The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
The Graduate School of Arts & Sciences

Submission of Thesis

All master’s students who are required or have chosen to write a thesis must follow the steps outlined below. Many departments are using DocuSign for the forms linked below. You may want to check with your department.

Thesis Proposal Filing

  1. File a Thesis Proposal using the Thesis, Doctoral Project or Dissertation Proposal Form (MS Word).
  2. If required, ensure that you have an IRB approval number. Consult the IRB website for additional information and forms. This form must be signed and approved by your advisor, committee and Director of Graduate Studies.
  3. After the form is fully completed with all signatures, submit it to the Academic Affairs team in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Dean’s Office.
  4. Once your proposal has been approved by your advisor, committee and Director of Graduate Studies, you may proceed with writing your thesis.
  5. Some programs require master’s students to defend their theses, while others do not. Follow your program’s policies and procedures for defending and/or submitting your thesis.

Formatting Requirements

  1. You should also consult the Guidelines for Dissertation, Doctoral Project and Thesis Writers formatting requirements before beginning your thesis.

Pre-Defense Forms

  1. If your program includes a defense, check with your administrative contact on whether you should submit a Master’s Thesis Reviewers Report (PDF) signed by your committee and advisor to gradstudentservices@georgetown.edu.

Post-Defense Forms

  1. After you have defended and/or submitted your thesis and it has been accepted by your committee, submit the Cover Sheet (MS Word) (PDF) with all the appropriate signatures to Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ Academic Affairs team in the Car Barn or gradstudentservices@georgetown.edu.
  2. Send a completed Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD) Release Form (MS Word) (PDF) to gradstudentservices@georgetown.edu.
  3. Create a profile on the ProQuest site and upload the PDF of your thesis, so that the Graduate School can begin formatting review. The deadlines for this initial upload are:
    • April 22, 2025 for spring graduation
    • August 19, 2024 for summer graduation
    • December 16, 2024 for fall graduation

ProQuest Profile

  1. Setting up the ProQuest profile and submission requires a number of decisions. The Library has information about uploading Dissertations, Doctoral Projects, and Theses into ProQuest.
  2. You will receive an email from etdadministrator@proquest.com detailing the required formatting edits: there will likely be more than one round of edits. Complete the edits and upload the new version of the PDF to ProQuest. The best approach to streamlining the review process is to read the formatting requirements and modify your document accordingly before uploading it.
  3. These edits must be completed and the thesis accepted by the Graduate School by the following dates for each graduation month. If it is not accepted, your thesis will not be approved and you will not be eligible to graduate in that month.

Deadlines

Deadline dates for each graduation term: