Graduation Information
Summer 2024 Graduation Deadlines
Forms requiring a signature from Director of Graduate Studies should be emailed to Anna Damm at adamm1@umd.edu.
Ph.D. Deadlines
June 17: Submit Nomination of Committee Form
*Special Member Nominations (if needed) must be submitted by your advisor and voted on/approved before you submit your Nomination of Dissertation Committee Form (above). This process can take up to three weeks.
July 15: Apply for Graduation via Testudo
10 days prior to defense: Send dissertation to committee for review
7 days prior to defense: Email defense announcement (details below) to ceegradstudies@umd.edu
July 26: Committee Chair submit Report of Examining Committee form
July 26: Submit Dissertation to the ETD System
August 16: Complete CEE Exit Survey
M.S. Deadlines - Thesis and Non-Thesis
July 15: (All) Submit MS Coursework Form to adamm@umd.edu
July 15: (All) Apply for Graduation via Testudo
July 12: (Thesis) Submit Nomination of Committee Form
*Special Member Nominations (if needed) must be submitted by your advisor and voted on/approved before you submit your Nomination of Thesis Committee Form (above). This process can take up to three weeks.
7 days prior to defense: (Thesis) Send thesis to committee for review
7 days prior to defense: Email defense announcement (details below) to ceegradstudies@umd.edu
August 9: (Thesis) Committee Chair submit Report of Examining Committee form
August 9: (Thesis) Submit Thesis to the ETD System
August 16: (Non-Thesis) Submit MS Scholarly Paper Form to adamm1@umd.edu
August 16: (All) Submit Approved Program Form
August 16: (All) Complete CEE Exit Survey
Please note: Students who miss the Summer deadlines but still submit all the necessary forms by August 23, 2024 will graduate in Fall 2024, but not have to register for any additional credits in the Fall semester.
Important Details
Thesis and dissertation defenses are required to be in person.
To reserve the CEE Conference Room, please click here.
To reserve rooms outside of CEE, please click here.
To request a hybrid or fully-remote defense (per Graduate School regulations), click here. Please note that the committee chair must fill out the request form, not the student.
Please email your defense announcement (date/time/location, committee, title, and abstract) to ceegradstudies@umd.edu ONE week prior to your defense date.
New for Summer 2023 and beyond: Committee Chairs are no longer required to submit a separate request for the Report of Examining Committee (REC) form. The REC form will be automatically prepared and sent out three business days prior to the defense date as indicated on the student's nomination of committee form and to all the committee members listed on the form.
Regarding the Electronic Publication Form: Thesis and dissertation students are no longer required to submit the Electronic Publication Form as part of their graduation requirements, although submission and publication of the thesis/dissertation is still a requirement for graduation. Students may place an embargo of up to two years on electronic access to their document through ProQuest's Digital Dissertations and DRUM without approval from the Graduate School. Approval from The Graduate School is required to place an embargo for a maximum of six years or indefinitely, and must be requested through the Embargo Request Form.
International Students - Final Semester
OPT Application: Please note, when you apply for OPT, ISSS updates your I-20 to end on the last day of semester for your final required course. For example, if you select that you will complete your program in Fall 2023, ISSS will update your I-20 to end on December 19, 2023. If you run into delays, it is imperative that you meet with your ISSS advisor immediately as a delay after the submission of your OPT application can impact your OPT and your visa status. You must attend an ISSS OPT Workshop prior to applying for OPT status. You may register for the OPT workshop via your iTerp account.
Final Work Date: F-1 and J-1 students are permitted to work on campus up to the last day of their final enrolled term. It is the student's responsibility to inform your employer that you can no longer work on campus from this date. If you are currently employed on campus and issued a new I-20/DS-2019 whose end date is adjusted to the last day of your final enrolled term, ISSS recommends you give a copy of the I-20/DS-2019 to your payroll coordinator so that they are aware of the end of your on-campus work eligibility.
Exit Plan Form: This form should also be submitted to ISSS no later than the last day of your final term.