May 2023 graduates must submit their theses in PDF format via e-mail to the Graduate School Office (via Assistant to the Dean, Gabby Jacobsen, jacobseng@winthrop.edu) no later than Monday, April 17th (M.F.A. will vary depending on Orals in gallery setting).
Students will be cleared by for graduation only when the Graduate School approves your thesis.
Here are some helpful tips to ensure that your thesis process runs as smoothly as possible:
Review and review again the formatting guidelines in our Instructions for Preparation of a Master's Thesis (PDF - 288 KB).
At your thesis defense, have at least 1 copy of your Approval Sheet (Signature Page) and Title Page on high quality paper (see "Instructions" for print quality AND page formatting). Have all of your committee members sign the Approval Sheet at that time after you've successfully defended your thesis.
Immediately following your defense, and after completing any required changes to your thesis, submit your approved thesis to the Graduate School Office. If you are receiving physical signatures, bring the signed Approval Sheet directly to the Graduate School Office in 211 Tillman Hall. If you are receiving digital signatures, your final thesis should come to the Graduate School directly from your College Dean. At that point your thesis will be reviewed by a member of the Graduate School and any formatting changes will be communicated to you within two days.
If the Graduate School Office requires specific changes to your thesis, make all the necessary formatting revisions and submit a new copy to the Graduate School Office as soon as possible.
Once the Graduate School Office has approved your thesis for printing, they will forward your final thesis to Printing Services. Printing Services will provide you an estimated cost for the printing of your thesis. Please note: only 1 official copy is required by the University, but you may request as many printed copies as you wish for personal keeping. Printing Services will contact the Cashier's Office, which will apply the final costs for printing and binding your thesis to your student account on Wingspan.
Once your official unbound copies (minimum of 1) are prepared by Printing Services, the Graduate School Office will keep the copies of your thesis and send them off to be bound. The binding process takes several months. If you elected to receive your own bound copies, the Graduate School Office will contact you once they are available.
Additional documents that will be required are a signed "Student Agreement for Public Access of Thesis" form (PDF - 16 KB) and a “Digital Commons Mandatory Metadata Fields” form. With these forms, you will select how your thesis will be accessible to the public. Beginning with May 2015 graduates, all master's theses will be uploaded to the Digital Commons page on the Dacus Library website. Students may choose to embargo their work for six months or make the work available immediately.
Be sure to pay for the printing and the binding either online or in person at the Cashier's Office no later than the last day of the semester. Your account must be paid to "clear" you for graduation.
Detailed instructions can be found in this document: Instructions for Preparation of a Master's Thesis. (PDF - 288 KB)
