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During the 2018-19 academic year, degrees will be conferred on the following dates:
During the 2019-20 academic year, degrees will be conferred on the following dates:
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. Students who are receiving an MPhil do not ordinarily participate in Convocation and Commencement ceremonies.
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.
| May 2019 Conferral | Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, May 10, 2019 |
| October 2019 Conferral | Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, October 4, 2019 |
| February 2020 Conferral | Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, January 31, 2020 |
| May 2020 Conferral | Submission deadline: 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, May 8, 2020 |
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.
| Spring 2019 Semester | Friday, May 24, 2019 |
| Summer 2019 Semester | Friday, August 30, 2019 |
| Fall 2019 Semester | Friday, January 17, 2020 |
| Spring 2020 Semester | Friday, May 22, 2020 |
It is the doctoral candidate's responsibility to ensure that the dissertation is correctly formatted before the deposit deadline. Click here for formatting guidelines. Students with any questions about formatting, or who would like to have their formatting reviewed, should contact dissertations [at] columbia.edu 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.
| February 2019 Conferral |
4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, February 8, 2019: Last day to complete deposit of a dissertation for the February conferral. |
| May 2019 Conferral |
4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, April 19, 2019: Last day to complete deposit of a dissertation for the May conferral and have your name appear in the Convocation Booklet. |
| October 2019 Conferral | 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, October 11, 2019: Last day to deposit a dissertation for the October conferral. |
| February 2020 Conferral | 4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, February 7, 2020: Last day to deposit a dissertation for the February conferral. |
| May 2020 Conferral |
4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, April 17, 2020: 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, Friday, April 24, 2020: Last day to complete deposit of a dissertation for the May conferral. Last day to have your name appear in the addendum to the Convocation Booklet. |
For more information on the deposit, please click here.