Oral Defense and Dissertation Submission Checklist

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Final approval of your thesis and oral defense is determined by your Thesis Committee, augmented by one additional faculty member. Your committee should therefore, consist of 5 members total.

1. Apply for graduation through Albert.
2. Submit an Advanced Coursework Form if you have not already done so.
3. Email em123@nyu.edu an Oral Defense Form once you and your committee have settled on a defense date. You must defend your thesis before GSAS’s final dissertation submission deadline. Fill out all sections on the forms, but leave signature and date fields blank. GSAS will contact your committee members to collect the signatures electronically through DocuSign. Please do not email these forms to your committee. The thesis title on your Oral Defense Form must match exactly the dissertation title page that you submit to GSAS.
4. Submit a Defense Committee Form signed by your advisor. Most students start with 4 committee members; since you are adding a 5th member for your defense, the committee needs to be reviewed and approved again by the DGS. (If you started with 5 members and have not changed any members in your committee since its formation, then there is no need to submit another committee form).
5. Please email all committee members and em123@nyu.edu a preliminary draft of your thesis at least 2 weeks before defense date.
6. Collect thesis Reader approval from your thesis advisor and 2 additional committee members by sending them a Reader Approval Submission link: https://physics.nyu.edu/graduate/reader-approval.html. Readers should have at least 2 weeks to review your thesis so it is recommended that you request reader approval when you email them your preliminary thesis.
7. The department will forward the Oral Defense Form to the Registrar's Graduation Services Office once all committee members have signed the form.

The dissertation should be prepared according to the specifications given in the GSAS Formatting Guide.

Please review GSAS’s Dissertation Submission Guidelines and Deadlines for additional requirements.

IMPORTANT: You are expected to graduate in the term closest to your defense date. A one-time deferral of one semester is permitted with advisor and DGS approval only. Delays in graduation beyond the one-term extension would result in annulment of your defense results, and the student would be required by GSAS to re-defend his or her thesis.