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Program Planning

Upon acceptance into a graduate program, each student will be assigned a faculty advisor by the department chair or coordinator of the program in the student's field of major interest. Prior to completion of one-half of the course credits required for the degree, the advisor and the student will nominate a committee of 3 or more members of which the initial advisor may or may not be the chair or a member. Each graduate student's committee will consist of graduate faculty members from the academic discipline(s) offering the degree, plus one member from outside the discipline(s) who will represent the graduate faculty. At the time the student's committee is formed, the graduate faculty representative will be appointed by the Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Vice President of Research who will also approve the committee and the student's degree plan. Students in the MBA and MPA programs following an established non thesis plan of study may not be required to have a committee.

The committee is responsible for developing the student's program of study, for arranging and conducting examinations and for certifying the student's completion of all requirements for the degree. All recommendations by the committee are subject to review and approval of the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Candidacy for the master's degree is established when, following acceptance into a degree program and completion of all acceptance requirements, the graduate student and the advisor plan a program of study recorded on the degree plan form which is approved by the student's committee, the department chair or program coordinator, and the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Filing of the degree plan with the Office of Graduate Studies should be done upon or prior to completion of 12 semester credit hours of degree requirements and must be done prior to completion of 18 semester credit hours toward the degree. Students failing to submit a degree plan or receive approval may be required to complete one-half of the required credits (exclusive of project/thesis) after approval is received. The degree plan should list all courses, any special projects, and any other educational experiences that are to be a part of the master's program. It is not necessary to include the topic if the project/thesis option is chosen. Students must accept responsibility to obtain a degree plan.

The degree plan is not official until:

  1. It is signed by the student, committee members, program head, graduate faculty representative, and Dean of Graduate Studies and,
  2. It is filed in the Graduate Studies office.

All revisions to the degree plan, if necessary, are made on a separate form, "Graduate Academic Petition for Exception to Graduate Policy." Further information is available through the Office of Graduate Studies.

The master's degree must be completed within eight years. No course more than eight years old at the time of graduation may be applied toward requirements for the degree. This includes any transfer credit and project or thesis credit. For example, if the first course on the degree plan is dated Fall 2010, the student must graduate in or before Summer 2018.