The doctoral dissertation/master's thesis must be submitted to each member of the doctoral/thesis committee at least four weeks before the final examination/defense.
A student must make an appointment with the Graduate Division for a preliminary check of his/her dissertation/thesis. At that appointment the format is checked and instructions on the final preparation and submission of the dissertation/thesis are given.
*Effective November 18, 2020: Committee member signatures are no longer collected on a signature page. Committee approval of the dissertation/thesis is now captured on a revised combined Final Report Form which contains an approval section for the dissertation/thesis. Students should check with their department/program coordinator to verify that the revised form is being used. If the revised form has not been used students should let their Graduate Division adviser know.
SDSU Joint Doctoral students need to continue following the process below:
Students initiate the dissertation/thesis signature page through DocuSign. Committee member signatures will be collected electronically through DocuSign and the form will be routed electronically to the Graduate Division. (See page 12 in the formatting manual for detailed instructions.) Students use the JDP signature page link here.
The slides from the April 7th Spring 2021 dissertation/thesis formatting webinar can be found here. They provide an overview of the dissertation/thesis submission process and formatting guidelines. Please refer to the full formatting manual for detailed information.
Dissertation/Thesis Appointments
Request preliminary and final dissertation/thesis appointments via the online calendar. Appointments should be scheduled during the planned graduation quarter.