Graduation Information

If you are graduating this year, you can decide to graduate either in May or August. We can pay your summer salary to you whether you graduate in May or August and in either case, your health insurance continues until August 14.

AUGUST GRADUATION: If you graduate in August, then you retain student status over the summer, and can come back the following May if you would like to participate in the main University graduation ceremony.   

        For August graduation, the important dates are:

        June 14: Dissertation/thesis formatting checks DUE for August 2021 graduation 

        July: 2: Last day for PhD dissertation defenses for August 2021 graduation

        July 12: Formal dissertation submission DUE for August 2021 graduation

MAY GRADUATION:  If you graduate in May, then you can participate in the main University graduation ceremony in May, but you lose your student status perhaps on the date of graduation, but likely by June 1. If you want to graduate in May and spend your summer at Notre Dame doing math, we can arrange for you to retain University status. If you plan to graduate in May, please let us know as early in the final semester as your plans are firm, because some of the steps involved are easier with advance knowledge.

        For May graduation, the important dates are:

        March 14: Dissertation/thesis formatting checks DUE for May 2022 graduation 

        April 4: Last day for PhD dissertation defenses for May 2022 graduation

        April 11: Formal dissertation submission DUE for May 2022 graduation

Here is some more detailed information that you will need for graduation.

Keep a close eye on your email because the Grad School will be sending a lot of important and time sensitive information to you.

Please review the Graduation Checklist which contains a lot of the nitty-gritty details about Formatting Checks, Formal Submissions, etc. There is also contact information for the Grad School should you have any technical questions.

The Academic Year Deadlines calendar contains a lot of "extra" stuff so you may find it helpful to look for items beginning with "GS" (Graduate School). Key dates related to graduation are above with respect to graduation term.

Formatting checks are REQUIRED by the Grad School. They do not care much about content, but want to check your formatting, so even if you only have a few pages, that is fine.      

Formal dissertation submission is done through CurateND and you can find that information on the Graduation Checklist under the "Overview: The Formal Submission" section.

DEFENSES:

Your readers should have 2-4 weeks to read and approve/reject your dissertation and may refuse to read it if they are not given sufficient time. Our Graduate Administrator (R'nld Rumbach) will need to send your committee a form to complete to this effect so please be sure she has a list of your committee members as soon as possible. She will need to request committee approval from the DGS (Sam Evens) and make sure these technicalities are in order prior to your defense. Please note that admissions season is in full swing as of January 7, so schedules begin to fill up quickly for Faculty. R'nld is more than happy to help you schedule a time and location for your defense as well, but please narrow down a week or any specific days you prefer.

You may find it helpful to start by planning backwards based on when you want to defend. From that point you can plan to have your Dissertation to your committee 4 weeks prior and so on.

Note that the Graduation & Commencement page includes information about buying or renting the academic gowns which are needed for the May graduation ceremony. The key deadline is April 19, which is the deadline for getting a gown, and also the April 29 deadline for the Grad School Commencement Form.

Please feel free to ask the Graduate Administrator (R'nld Rumbach) or DGS (Sam Evens) for help.