Timelines

Content

Context 

The information below has been created to provide students with a timeline-to-complete the PhD within 5 years.  The information for whichever year you have completed in the program will be included with annual evaluation letters going forward (either in the letter itself or as a supplementary document sent with the letter) but we want all graduate students and faculty to have access to this information at all times so you can also find it linked for the graduate student resources page (psychology.unl.edu/graduate-student-resources/).  Having access to this at all times also allows you to look at the verbiage for subsequent years which may also aid you in planning out your timeline.  A few important notes

  1. Given that graduate students are in different programs (which often have requirements above and beyond the baseline department requirements), pursue different trainings (e.g. some may do our quant minor or a specialization in Women and Gender Studies, or Ethnic Studies), pursue different career types, and sometimes pursue dual degrees (e.g. an MLS or JD/PhD), it is impossible to establish a general timeline for all students in the program that will work equally well for everyone.  The verbiage for each year is intended to give you a general sense of where you should be at in the program and what things you need to be mindful of for the future, but each of the factors acknowledged above can impact this timeline.  You may not be course complete as early as others if pursuing minors, specializations, or additional degrees.  If a strong publication record is important for your future career goals, that may take a bit longer to establish.  You should do your best to stick to the general timeline mapped out below, but you should always consult with your advisor about your specific progress and goals as they will have the best sense of what you still need to complete.   
  2. If you are concerned about your progress, you should feel free to schedule a meeting with your advisor, your program coordinator/director, or the Graduate Chair at any time to discuss.  Your program coordinator and the Graduate Chair can be particularly useful if your opinion on your progress and timeline-to-completion differs from your advisor.  Though a number of factors can impact your timeline, it is always good to be aspirational in terms of trying to complete the PhD within 5 years.
  3. Program coordinators/directors have access to this verbiage and may opt to tweak it for your specific program.  It has been initially prepared to be helpful for all students equally, but we recognize that everyone’s path differs slightly.  You may want to look at the specific verbiage you receive in an annual letter and compare it to the general verbiage to see if it has been tweaked for your specific situation.  If it has not, it is important to factor your other training goals into your timeline.
  4. You should always consult your program handbook for specific program guidance.  For example, in the verbiage below I note that all paperwork that goes to OGS (Memorandum of Courses, Program of Studies, Appointment of Supervisory Committee, etc.) should always be set up at the Department level for Docusign and we collect all signatures (you should not use a peronal Docusign account or collect any signatures yourself).  There may be occasional internal department paperwork related to your program where you receive different guidance, but anything going to OGS goes through us.
  5. Though we do not require this, there are a number of online examples available of Individual Development Plans and you may find it very useful to create one of these in collaboration with your advisor and revisit it each year, particularly if your goals or timeline have changed in any way.  Creating and maintaining an individual development plan could be very helpful for completing the PhD in a timely fashion.

End of First Year

Given that you have just completed your first year in the program, we are also taking this opportunity to provide you with information regarding which milestones you should have either already completed or should be aiming to complete in the near future. The purpose of these annual reminders is so that you can take stock of where you are at currently, recognize if you are behind where you should be, and come up with a plan to address it. Given that obtaining a PhD is a years long process, it can be easy to think that you have all the time in the world ahead of you, but it moves way faster than you think and you want to be constantly mindful that you’re not falling behind.

  1. To complete and receive your Master’s degree en route to the PhD, you will need to a) submit and complete your Memorandum of Courses form, b) Complete your Master’s Equivalent Research Project (MERP), which can take many different forms and which you should be deciding on with your advisor, c) Apply for Graduation in myred at the beginning of the semester you expect to receive your Master’s, and d) submit your Final Examination report form 1 month before you are defending. The readers/committee for your MERP are listed on the Final Examination Report form, there is no separate supervisory form for the Master’s the way there is for the PhD.
  2. Your Memorandum of Courses form should be submitted very soon if it has not been already. The MOC requires a minimum 30 credit hours (maximum 36) and is supposed to be submitted before half of the coursework listed on the Memorandum has been completed.  The best time to submit this is during the spring semester of your first year, but there are occasionally reasons for delays.  .  You do not need to list every course you’re taking/have taken on the form but the form is your course contract for receiving the Master’s and the Office of Graduate Studies will be checking that you took and passed everything listed (note that for Psychology courses, anything below a B- is considered a fail and would require a retake of the course).   If you have not submitted this yet I would recommend getting in as soon as possible. The Office of Graduate Studies expects these forms  early in the process and if these are submitted late or with too many credits already completed, they may require additional information or, at worst, may be unable to accept the form.  This is an important one to get in in a timely fashion.
  3. Generally all students take our statistics sequence in the first year (931 and 932) in addition to the teaching course in the fall of the first year.  If you did not take any of these requirements for any reason you will want to take them as soon as you can.  If you are a clinical student, then a good deal of your coursework is already set in year 1 and part of year 2.  If you are in a program other than Clinical, we recommend you consulting with your program handbook in addition to the graduate handbook.  The graduate handbook outlines the core courses you are required to take to receive a PhD in Psychology and the area handbooks tend to cover the other requirements as a function of which program you’re in. Given that not all courses are offered every year (and indeed some are only offered every third year), it is important to stay on top of your requirements to ensure you’ve satisfied them all as soon as possible.  There is a tentative graduate teaching calendar on the Graduate Student Resources Webpage  that you can also consult to get a sense of when courses may be offered (this is tentative and can change, but may be helpful for planning purposes…you should always watch for email updates on course offerings and you should check which courses are available to you each semester when you register in case something pops up unexpectedly or with little advance notice).
  4. Outside of coursework, the main focus in your first 1-2 years in the program should be your MERP (Master’s Equivalency Research Project) as this is the project that earns you your Master’s degree en route to completing the PhD (if you entered the program with a Master’s, this requirement may or may not have been waived, in Clinical there is a portfolio that satisfied the requirement but a MERP-like research project is still expected).  The time to complete the MERP can vary by program and research area, but a strong aspirational goal would be to try to complete the MERP within 18 months of starting the program, but hopefully no more than 24 months.  If it takes you longer than 2 years to complete the Masters, it has the potential to slow your progress considerably as it relates to obtaining the PhD.  Make sure you are mindful of OGS deadlines that do not go through the department, it is your responsibility to make sure you’re on top of everything.
  5. When you are ready to defend your MERP, please note the following: The Final Examination Report form is due to the Office of Graduate Studies a full month before your defense date.  Your committee members do not need to sign off on the initial submission, just your advisor and the graduate chair.  Whenever a signature is required from a committee member, it is ideal to give them at least two weeks with your document before you require it to be signed off on.  But in this case you do not need to have the actual document to your committee two weeks before the final report form is due.  The committee only signs after the defense.  You should still be aiming to get your document to your committee a minimum 2 weeks before the defense (when you later defend your PhD, the defense form is only due 2 weeks before the defense, not 4, but your entire committee will need to sign off on that one so in that case you will want to get the document to the committee 2 weeks before the form is due).
  6. Please note that to receive your Masters degree and walk at commencement, you need to apply for graduation and this is done in myred (it’s not a form through a department, this is up to the individual student to do).  The application is due very early in the semester you intend to receive the Master’s (usually within the first couple of weeks of the semester). If for some reason you don’t meet the deadline, you would have to reapply for a subsequent semester and pay a $25 fee.
Other things to keep on your radar for the coming year
  1. As you near the end of your MA (or soon after you complete it) you will want to think about establishing your supervisory committee for the PhD as soon as possible. Please note that you require permission from Grad EC to set up your committee and so you should have your advisor email the Graduate Chair with the committee request.  We can approve these at our January or May meeting en masse, but can also do these off cycle via email if needed.  Once you have approval to set up your committee, you will need to submit the Approval of Supervisory Committee form at some point in the near future (the email you receive has a brief deadline to try to stay on track of everyone but it’s fine if it takes a bit longer to decide on committee members, just get the form in as soon as possible).
  2. There is a limit on the number of 996 courses that a student can take on the way to completing the Master’s which is a good additional reason to get the Master’s wrapped up as early as possible (24 credits total is the maximum amount allowed for the 996 mechanism).  If you hit the point where you cannot take any further credit using this mechanism, Grad EC may be able to approve you to take 999 credit a little earlier than you otherwise would.  Hopefully you won’t run into that issue.
  3. Please remember that whenever you need signatures on paperwork, you should not be collecting signatures yourself or using your own Docusign accounts.  Send the paperwork to us to set up as a Docusign at the department level and we will collect all signatures.  This is necessary for us to track progress and maintain a consistent accounting of where everyone is at in the program.
  4. Please remember that if you are receiving funding from the department in addition to a tuition waiver, you are required to be enrolled in a minimum 9 credits each in the fall and spring semesters, maximum 12 credits (your waiver only covers up to 12 credits and if you enroll in more than this you will be charged tuition for anything above 12 credits).  You are not required to register for credits in the summer though many students do enroll in 5 to avoid paying FICA taxes, discuss with your advisor or Graduate Chair whether that is relevant to you or not (generally if you are receiving summer funding from the department or a community placement, you’ll want to enroll in those minimum 5 summer credits).  If you do enroll in credits in the summer, there is also a maximum 12 credits available to you, though the Department has never recommended enrolling in more than 6 summer credits unless there is an extraordinary circumstance that would warrant it.
  5. Please always make sure to check the Office of Graduate Studies steps to degree completion. Though many requirements run through our program (e.g. paperwork), there are a few things that run solely through OGS (e.g. application for graduation) that are independent of the department and that you must keep on top of yourself as a student.  OGS has very detailed pages with updated deadlines each semester, you should review these routinely.

End of Second Year

Congratulations on completing your second year in the program. We are taking this opportunity to provide you with information regarding which milestones you should have either already completed or should be aiming to complete in the near future. The purpose of these annual reminders is so that you can take stock of where you are at currently, recognize if you are behind where you should be, and come up with a plan to address it. Given that obtaining a PhD is a years long process, it can be easy to think that you have all the time in the world ahead of you, but it moves way faster than you think and you want to be constantly mindful that you’re not falling behind.

  1. If you have not yet submitted your Memorandum of Courses for the Master’s degree, it is critical you do so right away.
  2. Depending on which program your are in, you may be close to finishing your required coursework for the degree by this point, or might be wrapping up within the next year (the exception would be Clinical where a number of courses are still required for accreditation).  Make sure you monitor what courses you have remaining and use the tentative graduate teaching calendar on the graduate student resources page to plan out your remaining courses.
  3. If you have not completed your MERP by this point, we strongly recommend you completing it as soon as possible.  Failure to complete the MERP in a timely fashion can lead to additional delays completing the PhD.
  4. If you have completed the MERP or are near completion and have not already requested approval to set up a supervisory committee for the PhD, now would be the time to do so.  Once you have approval, you should try to get your Appointment of Supervisory Committee form completed and sent to us as soon as you can.
  5. Please note that to receive your Masters degree and walk at commencement, you need to apply for graduation, and this is done in myred (it’s not a form through a department, this is up to the individual student to do).  The application is due very early in the semester you intend to receive the Masters (usually within the first couple of weeks of the semester). If for some reason you don’t meet the deadline, you would have to reapply for a subsequent semester and pay a $25 fee.
Other things to keep on your radar for the coming year
  1. As you near the end of your MA (or soon after you complete it) you will want to think about establishing your supervisory committee for the PhD as soon as possible. Please note that you require permission from Grad EC to set up your committee and so you should have your advisor email the Graduate Chair with the committee request.  We can approve these at our January or May meeting en masse, but can also do these off cycle via email if needed.  Once you have approval to set up your committee, you will need to submit the Appointment of Supervisory Committee form at some point in the near future (the email you receive has a brief deadline to try to stay on track of everyone but it’s fine if it takes a bit longer to decide on committee members, just get the form in as soon as possible).
  2. Once your supervisory committee is formed, it is good to schedule a meeting as soon as possible with the committee so that you can discuss a) your Program of Studies form, and b) what you will be doing for your comprehensive exams so you can map out a tentative timeline for completing these.  Comps are often completed in Year 3 or Year 4 and are a critical step for obtaining doctoral candidacy.  Talk to your advisor early to determine what you think you will be doing for your comps. This is not set in stone and can certainly change but getting a handle on both the scope and nature of your comps will be important for planning out your timeline over the next year or two. Completion of the comprehensive exams is what then makes you eligible for candidacy for the PhD and for a variety of reasons, it is helpful to get yourself to candidacy as soon as possible.
  3. There is a limit on the number of 996 courses that a student can take on the way to completing the Master’s (24 credits of 996) which is a good additional reason to get the Master’s wrapped up as early as possible.  If you hit the point where you cannot take any further credit using this mechanism, Grad EC may be able to approve you to take 999 credit a little earlier than you otherwise would.  Hopefully you won’t run into that issue.
  4. If you have finished your MERP and formed a committee but have not yet submitted your Program of Studies form, you are heavily encouraged to submit that as soon as possible.  As with the Master’s Memorandum of Courses, the Program of Studies for the PhD is supposed to be submitted before the completion of half of the credits on the form. Because the courses listed on your Memorandum of Courses can also be listed as “completed” courses on your Program of Studies, the expectation is that the Program of Studies form is submitted fairly soon once your MERP project is completed.
  5. Please remember that whenever you need signatures on paperwork, you should not be collecting signatures yourself or using your own Docusign accounts.  Send the paperwork to us to set up as a Docusign at the department level and we will collect all signatures.  This is necessary for us to track progress and maintain a consistent accounting of where everyone is at in the program.
  6. Please remember that if you are receiving funding from the department in addition to a tuition waiver, you are required to be enrolled in a minimum 9 credits each in the fall and spring semesters, maximum 12 credits (your waiver only covers up to 12 credits and if you enroll in more than this you will be charged tuition for anything above 12 credits).  You are not required to register for credits in the summer though many students do enroll in 5 to avoid paying FICA taxes, discuss with your advisor or Graduate Chair whether that is relevant to you or not.  If you do enroll in credits in the summer, there is also a maximum 12 credits available to you, though the Department has never recommended enrolling in more than 6 summer credits unless there is an extraordinary circumstance that would warrant it.
  7. Please always make sure to check the Office of Graduate Studies steps to degree completion. Though many requirements run through the program (e.g. paperwork), there are a few things that run solely through OGS (e.g. application for graduation) that are independent of the department and that you must keep on top of yourself as a student.  OGS has very detailed pages with updated deadlines each semester, you should review these routinely.

End of Third Year

Congratulations on completing your third year in the program. We are taking this opportunity to provide you with information regarding which milestones you should have either already completed or should be aiming to complete in the near future. The purpose of these annual reminders is so that you can take stock of where you are at currently, recognize if you are behind where you should be, and come up with a plan to address it. Given that obtaining a PhD is a years long process, it can be easy to think that you have all the time in the world ahead of you, but it moves way faster than you think and you want to be constantly mindful that you’re not falling behind.

  1. Your MERP project should be completed by this point and if it is not, it is urgent that you complete it as soon as possible to ensure you are progressing through the program in a timely manner. 
  2. Depending which program you’re are in, you may be close to finishing your required coursework for the degree by this point, or might be wrapping up within the next year (the exception would be Clinical where some courses are still required for accreditation).  Make sure you monitor what courses you have remaining and use the tentative graduate teaching calendar on the graduate student resources page to plan out your remaining courses.  This is particularly important if you are doing something like the quant minor where certain courses may not be frequently offered, you will want to stay on top of when things are planned.
  3. If you have completed your MERP or are near completion and have not been approved to form a supervisory committee for the PhD, now is the time to do so. Once you have approval, you should try to get your Appointment of Supervisory Committee form completed and sent to us as soon as you can.
  4. Once your supervisory committee is formed, it is good to schedule a meeting as soon as possible with the committee so that you can discuss a) your Program of Studies form, and b) what you will be doing for your comprehensive exams so you can map out a tentative timeline for completing these.  Completion of the comprehensive exams is what then makes you eligible for candidacy for the PhD and for a variety of reasons, it is helpful to get yourself to candidacy as soon as possible.  If you have not yet formed a committee and discussed both comps and your general project idea, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible.
  5. If you have finished your MERP and formed a committee but have not yet submitted your Program of Studies form, you are heavily encouraged to submit that as soon as possible.  As with the Master’s Memorandum of Courses, the Program of Studies for the PhD is supposed to be submitted before the completion of half of the credits on the form. Because the courses listed on your Memorandum of Courses can also be listed as “completed” courses on your Program of Studies, the expectation is that the Program of Studies form is submitted fairly soon once your MERP project is completed.
  6. The PhD requires completion of a) your comprehensive exams, b) your dissertation proposal (talk to your advisor and your Program coordinator/Director for guidance on what specifically is expected for a proposal in your program, and c) the dissertation research project itself and subsequent dissertation document.  If you have not already done so, now is a good time to map out what you will be doing for each of these requirements, and what your aspirational timeline is for completion.  If your comprehensive exams are a grant proposal, there are established NIH and NSF deadlines you would be aiming to meet that you can use to aid in your planning.  If you are doing something for your comps that does not have external agency deadlines, then you should work with your advisor and committee to come up with a series of deadlines that will help you progress.  There are few “hard” deadlines in graduate school and so being proactive and planning out deadlines on your own will help you to stay on track.  A dissertation project can easily take 1-2 years to carry out so whatever planning you can do to keep yourself accountable for progression will benefit your continued trajectory through the program.
  7. If you are concerned about your progress or time left, consider meeting with your advisor, your program coordinator/director, and/or the graduate chair to discuss whether you need additional deadlines, direction, and oversight to finish up on time. Do not be avoidant about this if you need help and an extra push, better to address now than to leave until later.
Other things to keep on your radar for the coming year
  1. Many students will have their comps done and a good sense of where your dissertation is headed by the end of the fourth year, so if you have just finished your third year and do not have a sufficient sense of what your comps will be and when you will aim to complete them by, you should definitely be aiming to get that figured out soon and work towards those goals during your fourth year.  Keep in mind that if you are thinking of going on the academic job market post-PhD (or the post-doc market), your final year in the program will also see you putting together job applications, putting together a job talk, and potentially interviewing at multiple places.  This takes a lot of time away from the actual dissertation itself so aiming to get as far into things as you can in your fourth year is a great goal.  It is always best to aim to have the dissertation completed within 5 years. Though there can be reasons your study may extend beyond that, it is critical to finish in a timely fashion to insure there is still funding available to you.
  2. If you have finished your MERP and formed a committee but have not yet submitted your Program of Studies form, you are heavily encouraged to submit that as soon as possible.  As with the Master’s Memorandum of Courses, the Program of Studies for the PhD is supposed to be submitted before the completion of half of the credits on the form. Because the courses listed on your Memorandum of Courses can also be listed as “completed” courses on your Program of Studies, the expectation is that the Program of Studies form is submitted fairly soon once your MERP project is completed.
  3. Please remember that whenever you need signatures on paperwork, you should not be collecting signatures yourself or using your own Docusign accounts.  Send the paperwork to us to set up as a Docusign at the department level and we will collect all signatures.  This is necessary for us to track progress and maintain a consistent accounting of where everyone is at in the program.
  4. Please remember that if you are receiving funding from the department in addition to a tuition waiver, you are required to be enrolled in a minimum 9 credits each in the fall and spring semesters, maximum 12 credits (your waiver only covers up to 12 credits and if you enroll in more than this you will be charged tuition for anything above 12 credits).  You are not required to register for credits in the summer though many students do enroll in 5 to avoid paying FICA taxes, discuss with your advisor or Graduate Chair whether that is relevant to you or not.  If you do enroll in credits in the summer, there is also a maximum 12 credits available to you, though the Department has never recommended enrolling in more than 6 summer credits unless there is an extraordinary circumstance that would warrant it.
  5. The hope by this point in the program is that you have determined what both your comps and dissertation will be and have made headway already with the comps, dissertation proposal (consult with your advisor and program coordinator/director for guidance on what is required for the proposal), and dissertation project itself. If you have not already done so, it is urgent to do so now and you are heaving encouraged to map out your aspirational timeline is for completion.  If your comprehensive exams are a grant proposal, there are established NIH and NSF deadlines you would be aiming to meet that you can use to aid in your planning.  If you are doing something for your comps that does not have external agency deadlines, then you should work with your advisor and committee to come up with a series of deadlines that will help you progress.  There are few “hard” deadlines in graduate school and so being proactive and planning out deadlines on your own will help you to stay on track.  A dissertation project can easily take 1-2 years to carry out so whatever planning you can do to keep yourself accountable for progression will benefit your continued trajectory through the program.
  6. Please always make sure to check the Office of Graduate Studies steps to degree completion. Though many requirements run through the program (e.g. paperwork), there are a few things that run solely through OGS (e.g. application for graduation) that are independent of the department and that you must keep on top of yourself as a student.  OGS has very detailed pages with updated deadlines each semester, you should review these routinely.

End of Fourth Year

Congratulations on completing your fourth year in the program. We are taking this opportunity to provide you with information regarding which milestones you should have either already completed or should be aiming to complete in the near future. The purpose of these annual reminders is so that you can take stock of where you are at currently, recognize if you are behind where you should be, and come up with a plan to address it.

