Congratulations! You’ve defended your dissertation and your committee has approved all of your corrections. Now what? The final step is scheduling a post-defense meeting online with Rackham’s Office of Academic Records and Dissertations (OARD). You received a folder at your group pre-defense meeting that had a checklist of the final items needed for submission along with the required documents to complete. All requirements must be completed and brought to your post-defense meeting.
Take some time to review the formatting guidelines you received at the group pre-defense meeting and compare those to your dissertation. The majority of students who come in for their post defense meeting have to make a few minor formatting corrections to their dissertation. It is recommended, therefore, that you bring your dissertation on a laptop or flash drive so you can make any minor formatting revisions on the spot.
Once the dissertation is in its final form, you will receive instructions on uploading it for availability in Deep Blue. Dissertations are made available through Deep Blue only after your degree is conferred.
As some dissertations require substantial work for the doctoral thesis to meet the minimum formatting requirements, please schedule your post defense meeting well in advance of your doctoral degree deadline to allow plenty of time for any formatting corrections.
Finally, you’ve probably heard the lore about the “ruler ladies!” Relax! We threw the rulers away years ago. Just remember that we are here to help you! You can e-mail us or call us at 763-0171.
Published in: Graduate School News PLAN Articles