Residency Requirement:  After having finished thirty (30) semester hours of graduate work or being awarded the master's degree, the student must be continuously enrolled on The Florida State University Tallahassee campus for a minimum of twenty-four (24) graduate semester hours credit in any period of 12 consecutive months.

The minimum number of dissertation hours for completion of a doctoral degree shall be twenty-four (24) semester hours.

Get your doctoral committee together:      .  Once you have passed the preliminary exam and have your doctoral committee formed, please let Jennifer know so that she can fill out your Doctoral Committee Form that will be sent to the Dean's office of Arts and Sciences, etc.... (this form should be filled out once you are sure of who your committee members are.)

Complete a Program of Study Form:    
(Each committee member must sign, the form should be typed, as completely filled in as possible, the number of hours listed, etc...) -Please see Jennifer before submitting it to faculty for signatures.

Admission to Candidacy:  Admission to Candidacy (from the University's Graduate Bulletin) (Once you have passed all parts of the preliminary examination, please see Jennifer to make sure that the paperwork to admit you to candidacy gets prepared).A student who has passed the preliminary examination and has been certified to the Office of the University Registrar (on an admission to candidacy form) is considered a candidate for the doctoral degree and is eligible to register for dissertation credits.

A student must be admitted to candidacy at least six months prior to the granting of the degree. The  purpose of this requirement is to ensure a minimal lapse of time for effective work on the dissertation after acquisition of the basic competence and after delineation of the problem and method of attack. More realistically, the student should expect to spend a year or more of work on the dissertation.

Attend workshop on "Guidelines & Requirements for Thesis, Treatise, and Dissertation Writers".  See:  http://www.fsu.edu/gradstudies/thesis.shtml .   You should also see this site for information on using LaTeX to write the dissertation.

Finish Essay paper and give a copy to each of your committee members. Place once copy of the essay in the Wilcoxon room.   Allow the committee at least 4 weeks to read it, and then defend it.

Defend dissertation.  Finish your dissertation, give it to your committee, wait at least 4 weeks for them to read it and then defend it

For doctoral students and master's students in a thesis-type program, registration shall be required in  the final term in which a degree requiring a thesis, dissertation, or treatise is granted, and shall consist of  a minimum of one (1) credit hour of thesis/dissertation/treatise credit even if the student has completed  the requirements for the degree in previous semesters. This is to reimburse the University for the administrative costs of manuscript clearance and final degree clearance procedures

During the first two weeks of the term in which a candidate expects to receive a degree, application should be made for a diploma at the Office of the University Registrar (A3900 in the University Center). If a candidate previously filed for a diploma but did not receive the degree, the application procedure must be repeated.

  At the Office of the University Registrar a candidate will receive a "Final Term Degree Clearance Form," which provides space for certification by all parties concerned that all requirements for the degree have been met. The form must be completed and submitted to the academic dean. No candidate in a course-type program is eligible for the degree until this requirement has been met. For a thesis or dissertation-writing student, this form must be completed and submitted to the manuscript and final clearance adviser in the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies.

  After the defense, a master's or doctoral candidate must submit to the manuscript and final clearance adviser the completed "Final Term Degree Clearance Form" and three copies of the dissertation or thesis. In addition, a doctoral student will submit an abstract of the dissertation, a "Placement Information Card,"  the "Survey of Earned Doctorates Questionnaire," and a microfilming agreement form (forms available from the Graduate Studies Office). Consult the Directory of Classes for the deadline dates.   A copy of the dissertation should also be given to the Department so that it can be bound and placed in the Wilcoxon room.  (See Pam)