Overall Timeline: It is anticipated that it may take you at least two and a half years to complete the full Exam-Dissertation Sequence.
Registration and Pacing
While registration is based on a single term (set up for 8 weeks for Fall and Spring and 6 weeks for Summer), students should expect to spend at least a full semester on each seminar and its corresponding milestones. Completion dates are at the discretion of each student and vary based on your capacity and time commitment, mastery of the literature review genre and scholarly writing, and the volume of reading required to become well-versed in your general and special fields and selected methodology. You may optionally sign up to join a cohort that has specific due dates.
You will earn an incomplete until all work is finished for the relevant seminar. We will approve your registration request form for the next course once you demonstrate reasonable progress on your current milestone.
Milestone Due Dates and Optional Cohort Model
Join a Structured Due Dates Cohort or Set Your Own Pace
- The Due dates are “no later than” dates and assume a very focused timeline – you can plan to take longer at any stage.
- This table DOES NOT include every requirement, only key milestones to help you plan accordingly.
- These dates do not take into consideration longer data collection timelines that might be required or quantity of revisions required at various stages.
Resources
EDS Progress Report
Create and maintain your EDS Progress Report to indicate your intent to begin the Exam-Dissertation Sequence and a tentative research question (if known).
Setting Goals
- You are encouraged to set some goals regarding when you plan to complete each major milestone. These courses do not run like a regular course – you control your pace.
- Each “course” will take at least a full semester (even though you only register for a single term) due to the rigorous nature of the examinations and dissertation, a scaffolded review process, and multiple purposes of this sequence.
- Review sample Milestone Deadlines to map out your own tentative timeline.
Your work is routed more quickly when requirements are met.
Make sure to follow the Work Submission and Review Guidelines as well as the milestone-specific requirements.
Maintaining your Progress Report
- You will maintain this progress report at least once per term throughout your EDS journey.
- You will see an area where you can add individual progress report entries within the existing report – you do not need to create a new report each time, but you need to add a new line to your existing report.
- Include links to specific updates in the community, including your topic selection and literature review samples.
- Be sure to update your course registration/completion status each time.
- This progress report will help us be aware of your progress, including submitting milestones, leaves of absence or any challenges or requests for support.
- We will post your Examiner and Doctoral Committee details to this report once known (typically while you are close to submitting your General Field)
EDS Email List for Periodic Updates
After you fill out the report, we will add you to our EDS email list so that you can begin to acclimate yourself to our process and community. While some of the updates in the emails may feel irrelevant, we encourage you to still read them as they will be useful in some capacity in the near future.
Post Preliminary Exam Checklists
After you pass your preliminary exam, please maintain the Checklist form instead of the EDS, which provides granular detail of the steps needed at this stage.
IMPORTANT
You should plan to have your final dissertation draft approved by the end of Term 1 of the desired graduation semester. Term 2 should focus on delivering your peer and committee presentations and receiving committee, departmental, and thesis office approvals on your final dissertation.
Refer to the following related pages for requirements and additional information.