Checklist and Timeline for Doctoral Degree
Proposal
 Register for dissertation hours (PSY 8950).
 Keep in mind, you cannot go above 35 hours of dissertation hours.
 Also, if you are a 6th year or beyond, you only need to take 1 hour of
dissertation credit (in the semesters you propose and/or defend) to be considered
a full-time student. Taking more will result in a large sum owed to the
university. You should only take 15 dissertation hours if you are on stipend.
 Fill out and submit the ‘Request for Dissertation Committee’ form (department-level
form).
 You can retrieve this form from Karyl Jones in Porter 200 or the Advising Center
in Porter 206.
 Submit to Karyl Jones, and Karyl will deliver to appropriate party (Assistant
Chair for Graduate Studies).
 Fill out and submit the ‘Psychology Department Thesis and Dissertation Committee
Approval Form’ (department-level form) and the ‘Designation of College Faculty
Representative (Dissertation)’ form (college-level form).
 You can retrieve both forms from Karyl Jones in Porter 200 or the Advising
Center in Porter 206.
 Submit both to Karyl Jones at least 17-21 days before oral dissertation
proposal meeting (because Arts & Sciences requires the form to be in their hands
at least 14 days before proposal meeting), and Karyl will deliver to appropriate
party (Assistant Chair for Graduate Studies/College of Arts & Sciences).
 Department Requirements: Dissertation committees consist of five members and
three of them must be Group I psychology faculty. One of the three Group I
psychology faculty members must chair the committee. The fourth member must
be a Group I faculty member from another department in the College of Arts and
Sciences at Ohio University who serves as the college representative. The fifth
member may be anyone with a doctorate in their field (e.g., Ed.D., M.D.) and may
or may not be affiliated with Ohio University. Exceptions to this committee
structure may be permitted with the pre-approval of the Assistant Chair of
Graduate Studies. Once the committee has been formed, its membership should
not change. If some need arises for changing the membership, see the Assistant
Chair for Graduate Studies. All members of a dissertation committee must
approve the dissertation proposal as well as the completed dissertation.
 Schedule a date and time that works for you and all Committee members so you can
propose your dissertation.
 Submit a copy of your dissertation to your committee members at least 14 days
prior to your scheduled oral dissertation proposal!
Rev: 12/2/2015
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Take the ‘Department of Psychology Report of the Dissertation Proposal
Meeting’ form with you to your meeting and have the committee members sign
the form after you successfully propose your dissertation. BTW, Congratulations!
i. You can retrieve this form from Karyl Jones in Porter 200 or the Advising
Center in Porter 206.
ii. Submit a copy of the completed form to Karyl after successfully proposing
your dissertation, and Karyl will deliver to appropriate party (Assistant
Chair for Graduate Studies).
iii. Note: If forms are approved by appropriate parties, you will not receive
word about this approval unless you ask Karyl or email Arts & Sciences to
verify. You will receive word if there is an issue with any of the forms. You
will, however, receive word back from the College of Arts & Sciences
regarding the approval of the designation of college faculty
representative.
 After your dissertation proposal, fill out the ‘Ohio University College of Arts and
Sciences Recommendation to Advance Student to Ph.D. Degree Candidacy’ (collegelevel form).
 https://www.ohio.edu/cas/forms/ is the website where you can retrieve the above
form.
 Note: You can put “NA” for “Scholarly Discipline” as the department does not
require a scholarly discipline (although it does require a scholarly tool for
experimentals, see other parts of this checklist/timeline and the Master’s degree
checklist/timeline).
 Note: After you ‘type name of graduate chair here’, the Assistant Chair for
Graduate Studies of the Psychology Department will need to sign his/her name
above that typed line.
 Submit to Karyl Jones, and Karyl will deliver to appropriate party (Assistant
Chair for Graduate Studies/Arts & Sciences).
 After your dissertation proposal, check your DARS (Degree Audit Report System) to
ensure that you have completed all the necessary coursework and do not have any
‘incompletes’ prior to graduation. If you have questions about coursework requirements,
visit the Advising Center in Porter 206.
 DARS is an acronym for the Degree Audit Reporting System. DARS analyzes
degree requirements for a major, minor, or certificate according to the catalog
year in which you entered the program. DARS reports are the printed results of
the analysis. However, the graduate student DARS do not typically list the actual
coursework requirements. For questions regarding those, see the manual for your
section or visit the Advising Center in Porter 206.
