Thesis Process

Preparing the Thesis

If a thesis is required, it must be the student’s own work and must demonstrate a capacity for research and independent thought.

A student writing a thesis should refer to the dissertation and thesis guidelines and a copy of academic program requirements from the director of graduate studies.

Consult the academic deadlines for master’s students to see the thesis deadline for the current year.

Thesis Acceptance

The thesis is approved by the major advisor, a second reader from the academic program. The third reader may be an outside reader who is a member of the graduate faculty from a different MU graduate program or another member of the graduate faculty from the academic program.

Students must supply committee members with copies for review and evaluation.

For the thesis to be successfully defended, the student’s committee must vote to pass the student on the defense with no more than one dissenting or abstaining vote. In addition, the committee must approve the written dissertation by signing the approval page (an unsigned copy of the approval page is included in the submitted thesis). Both the oral and written defense must be completed successfully to complete the degree.

After successfully defending the thesis, the student makes any needed adjustments in format and corrections or clarifications based on input from the committee. If a student is unable to make adjustments and have them approved by the committee prior to the thesis deadline, they have one additional semester to complete them. They will be unable to graduate until the M3, written thesis, and approval page are submitted.