Graduate Committee Information and Timelines
I. COMMITTEE ON STUDIES
Masters non-thesis option: select three faculty: At least two committee members must be from your major department. Your major advisor must be from your department.

Masters thesis option: select three faculty: Thesis director must be from your department.

Doctoral students: select three faculty: Major advisor is from your department. If you do a minor, there must be a committee member from minor study. If you have supporting area(s), such as statistics and biology or statistics and physiology, you do not need a faculty from those areas.

II. PROGRAM OF STUDY
Masters students: By the semester PRIOR to your planned graduation, obtain the plan of studies form off the OGS WEB site. Complete the form and get each committee member to sign. This MUST be turned back to Margie the SEMESTER PRIOR to your planned graduation. Students must also complete an “Intent to Gradute Form” (see IV below) at this time.

Program of Studies Form (Master’s Students Only): Program of Studies Forms (POS) are due no later than 5:00 pm the last day of the semester PRIOR to the semester the student indends to graduate. No exceptions will be made by OGS. OGS must approve the comprehensive exam form at least two weeks prior to the oral comp exam. OGS will no longer approve last minute exam forms.

Doctoral students: The semester you do your written and oral comprehensive exams is when we complete and submit your plan of studies to OGS.

III. COMPREHENSIVE EXAMS
Masters non-thesis exam process. This exam includes a 100-item objective test. Upon passing with a 70% or better score, the student than has 2 weeks to prepare a multimedia presentation on a topic determined by the advisor and student. The student’s committee of studies members then agree and/or refine the topic. For complete details on this process CLICK HERE!

Doctoral exams: Within 6 months of completing coursework but not before completing all but 4 credit hours of coursework, schedule the written examination with your committee of studies. Notify the graduate office through Margie. Reserve the room for the written test (usually two days). Tentatively schedule the oral examination one week after written exam.

IV. PROPOSAL HEARING
Masters thesis option: a formal hearing is not required for a Masters thesis. Obtain written approval of thesis proposal from each thesis committee member. Three faculty members serve on the committee. The committee chair must be from the major department. Do not start data collection until signatures are obtained from all committee members and the Human Research Review Committee has given approval.

Doctoral dissertation: Within one year of comprehensive examinations, schedule a proposal hearing with the dissertation committee members (at least 4 members approved for graduate instruction at UNM and with established competence in the field of the dissertation or some aspect of it.): Dissertation Committee Checklist-The following statements must all be true inorder for a dissertation committee to be valid.

TRUE
CONDITION
The committee consists of at least 4 members.
All members are approved for graduate instruction by the Dean of Graduate Studies. (If you are not certain whether or not a member has been approved, contact the graduate unit, or the OGS.)
At least 3 members of the committee are tenured or tenure-track faculty members.
TRUE Of the 3 members who are tenured or tenure-track faculty, the following must also be true.
At least 2 are tenured or tenure-track faculty at UNM. One of these members is the committee chair.
At least 1 is from the student’s graduate unit.
1 member is from a graduate unit at UNM other than the student’s or from a different university (comparable to UNM).
The “4th member” may be UNM tenured/tenure-track faculty, part-time instructor, faculty from another university, professional/expert in the field, etc., and must be approved for graduate instruction by the Dean of Graduate Studies.


1) The director of dissertation must be a regular (tenured or tenure-track), full-time member of the UNM faculty approved by the student’s graduate unit. Non-regular faculty may serve as co-chairs.

2) At least two members must hold regular, full-time faculty appointments at UNM. At least one of the members must be from the student's graduate unit.

3) A third member must hold a regular, full-time appointment in a graduate unit at UNM other than that of the student, or from another accredited institution.

4) The Dean of Graduate Studies must approve all committee members who are not regular UNM faculty for graduate instruction, specifically for the student’s graduate unit.

5) Graduate units may supplement the minimum commitee membership of four with qualified members from outside the University. The Office of Graduate Studies will facilitate such efforts whenever possible. These supplemental appointments must be requested at the time of the formation of the dissertation committee, identified on the Appointment of Dissertation Committee form, and approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies.

Upon formation of your dissertation committee fill out a Dissertation Committee Form (get from Margie in the office) to be submitted to the graduate school for approval.

Notify the graduate school of your disertation proposal through Margie. Reserve room for the proposal hearing (usually 2 hours). Do not collect dissertation data until you have obtained written approval of your proposal from all dissertation committee members and approval from the Human Research Review Committee.

V. FINAL DEFENSE
Masters thesis option: Within 1.5 yr of obtaining committee approval for your thesis proposal and after receiving permission from your thesis director, schedule the final defense of your thesis with your thesis committee members. Typically, committee members should be given two weeks to read your thesis. Notify the graduate school of the final defense date (at least two weeks in advance) through Margie. Reserve room for final defense with Margie (usually 2 hours).

Doctoral dissertation defense: Within 1.5 years of your proposal hearing date and after receiving permission from your dissertation director, schedule the final defense of your dissertation with all dissertation committee members. Typically, committee members should be given two weeks to read your dissertation. Notify graduate school of final defense date (at least two weeks in advance) through Margie. Reserve room for final defense with Margie (usually 2 hours).

VI. PLAN OF STUDIES FORMS AND PREPARATION FOR GRADUATION
1) All Graduate Students (MS & PHD) must submit an “Intent to Graduate Form” the SEMESTER PRIOR in which they plan to graduate. Get this form from Dr. Kravitz and submit to main HESS office.

2) Masters Students: You must have your “Program of Studies” APPROVED by your Advisor, Department Chair, and Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) by these dates:
SPRING Graduation: October 1
FALL Graduation: July 1
SUMMER Graduation: March 1

“Program of Studies” forms obtained off of the OGS WEB site. NOTE: OGS strictly enforces these deadlines so please plan ahead!

3) PhD Students: You must complete your Plan of Studies (POS) Form PRIO to taking your comprehensive exams. Obtain the PhD POS form off the OGS WEB site and see Dr. Gibson for completion details.

Except for courses in which you are currently enrolled. ALL DEGREE REQUIREMENTS (including thesis and dissertation manuscripts, graduate exams and defenses) MUST BE COMPLETED and RELATED DOCUMENTATION RECEIVED BY OGS by the following DEADLINES:
Fall Graduation: November 15
Spring Graduation: April 15
Summer Graduation: July 15

Masters Students must be registered for one or more credit hours the semester they plan to graduate.

Ph.D. Students must be registered for DISSERTATION credits the semester they plan to graduate.