  1. At this point in the program you should have a good sense of what your comprehensive exams will entail, with the expectation that you may have completed or be nearing completion of this important milestone.  Completing the comprehensive exam is what initially qualifies you for candidacy for the PhD.  If you have completed your comps or are nearing the process of completing them, congratulations! If you have not yet finished the comps, this should be a critical priority to complete as soon as possible.
  2. The other major milestones on your way to completing the PhD are your dissertation proposal and then the actual dissertation project and subsequent written document.  None of these should be left until the last minute as they are labor intensive and take considerable time.  You may already be collecting dissertation data while still finishing off the dissertation proposal and that is fine, but you are still encouraged to get the proposal done as soon as possible as well.  Do not leave your writing until the last minute.  When you are in your last year in the program, there may be a lot of external pressures on your time that were not there in subsequent years.  You may be applying for jobs/post docs/internships, putting together job talks or teaching talks, and perhaps being away for interviews.  If you are course complete at this point, it is easy to trick yourself into thinking that your entire final year will solely be a focus on a dissertation, that is rarely how it works. You are strongly encouraged to get ahead of all of this by doing whatever you can as early as you can as it relates to remaining dissertation milestones.
  3. You absolutely should have submitted your Program of Studies form by this point, if you have not for any reason, it is critical to get this in immediately.
  4. Unless you are in Clinical, you are very likely to be course complete by this point. This would be a good time to look back at your Program of Studies and ensure that you have completed (or will soon be completing) all the courses listed on that document.  If anything has changed (e.g. you put down a course that was not offered, or you changed your mind about the value of a course originally on the POS), now would be a good time to follow up with the Office of Graduate Studies to amend the form.  If this is left until the last minute, it can risk delaying graduation.  Even if you are not course complete, now may still be a good time to double check this form to ensure everything listed on there still makes sense.
  5. If you are concerned about your progress or time left, consider meeting with your advisor, your program coordinator/director, and/or the graduate chair to discuss whether you need additional deadlines, direction, and oversight to finish up on time. Do not be avoidant about this if you need help and an extra push, better to address now than to leave until later.
Other things to keep on your radar for the coming year
  1. For many students, the upcoming year 5 will be your final year in the program.  Now is a good time to take stock of whether you’ve completed expected milestones and are on track to graduate next year.  If not, it is important to come up with a plan to complete all remaining milestones to ensure you finish your graduate student in an efficient and reasonable time period.  Your supervisory committee and Program of Studies form should already have been completed by now and you should have a good sense of how far away you are from completing other remaining milestones, as detailed above. Please note that you are required to submit a rough draft of the dissertation to graduate studies by a certain point in the semester, that is again handled on the student end and not through the department.  Staying on top of all paperwork and deadlines is critical.
  2. Please note that to receive your PhD and walk at commencement, you need to apply for graduation and this is done in myred (it’s not a form through a department, this is up to the individual student to do).  The application is due very early in the semester you intend to receive the PhD (usually within the first couple of weeks of the semester).  If for some reason you don’t meet the deadline, you would have to reapply for a subsequent semester and pay a $25 fee.
  3. Please remember that whenever you need signatures on paperwork, you should not be collecting signatures yourself or using your own Docusign accounts.  Send the paperwork to us to set up as a Docusign at the department level and we will collect all signatures.  This is necessary for us to track progress and maintain a consistent accounting of where everyone is at in the program.
  4. Please remember that if you are receiving funding from the department in addition to a tuition waiver, you are required to be enrolled in a minimum 9 credits each in the fall and spring semesters, maximum 12 credits (your waiver only covers up to 12 credits and if you enroll in more than this you will be charged tuition for anything above 12 credits).  You are not required to register for credits in the summer though many students do enroll in 5 to avoid paying FICA taxes, discuss with your advisor or Graduate Chair whether that is relevant to you or not.  If you do enroll in credits in the summer, there is also a maximum 12 credits available to you, though the Department has never recommended enrolling in more than 6 summer credits unless there is an extraordinary circumstance that would warrant it.
  5. The hope by this point in the program, as detailed above, is that you have determined what both your comps and dissertation will be and have made headway already with the comps, dissertation proposal (consult with your advisor and program coordinator/director for guidance on what is required for the proposal), and dissertation project itself.  If you have not already done so, it is urgent to do so now and you are heaving encouraged to map out your aspirational timeline is for completion. If your comprehensive exams are a grant proposal, there are established NIH and NSF deadlines you would be aiming to meet that you can use to aid in your planning.  If you are doing something for your comps that does not have external agency deadlines, then you should work with your advisor and committee to come up with a series of deadlines that will help you progress. There are few “hard” deadlines in graduate school and so being proactive and planning out deadlines on your own will help you to stay on track.  A dissertation project can easily take 1-2 years to carry out so whatever planning you can do to keep yourself accountable for progression will benefit your continued trajectory through the program.
  6. Please always make sure to check the Office of Graduate Studies steps to degree completion. Though many requirements run through the program (e.g. paperwork), there are a few things that run solely through OGS (e.g. application for graduation) that are independent of the department and that you must keep on top of yourself as a student.  OGS has very detailed pages with updated deadlines each semester, you should review these routinely.

