In the final year, DMA students complete and defend the capstone project before their capstone committee, composed of the primary capstone advisor and two additional members from the DMA Governance Committee.
In order to schedule your final oral examination, you must submit the signed Approval Form for the DMA Capstone Final Oral Examination to the Steinhardt Office of Doctoral Studies and to mpap-doctoral-studies@nyu.edu in accordance with the capstone filing deadlines listed in the form (October 25th for Fall semester oral exams and March 15th for Spring semester oral exams). The form will ask for the agreed-upon date, time, and modality for the final oral examination. Fall semester final oral exams should be held between November 3rd and December 12th. Spring semester final oral exams should be held between March 30th and May 1st.
When choosing a date, bear in mind that you 1) must submit a satisfactorily-completed capstone project at least four weeks prior to the examination (exclusive of NYU breaks), and 2) the date/time must work with your schedule and your committee’s availability. Students are responsible for coordinating scheduling with all members of their capstone committee. The length of the oral examination is one hour. Room reservations or Zoom links for oral exams will be coordinated by the MPAP Doctoral Administrative Aide following submission of Approval Form for the DMA Capstone Final Oral Examination. Completed capstones must be sent to the capstone committee and Steinhardt Doctoral Studies in order to confirm the final oral examination date and time.
In the event that the Capstone Project is not prepared to the satisfaction of the committee by the agreed upon project submission deadline, it is understood that the committee will withdraw approval of the candidate’s request for final oral exam. The candidate may then resubmit the approval form for a later deadline.
The Approval Form for Final Oral Examination which must bear the signatures of the committee committee as well as a specific recommended date for the final oral examination (in accordance with the schedule outlined above).The date must be agreed upon by the final oral commission (the committee chair and committee members).
The final oral examination is organized as follows:
Student presentation of capstone research (10 minutes)
Question and answer with the members of the capstone committee (20-30 minutes)
Evaluation without the student present (10-15 minutes)
Student returns for feedback and outcome (5-10 minutes)
One vote is to be taken with three and only three possible outcomes (all members of the capstone committee vote). These outcomes (PASS, FAIL, or DEFERRED PASS with conditions) result according to the rules posted on the Steinhardt Dissertation Policies Website. A DEFERRED PASS implies that although the student’s performance is acceptable in many respects, substantive revision of the capstone project and/or additional requirements of consequence are deemed necessary. If the student FAILS, they may request permission for a second final oral examination from the Vice Dean. If approved, the examination must be held with the same capstone committee no sooner than six months from the first final oral examination. If the student fails the second final oral examination, matriculation is automatically and irrevocably terminated.
Examples of possible DMA capstone projects can be found on our Research Areas page.