Approval of the MA Thesis and Submission to Examination Committee

  1. When the MA candidate’s Advisor has deemed that the candidate’s thesis draft is satisfactory, the Advisor will provide an email to the student indicating that the thesis is satisfactory and ready for submission to the Advisory Committee members for evaluation. The student shall provide an electronic copy to each member of the Advisory Committee and request email receipt to ensure that the Advisory committee members have received the thesis in a timely fashion. A minimum of two weeks will be allowed for Advisory Committee members to evaluate the thesis.
  2. When an Advisory Committee member has read the draft of the thesis, he/she is required to complete an Evaluation of Draft Thesis form (prepared by and obtained from the Graduate Secretary) to provide feedback on the thesis and indicate whether or not the thesis is ready for defense. The form will be submitted to the student with a copy to the candidate’s Advisor. Normally, this feedback includes a number of changes designed to improve the thesis prior to the defense. The student then considers the recommendations in the evaluation forms, and, in consultation with the Advisor, makes changes specified by the committee members. Note that these changes may be done quickly or take a substantial amount of time (e.g., days or weeks). Consequently, students should remember to budget sufficient time for these revisions.
  3. The student will submit an electronic copy of the corrected thesis to each Advisory Committee member. The Advisory Committee members will typically review the revised draft within two weeks. Following this, the Advisory Committee members will indicate whether the thesis is ready for defense by signing the Summary of Advice to Student form and submitting it to the Graduate Secretary (who makes a copy for the student).
  4. The MA supervisor will advise the student to prepare and submit printed copies of the thesis to each member of the Examination Committee (described below).
  5. Regardless of the recommendation of the MA Advisory Committee, a student may submit a request for an examination. Requesting an examination without the approval of all of the members of the MA Advisory committee is not recommended.