Dear current VCD graduate students // Dec 9, 12:17 PM

By popular request, below is the paperwork I needed to file and deadlines I needed to meet in order to complete my thesis. I hope you may find this useful in the process of completing yours.

The views and recommendations expressed on this post are my own, and do not express the views or recommendations of Kent State University, the College of Communication and Information, or the School of Visual Communication Design.

  1. Fill out the “Application for Graduation“ form and either email it as an attachment to Matt Rollyson (mrollyso@kent.edu) with subject “Graduation Application,” or take it to 113 Moulton Hall (The CCI office where Matt works). They say that you can also fax it but I say what grad student has a fax machine? You may have access to one but secretaries in the department have enough on their plates already. Besides, that relationship you have carefully cultivated with secretaries over the duration of your grad studies will pay off with higher dividends when you need to fax that job application in about 5 months. Take the date of your form submission, add two weeks to it, and put the resulting date in your calendar. A confirmation from CCI that they have received and processed your request for graduation should arrive by this date. Deadline for graduation applications is usually within the first week of your final semester.
  2. For international students: You must remain a full-time student to be legal with USCIS. Sometimes, it happens that a thesis is the only thing on your schedule because you already took all the required classes. If this happens, it is not a problem. Just go to the ISS office and file a “Reduced Coursework” form. This will exempt you from the requirement and keep you legal.
  3. Find a faculty member willing to serve as the thesis advisor. See them and ask if they are willing and able to do that while presenting them the thesis idea.
  4. Write up a formal thesis topic proposal. I didn’t find any particular guidelines or use any specific formats for the proposal since I think it can vary widely. Obviously, you may need to do some secondary research for the proposal itself to figure out what could and should be done, but keep it short. Research is what you thesis will be about.
  5. Talk to the thesis advisor about potential thesis committee members. You may have certain people in mind already but the advisor may have suggestions too.
  6. Share the proposal with the committee members and see if they are willing and able to serve on the committee. Give them enough time to read your proposal before responding. I have no idea how long is enough. It depends on the length of the proposal as well. I reserved about a week and a half for a proposal of 1,500 words (which is on the verbose side).
  7. If they are willing to be a committee member, have each faculty member sign a form titled “Notification of Approved Thesis Topic.” Then have the graduate coordinator and the dept. chair sign it too and file it with the college (Matt again). It is official now. Deadline: end of the semester before the semester in which you graduate.
  8. I found it helpful to make a rough schedule for myself with milestones and rough due dates for literature review, primary research, first draft, etc. Of course, these parts will overlap and that is not a bad thing. But, everyone has a different personal organization style. The CCI has a style guide for thesis and dissertations which you will have probably received from the thesis advisor by now.
  9. Set up an initial meeting with the thesis committee and present your plan. You may call meetings whenever you feel one is necessary but keep in mind that finding a mutually agreeable meeting time between three people on academic schedules can be insanely difficult. You advisor may poke you if they feel concerned about your progress, but the initiative for the meetings comes solely from you, not the committee.
  10. Sign up for the electronic thesis and dissertations filing workshop at the library. This is optional and you’ll be okay if you skip it since the instructions on their site are abundant. I found it a useful as a reminder that I have really got to get this thing done. You may meet interesting people there or catch up with old acquaintances.
  11. For international students: Apply for OPT unless you plan going back home right after you graduate. To get your employment authorization card (EAD) shortly after graduation, you should file the form I-765 with accompanying materials with USCIS three months before the desired employment start date. Although it’s possible to apply for pre-completion OPT, the ISS office at Kent State will generally not let you do that. They will want you to prove that you are in fact applying for post completion OPT. They do this by making you get a signature from the graduate coordinator testifying that you have completed all coursework besides the thesis on this form. Chances are, they will not file your OPT application until you get that signature. Your graduate coordinator will have no idea about what any of this means, so make sure to get the boilerplate letter from the ISS office to give to your coordinator which explains the situation.
  12. Schedule the oral defense date. Your advisor will most likely contact you when it’s time to schedule. Deadline for the defense is typically more than a month before a planned graduation date. The availability of the committee members can push this date further in the undesirable direction. What you must have for the oral defense is a “defense copy” of the thesis. Print two extra copies of the signature page for the defense.
  13. If the thesis includes a project with any visuals (especially if project, rather than the research, is the focus), check in the visual with the thesis advisor before the defense. In other words, do not let the defense be the first time when the advisor gets to see the visuals to avoid any potential unpleasantries.
  14. The oral defense will result in another form that the advisor may ask you to take over to Matt (again) at the CCI.
  15. Gather signatures on two signature pages from the advisor and the school director in black ink. Take signatures over to the CCI (Attn: Matt. Notice the pattern?).
  16. Filing deadline is usually over two weeks after the oral defense deadline to allow enough time for the committee to read the defense copy. Make any changes requested by the committee and get their go-ahead before filing. The writing center on the 4th fl. of the library is a great resource for proofreading in addition to friends and family. Do not expect much structural feedback though but they will be helpful with style and mechanics. Schedule appointments up front for the whole week or more. Seeing a different writing tutor each time surprisingly works well, although seeing the same tutor a few times in a row might make things faster. If you manage to complete the writing center sessions before the defense, the committee will love you.
  17. CCI will review your filed thesis from the system and inevitably will find something that needs to be revised. There will be a deadline for this too. The signature page needs to have names typed next to signature lines. The dean’s name must include his middle initial, T (if Dr. Stanley T. Wearden is still the Dean by the time of your filing). This revision is submitted directly to Matt and he will put it in the system for you. You should get another filing confirmation email with a number when that happens.
  1. Pat yourself on the back, grab a huge lunch and learn how to relax a bit.

(For some strange reason my CMS is reseting the ordered list count on the last list item. Number 1 should be 18. I am upgrading to the latest version in hope that this issue has been addressed.)

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