Once you are working on your dissertation, you should talk with your chair about a tentative schedule for completion, defense, and graduation. NYU offers three graduation periods in January, May, and August, and graduation application and filing deadlines require advance planning. You should wait until you are ready to successfully defend your dissertation, but it can also be helpful to be aware of graduation deadlines, especially if you are approaching the end of funding. Remember that full-time students have eight years to complete their degree; part-time students have ten years.
MPAP follows Steinhardt’s dissertation defense procedures. The following are step-by-step guidelines. Forms and deadlines can be found on Steinhardt’s Dissertation Guidelines Website.
Guidelines for the DMA Capstone Review can be accessed here: DMA Capstone Review
Guidelines for the EdD Culminating Study can be accessed here: EdD Culminating Study
Before your committee members approve your dissertation to be defended, they must believe that it will successfully pass the exam. This means that they will have reviewed preliminary complete drafts; commented on them adding edits, suggestions, changes, questions to answer; and then had time to review your changes based upon their comments. The amount of time this takes and the number of revisions required all depends on how complete the work is that you submit to your committee members and how well you are able to implement their required changes. It is clear that the more thorough the work is that you submit to them, the less time the revision process will take and the closer you will be able to stick to your examination schedule.
There is a significant difference in the preparation process for a fall oral exam compared to a spring oral exam. This is due to two reasons: (1) The very different length of the break preceding each semester, and (2) The proximity of the university degree conferral date to the end of the semester.
What you should be aware of is the proximity of the deadline to file your defense form to the beginning of the semester. In the fall, there is an entire month; in the spring, there is only a 17-day period. What this means is that a draft submitted to the committee on the first day of the spring semester has to be much closer to being defense-ready than a draft submitted on the first day of fall semester, as the time for revisions is shortened by two weeks in the spring semester. Note that faculty are not obligated to review your work during the winter and summer breaks, and your planning should take this fact into account.
Your goal is to have a complete draft of the dissertation to your committee on the first day of the fall semester. This will generally provide four weeks for them to read the dissertation, return commentary, have you make changes, and then re-review the final draft. Committee members may take as long as two weeks to return the draft to you, which will only leave an additional two weeks for you to make changes and resubmit the draft prior to the deadline.
As you want this draft to be as complete as possible, you should ask your committee members if they prefer (a) to receive a complete first draft during May so that they can return comments to you that can then be worked on over the summer, or (b) if they are willing to receive a draft from you some time during the summer months and provide feedback then.
Your goal is to have a complete draft of the dissertation to your committee on the first day of the spring semester. This will generally provide slightly more than two weeks for them to read the dissertation, return commentary, and have you make changes. For this reason, for a spring semester oral examination, the draft that you submit on the first day of the spring semester has to be nearly complete, generally only requiring minimal changes that do not have to be reviewed by your committee members. There is not enough time to implement changes and have them reviewed prior to the deadline.
You should plan to submit a complete first draft to your committee members sometime in the period between December 1-15 depending on their preference. The important point is that you must receive their feedback before the winter break in order to have sufficient time over the winter break to complete your draft.
Your goal is to have a complete draft of the dissertation to your committee by the middle of March. This will generally provide approximately four weeks for them to read the dissertation, return commentary, and have you make changes. You should plan to submit a complete first draft to your committee members sometime at the beginning of spring semester. As you want this draft to be as complete as possible, you should expect to submit a first draft to your committee members at the very beginning of spring semester. Note that summer defenses take place in May and June, not in July or August.
This draft should represent your best effort. It should be meticulously organized in all aspects. There should be a paginated table of contents, all tables and figures should be labeled, all quotations correctly referenced, and all publications in the reference list should be done in the proper style guide for your discipline (consult with your dissertation chair if you’re unsure). Every aspect of the document should be completed as if this were your final copy. This will ease the process of your committee reading your study so that they can offer substantive feedback that will enhance the document and increase your chances of a successful oral examination.
Submitting a document that is complete and correct in all of these ways reflects well on your skills and seriousness as a scholar. It also shows consideration for your committee members and the outside readers who will evaluate your document.
Most chairs will ask that you send a complete first draft to them first before sending it to the rest of your committee. Consult with them for their expectations leading up to your defense.
