Dissertation Defense Checklist

• Step 1 - Apply for graduation via Albert before the deadline, which is posted on the department's Academic Calendar. All of the necessary forms are posted online, please review the GSAS Doctoral Dissertation Submission Guidelines in detail.
• Step 2 - Submit a preliminary copy of your thesis to the GSAS Office of Student Affairs through online Electronic Dissertation Submission System. They will be checking primarily for format.
• Step 3 - Send Santiago Pizzini (pizzini@cs.nyu.edu) a list of the proposed members of your defense committee for approval by the Department Chair and the Director of Graduate Studies for the Ph.D. program. He will inform you of their decision.

  *NOTE Up to two outside readers and auditors (combined) are permitted by GSAS. An "outsider" is anyone other than a tenure-track member of the Faculty of Arts and Science. The process for GSAS approval of an outside committee member requires that the department submit paperwork, including the proposed member's CV, at least one month in advance of the defense. With that timeframe in mind, arrange for Santiago to receive any necessary CVs to forward to the Chair and DGS in connection with their approval of the committee composition.
  Dissertation Reader Approval Form - outside reader

• Step 4 - Submit copies of your thesis to the readers.
• Step 5 - Ask Santiago for reader sheets and defense form after receiving confirmation of the approval of the Chair and DGS. It is your responsibility to make sure that the dissertation readers confirm their approval of your written thesis prior to the defense. The readers may communicate their approval via email prior to the defense, however the signed reader sheets, must be returned to Santiago no later than the day of the defense.
• Step 6 - Once Santiago has received all three reader approvals, he can announce the defense. The announcement must precede the defense by at least one week. For the announcement, email Santiago inforiming him of the date and time you have arranged with your committee, and the thesis title and abstract. Santiago will reserve a room.

  *NOTE re. room reservations: You should check out the room you will be using in advance, reserve whatever equipment is necessary through the department office (room 305), and make sure that you know how to operate that equipment before the defense.

• Step 8 - At the conclusion of the defense, make sure the committee members sign the defense form, and return it plus the reader sheets to Santiago.
• Step 9 - Re. copyrighting: it is recommended for your own protection that on the page immediately following the title page, you type the following: `Copyright' followed by a lower-case letter `c' surrounded by a circle followed by the year followed by your name followed by the statement "All rights reserved." (You can check just about any textbook or novel to see a sample of how this is done.)
• Step 10 - Email your thesis to webmaster@cs.nyu.edu.
• Step 11 - Give Santiago in room 325 CIWW a single-spaced, double-sided, unbound hardcopy of the final thesis for the CIMS library.
• Step 12 - Before you leave town, please e-mail Santiago pizzini@cs.nyu.edu information about your employment: address, phone, your position and its expected duration (e.g., if it's an academic position, let Santiago know whether it's tenure-track or a post-doctoral or visiting position). If you know your new email address, give Santiago that as well.

  Note that substantial lead time is required for scheduling a defense during the summer session.