All graduate students must maintain active status by continuous registration until the time of defense. You MUST be registered in the semester in which you defend your thesis/dissertation. Please pay close attention to the deadlines to apply for graduation/degree conferral, which are well in advance of the conferral dates.

Loyola has 3 conferral dates, and 1 Commencement ceremony (May conferral date), per academic year**:  

Once your dissertation has been defended, formatted correctly, and approved by your committee, you will need to electronically submit your final copy to the Graduate School for approval. You will also need to turn in a range of supplementary materials (listed below) with your final copies.

Your final electronic submission must be uploaded ON OR BEFORE the published final electronic copy deadline for the term in which you expect to receive your degree. The final electronic copy deadlines are as follows:

• May degree conferral final electronic copy deadline: April 1st
• August degree conferral final electronic copy deadline: July 1st
• December degree conferral final electronic copy deadline: November 1st

If your materials are incomplete or inaccurate, the Graduate School will contact you with a list of required corrections. If required corrections are too extensive or take too long to complete, you may not graduate and the Graduate School will not confer your degree. For this reason, please make every effort to format your manuscript correctly, include all of the materials listed below, and to meet the published deadlines.  Also, please keep in mind that a dissertation or thesis is only one of your degree requirements, and that the Graduate School will not confer your degree unless you meet all of these requirements. 

On or before the final copies deadline, please turn in to the HSC Graduate School Administrator:

• One electronic copy of your completed, formatted manuscript
• Final approval sheet, with director signature 
• Extra title page, formatted as described in the Manual (in PDF form)
• One extra abstract, formatted as described in the Manual (in PDF form)
• Confirmation that you have completed the National Science Foundation Survey of Earned Doctorates (dissertations only)

Dissertation formatting and final copies are handled by Anna Sofinski (adauzvardis@luc.edu) in the HSC Graduate Office.

IMPORTANT: PLEASE DISREGARD ANY LINKS TO INFORMATION ABOUT DOCUMENT FORMATTING, AND REFER ONLY TO FORMATTING INSTRUCTIONS PROVIDED BY THE SSOM GRADUATE OFFICE 

• How to apply for graduation in LOCUS
• Graduation checklist for PhD students
• Graduation checklist for MS students (thesis)

** “Graduation” (Degree Conferral) and “Commencement” are two separate processes, and both require application.  For more information on attending the May Commencement ceremony (updated yearly), please go to:

http://luc.edu/gradschool/graduation/commencement/