Dissertation Dates and Deadlines
During the 2023-24 academic year, degrees will be conferred on the following dates:
- October 18, 2023
- February 14, 2024
- May 15, 2024
In order to have the degree conferred on the dates above, all required materials must be submitted by the deadlines stated below.
Candidates who have completed all requirements for the PhD except the dissertation apply through their department or program in order to receive the Master of Philosophy degree. Applications for the MPhil can be filed at any point in the calendar year. Degrees are conferred three times during the academic year—in October, February, and May.
The MPhil application must be submitted by the department or program to the Dissertation Office by the appropriate deadline. Applications received after the submission deadline will be moved to the following conferral period for processing.
- October 2023 Conferral
- Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, October 5, 2023
- February 2024 Conferral
- Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, February 1, 2024
- May 2024 Conferral
- Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, May 2, 2024
The Application for the Dissertation Defense form should be submitted to GSAS by the department or program office when the five proposed examiners, defense date and location have been finalized. This form must be reviewed and approved by GSAS before the defense may take place. The department or program office should send us the completed form ideally four—but no fewer than two—weeks before a defense takes place. Any forms received within two weeks of a defense will be rejected, and the defense will have to be rescheduled.
- Summer 2023 Semester
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, September 1, 2023
- Fall 2023 Semester
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, January 11, 2024
- Spring 2024 Semester
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, May 16, 2024
- Students who miss the Spring 2024 distribution deadline are not required to register for the summer; they can distribute any time until September 1, 2024 to be considered a summer distribution. Beyond the September 1st distribution deadline, students must register for the fall.
It is the doctoral candidate's responsibility to ensure that the dissertation is correctly formatted before the deposit deadline. For your convenience and use while you write your dissertation—or toward the end, when you are preparing it for deposit—we suggest using this Word template or this LaTeX template, which incorporate and comply with all GSAS formatting requirements, and can be used to eliminate common formatting errors that may delay your dissertation deposit.
Students with any questions about formatting, or who would like to have their formatting reviewed, should contact [email protected] well in advance of the deposit deadline.
Please note that it will take three business days for a certification letter to be produced for deposits that take place in the week before a deadline. If you need your certification letter by a certain date, it is your responsibility to complete the process in advance. PhD students do not need to apply for graduation through the Office of the University Registrar.
- October 2023 Conferral
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, October 12, 2023: Last day to deposit a dissertation for the October conferral.
- February 2024 Conferral
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, February 8, 2024: Last day to deposit a dissertation for the February conferral.
- May 2024 Conferral
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, April 11, 2024: Last day to complete deposit of a dissertation for the May conferral and have your name appear in the Convocation Booklet.
- 4:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, April 18, 2024: Last day to complete deposit of a dissertation for the May conferral and have your name appear in the addendum to the Convocation Booklet.
For more information on the deposit, please click here.