 Find your DARS by going to this website:
https://www.ohio.edu/registrar/darsonline.cfm
Rev: 12/2/2015
Defense
 Apply for Graduation in the semester you expect to defend your dissertation.
 Go to https://www.ohio.edu/registrar/info/spring2015-16/gradapp.htm to find out
the application deadline for the semester.
i. Insert the correct semester (fall/spring) and year (2015-2016/2016-2017)
in the HTML URL above to view correct deadlines for that particular
semester.
ii. For instance, if you’d like to see the deadlines for Fall 2016-2017, the
URL would end with: /fall2016-2017/gradapp.htm
 Remember, the deadline to defend the dissertation to graduate in a certain
semester is usually mid-March of that semester (if spring) or mid-November of
that semester (if fall).
 Remember, the deadline to apply for graduation to graduate in a certain semester
is usually late February of that semester (if spring) or late September of that
semester (if fall).
 If you apply for graduation on time, but then miss the defense deadline or another
university-related deadline, you will need to reapply for graduation the next
semester or the semester you plan to graduate (the fee is $5). In addition, you will
need to be taking at least one dissertation (PSY 8950) hour the semester you
actually graduate.
 Clinical Only: If you are defending prior to internship, do not graduate the
semester you defend. See the Director of Clinical Training for what you should
do. If you are defending post-internship, these guidelines should apply to you.
 Fill out and submit the ‘TAD Submission Form’ to TAD services (tad@ohio.edu) (TADlevel form) at some point before you defend your dissertation.
 https://www.ohio.edu/graduate/etd/TAD-Forms-and-Templates.cfm is the website
where you can retrieve the above form. You can also retrieve it from the Advising
Center in Porter 206.
 At some point before you defend your dissertation, email your updated dissertation in
Word format to TAD services (tad@ohio.edu) for the ‘Pre-oral defense document format
review’.
 Fill out and submit the ‘Arrangements for the Oral Thesis Examination/Dissertation
Defense’ form at least 14 days prior to your scheduled oral dissertation defense
(college-level form).
 www.ohio.edu/cas/dean/graduate-studies/forms.cfm is the website where you can
retrieve the above form.
 Submit to Karyl Jones, and Karyl will deliver to appropriate party (Assistant
Chair for Graduate Studies/Arts & Sciences).
 Submit a copy of your dissertation to your committee members at least 14 days prior to
your scheduled oral dissertation defense!
 Experimental Only (and only if not completed prior): Bring the ‘Approval of
Scholarly Tool’ (department-level form) to your dissertation defense to assure that three
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members of your committee (two must be Group I Psychology faculty) approve the
content of your scholarly tool.
 You can retrieve this form from Karyl Jones in Porter 200 or the Advising Center
in Porter 206.
 Submit to Karyl Jones, and Karyl will deliver to appropriate party (Assistant
Chair for Graduate Studies).
Fill out and submit the ‘Report on the Oral Thesis Examination/Dissertation Defense’
form after successfully defending your dissertation orally (departmentlevel/university-level form).
 www.ohio.edu/cas/dean/graduate-studies/forms.cfm is the website where you can
retrieve the above form.
 Submit a copy of the completed form to Karyl Jones, and Karyl will deliver to
appropriate party (TAD Services and the College of Arts & Sciences).
Fill out and submit the ‘Online Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)’ to TAD services
(tad@ohio.edu) (TAD-level form).
 https://www.ohio.edu/graduate/etd/TAD-Forms-and-Templates.cfm is the website
where you can retrieve the above form. You can also retrieve it from the Advising
Center in Porter 206.
Fill out and submit the ‘Delayed Publication Request Form’ to TAD services
(tad@ohio.edu) (TAD-level form).
 https://www.ohio.edu/graduate/etd/TAD-Forms-and-Templates.cfm is the website
where you can retrieve the above form. You can also retrieve it from the Advising
Center in Porter 206.
Email the FINAL post-defense Word file to TAD services (tad@ohio.edu).
 You may need to go back-and-forth with TAD a couple of times to perfect your
formatting.
Complete the OhioLINK ETD Center process for submitting your dissertation
electronically (TAD email should arrive with instructions).
Confirm that the TAD process is complete (TAD email should arrive with confirmation).
Congratulations!
Rev: 12/2/2015