End of Fifth Year

Congratulations on finishing your fifth year in the program.  We are taking this opportunity to provide you with information regarding which milestones you should have either already completed or should be aiming to complete in the near future. The purpose of these annual reminders is so that you can take stock of where you are at currently, recognize if you are behind where you should be, and come up with a plan to address it.

  1. Many students complete their dissertation within five years and while it is not uncommon for the degree to stretch into a 6th year for any number of reasons, you should be at the point currently where you have either completed many of your remaining milestones or have a firm plan to complete them within the year.  If you have not completed comps, the dissertation proposal, and all related program paperwork, it is urgent that you do so immediately.  Preferably the only thing you should have left to worry about over the year is the dissertation itself.  Comps, the dissertation proposal, and the dissertation itself are labor intensive and take considerable time making it important to work through milestones as quickly as possible.  Do not leave your writing until the last minute.  When you are in your last year in the program, there may be a lot of external pressures on your time that were not there in subsequent years.  You may be applying for jobs/post docs/internships, putting together job talks or teaching talks, and perhaps being away for interviews.  If you are course complete at this point, it is easy to trick yourself into thinking that your entire final year will solely be a focus on a dissertation, that is rarely how it works. You are strongly encouraged to get ahead of all of this by doing whatever you can as early as you can as it relates to remaining dissertation milestones.
  2. If you are concerned about your progress or time left, consider meeting with your advisor, your program coordinator/director, and/or the graduate chair to discuss whether you need additional deadlines, direction, and oversight to finish up on time. Do not be avoidant about this if you need help and an extra push, better to address now than to leave until later.
Other things to keep on your radar for the coming year
  1. Please note that to receive your PhD and walk at commencement, you need to apply for graduation and this is done in myred (it’s not a form through a department, this is up to the individual student to do).  The application is due very early in the semester you intend to receive the PhD (usually within the first couple of weeks of the semester).  If for some reason you don’t meet the deadline, you would have to reapply for a subsequent semester and pay a $25 fee.
  2. The hope by this point in the program, as detailed above, is that you have determined what both your comps and dissertation will be and have made headway with/completed the comps, dissertation proposal (consult with your advisor and program coordinator/director for guidance on what is required for the proposal), and dissertation project itself.  If you have not already done so, it is urgent to do so now and you are heaving encouraged to map out your aspirational timeline is for completion
  3. Please remember that whenever you need signatures on paperwork, you should not be collecting signatures yourself or using your own Docusign accounts.  Send the paperwork to us to set up as a Docusign at the department level and we will collect all signatures.  This is necessary for us to track progress and maintain a consistent accounting of where everyone is at in the program.
  4. Please remember that if you are receiving funding from the department in addition to a tuition waiver, you are required to be enrolled in a minimum 9 credits each in the fall and spring semesters, maximum 12 credits (your waiver only covers up to 12 credits and if you enroll in more than this you will be charged tuition for anything above 12 credits).  You are not required to register for credits in the summer though many students do enroll in 5 to avoid paying FICA taxes, discuss with your advisor or Graduate Chair whether that is relevant to you or not.  If you do enroll in credits in the summer, there is also a maximum 12 credits available to you, though the Department has never recommended enrolling in more than 6 summer credits unless there is an extraordinary circumstance that would warrant it.
  5. Please always make sure to check the Office of Graduate Studies steps to degree completion. Though many requirements run through the program (e.g. paperwork), there are a few things that run solely through OGS (e.g. application for graduation) that are independent of the department and that you must keep on top of yourself as a student.  OGS has very detailed pages with updated deadlines each semester, you should review these routinely.