In order to schedule your final oral examination, you must submit the following forms and materials to the Office of Doctoral Studies in accordance with the dissertation filing deadlines posted on the Steinhardt Doctoral Studies Website: Dissertation Filing Deadlines. Discuss your anticipated filing date well in advance of the deadline. Your dissertation committee chair and members will need ample time to review your complete dissertation draft before signing the approval form to schedule your defense date.
You also must consult your dissertation chair about the two required outside readers. The defense date must be agreed up by your dissertation committee and the outside readers before filing.
The Dissertation, approved by your dissertation chairperson and members, will be submitted no less than four weeks before the agreed upon final oral examination date indicated on the Approval Form for Final Oral Examination. You will be required to submit the dissertation to the Office of Doctoral Studies electronically, and copies for each of the two outside readers either electronically or in hard copy according to their preference. NOTE: In the event that the dissertation is not prepared to the satisfaction of the dissertation committee within four weeks of the tentatively scheduled final oral examination date, it is understood that the committee will withdraw approval of your request for a final oral exam. You may then resubmit the approval form for a later deadline.
The Approval Form for Final Oral Examination which must bear the signatures of the dissertation committee as well as a specific recommended date for the final oral examination (in accordance with the schedule outlined above).
One copy of the following statement typed in the first person, signed and dated:
I hereby guarantee that no part of the dissertation which I have submitted for publication has been heretofore published and/or copyrighted in the United States of America, except in the case of passages quoted from other published sources; that I am the sole author and proprietor of said dissertation; that the dissertation contains no matter which, if published, will be libelous or otherwise injurious, or infringe in any way the copyright of any other party; and that I will defend, indemnify and hold harmless New York University against all suits and proceedings which may be brought and against all claims which may be made against New York University by reason of the publication of said dissertation.
A dissertation abstract not more than 350 words in length which has been approved by the dissertation chairperson. Your name and dissertation title should appear at the top of the page.
All forms referred to above can be found on the Steinhardt Doctoral Forms Website.
The final oral examination is a two-hour examination scheduled according to the guidelines outlined above. Attendance by the candidate and all members of the final oral commission, which consists of the dissertation committee and the two outside readers, is required. Outside readers must be approved by the dissertation committee chair and must be full-time tenured or tenure-track members of the NYU faculty (exceptions must be approved by the Vice Dean for Academic Affairs in advance of their appointment).
Please also note that attendance at the final oral examination is restricted to the candidate and members of the final oral commission. Other members of the University community may attend as observers with the permission of the Dissertation Committee Chairperson, however, The Office of Doctoral Studies must be notified in advance.
All course and matriculation maintenance requirements must be satisfied in advance of the final oral examination date.
The following policies pertain to the voting procedures for the final oral examination.
One vote is to be taken with three and only three possible outcomes (all members of the final oral commission vote). These outcomes (pass, fail, or deferred pass with conditions) result according to the rules posted on the Steinhardt Dissertation Policies Website.
After the final oral examination, you are required to submit an additional copy of the dissertation to be reviewed by the Office of Doctoral Studies for format. This copy should be submitted after you have made changes required by the final oral commission. If the required changes are minor, you may submit the dissertation for format review immediately after the final oral examination so that the format changes and the commission's changes can be completed simultaneously.
If the final oral examination results in a deferred pass outcome, you may submit the dissertation for format review only after the signed Deferred Pass with Conditions Final Report Form has been received by the Office of Doctoral Studies. Final approval of the dissertation will take place only after the edited dissertation has been reviewed by the Office of Doctoral Studies.
The deadline for the filing of the final edited dissertation is approximately three weeks prior to your anticipated date of graduation (the exact date will be emailed to candidates and is posted each semester in the Office of Doctoral Studies). In order to be eligible for graduation, your final edited dissertation must be uploaded to ProQuest UMI and approved by the Office of Doctoral Studies by the designated deadline date.
All candidates for the degrees of PhD and EdD are required to publish the dissertation through ProQuest UMI Dissertation Publishing and must upload a final dissertation electronically for this purpose. This electronic upload will take place through the Office of Doctoral Studies only after the dissertation has been approved in its final form. A final copy of the dissertation will also be submitted to NYU Libraries for our institutional repository.
Format for the final dissertation is available on the Steinhardt Dissertation Policies Website.