MS Thesis

Timetable for Completing an MS Thesis


Approximately 4 months before submitting the Thesis

  1. See Grad. Page for details about what is required for written document and timetables for submission which is available @ http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/.

  2. Prepare an outline of the thesis. Do NOT begin to prepare the document before the outline. Share with D. Kovar and get his approval BEFORE the next step (writing the document).

  3. Begin preparing written document.

    1. The document should consist of the papers you have written about your research. Do not attempt to write the thesis until the papers are complete as you WILL find that this is MUCH, MUCH more difficult and would take a LONG time

    2. The body chapters of your thesis will consist mostly of the papers that you have written. Thus, to write the dissertation, you will first remove any experimental procedures that are common to many or most chapters, move them to a separate Experimental Procedures chapter, and modify accordingly. You will have to also write, Introduction, Background, Conclusions, and Future Work chapters. The editing and writing of these sections typically should take less than a month, ASSUMING the papers are COMPLETE before you start writing your dissertation.


Approximately 3 months before submitting thesis

1. Complete draft of the written document and submit to D. Kovar. It will take several iterations of review before it is ready to be submitted to your committee. Expect a week for D. Kovar to read and correct EACH iteration of the document under normal circumstances (e.g. assuming he is teaching and performing his other regular duties, but not on vacation or at a conference). D. Kovar will sometimes turn it around faster, but do not count on that. Normally it is easier to read several chapters at once rather than iterating chapter-by-chapter and this will speed the process.


1 month before submitting thesis

1. Final written document should be complete.

2. Send the final version of the written document to the thesis reader. At that time ask if they would prefer a written copy.


About a week before submitting thesis

1. Contact your reader if you have not heard from them and enquire if any changes may be needed to your thesis.


Submitting the Thesis

1. Follow the guidelines @ http://www.utexas.edu/ogs/pdn/

2. Make any corrections to the written document that are required by the reader

3. Getting D. Kovar’s signature:

Before D. Kovar will sign you must

1. Clean out all chemicals, samples, etc. from the lab and dispose of them appropriately. Discuss with D. Kovar which samples we may want to keep

2. Make available to Dr. Kovar via UT Box all pertinent raw data, images, graphs, presentation, papers, etc. related to your research, organized and named in a manner that he should be able to find what he needs

3. Give Dr. Kovar your lab notebooks

4. Complete the Exit Worksheet available at http://tmi.utexas.edu/forms-student-handbook