conferred in May, August, and December.  Applications to graduate in MyAccess are due February 1 (for May graduation), August 1 (for August graduation), and December 1 (for December graduation).   More information on applying to graduate: https://grad.georgetown.edu/academics/how-to-graduate.  

As the Graduate School will communicate to you in early Spring, the deadline to apply to graduate in order to have your name in the May 2025 commencement book and to receive the diploma at commencement is February 1.  Applications to graduate will still be accepted through April but these candidates' names will not appear in the commencement book nor will their final diplomas and transcripts be ready at commencement. 

 If you hope to graduate in May but are uncertain if you will complete all requirements, we recommend you apply to graduate.  You can always do another application for the following semester at no consequence.