All Ph.D. students must complete the following University and College requirements. Please see your departmental advisor for additional departmental requirements.
Time Limit: Doctoral Students must complete all requirements for the Ph.D. degree within five years of passing the Preliminary Examination (but at least six months after passing the Prelims.)
G.P.A.: A Graduate Student must have a minimum 3.0 Cumulative Graduate GPA in order to be eligible for the degree.
Residency: After completing the Master's degree or after completing 30 hours of graduate credit a Ph.D. student must be enrolled for a minimum of 24 hours in any 12 month period.
Dissertation Hours/Final Term Registration : Students must successfully complete a minimum of 24 hours of Dissertation. In addition, students writing a Dissertation must be registered for at least Two Hours of Dissertation credit the term they wish to graduate (even if they have completed the minimum of 24 hours already.) The only exception to this rule is made when the student has had the Dissertation cleared by the Office of Graduate Studies prior to the first day of classes of the term they wish to graduate.
Dissertation Defense: Students writing a Dissertation must register for Dissertation Defense and have a grade of “P” posted. Students should only register for Defense once. Please check to make sure that you have only one Defense on your record and make sure a grade is submitted once the defense has been successful.
Title Page: The Dean's signature is not required on the title page of students in the College of Arts and Sciences.
Required Forms: There are a number of forms required by the Office of Graduate Studies prior to being cleared by the manuscript advisor. For a complete listing of these forms, please look at the ETD section at the following Office of Graduate Studies link:
You should have the following forms with you at the time of your thesis/dissertation defense in order to get the signatures that are required:
Final Term Degree Clearance Form
FSU ETD Access Agreement Form
Manuscript Signature Page (The College of Arts and Sciences does not require that the Dean's Signature be included on this page)
Any other departmental forms that may require signatures from your committee members
