MS with Thesis for MSE, final term

There are two aspects to the Materials Science and Engineering MS with Thesis final examination: the submission of a Master's thesis and the oral defense of this thesis by the student before an MS examination committee. Students must satisfactorily pass both aspects of the examination to be awarded the degree of Master's of Science.

MS Examination Committee Membership

The master’s examination is administered under the auspices of the Graduate Studies Committee. The responsibility for the examination rests with the student’s master’s examination committee.

The master’s examination committee is composed of at least two Graduate Faculty members including the student’s advisor.

  • The advisor of a master’s student must hold membership at the category M level or higher in the student’s graduate program.
  • The student is to coordinate with his/her advisor to determine committee membership.
  • The student is to confirm with each committee member his/her willingness to serve on the committee before submitting the Application to Graduate.

When completing the Application to Graduate

  • You will need to know your committee members’ OSU dot numbers.
  • When selecting an MSE faculty member’s name from the drop down list, select the category P listing, if available.

Non-Graduate Faculty members may be appointed to the master’s examination committee by approval of the Graduate Studies Committee and by petition to the Graduate School. Non-Graduate Faculty members are in addition to the required two current Ohio State Graduate Faculty members.

  • If they are to be voting members, you must file a “Committee and Examination Petition” through your gradforms.osu.edu account. You will be required to attach the external member’s resume/CV with your request. Make your request at least three weeks in advance of the exam to permit approval time at both the local and Graduate School levels.

If there is any change in the committee's membership, you must file a “Committee and Examination Petition”, and receive approval, before the committee meets for your examination.

Required MS examination forms and due dates

The student is to coordinate with the MS Exam Committee the date for the Master's Examination.

Your submission of the on-line Application to Graduate form will generate two on-line forms, or “tasks”, for your committee members, the Report on Final Examination and the Report on Final Document. Your committee members will have access to these on-line forms by logging in to their GradForms.osu.edu account. You may log in to GradForms, as well, to view the completion status.

Deadlines--Your committee must post their approval for both forms by the Commencement deadlines detailed in the Graduate School Graduation Calendar. If met, you will qualify to attend Commencement in the term of graduation.

1) Final thesis draft to the committee
Submit one week before exam date

The complete Master's thesis document to be evaluated by the student's committee is to be delivered to the members no later than one week prior to the Master’s Examination date. A student is only admitted to the examination after approval of the thesis draft by the master’s examination committee.

  • Theses must not include material restricted from publication.

Public announcement of the MS defense--Also at least one week before the MS defense date the student is to announce the title, abstract, and location/video conference link for the defense. The student is asked to complete this form which will then be formatted and forwarded to the MSE graduate students and faculty: 
Speaker Presentation form

2) Master's Examination
To be held on or before "Examination and Reports" deadline

The master’s examination for the thesis option consists of an oral exam and is a test of the student’s knowledge of the field. It is the final validation of performance for that degree.

You must hold an oral defense of your thesis with the members of your Master's Examination Committee on or before the “Examinations and Reports” deadline listed on the Graduation Calendar. The exam must occur during normal university business hours and may start no later than 3:30 p.m.

The advisor serves as chair in the oral portion of the master’s examination. The student is expected to deliver a public presentation at the beginning of the exam on the topic of their thesis work. The public presentation should be no longer than half an hour and the entire exam is limited to less than 2 hours. All members of the master’s examination committee must be present during the entire examination and are expected to participate fully in questioning during the course of the examination and in the discussion and decision on the result. While the general part of the exam is limited to the student and the committee, others may attend the public presentation part of the examination. 

Examination results
Results are to be posted by your committee to GradForms.osu.edu on the Report on Final Examination by 11:59 p.m. of the “Examinations and Reports” date listed on the Graduation Calendar. You may log in to your GradForms account to check the status of these results.

3) Master's Thesis final document
Approval and upload by "Approved Thesis" deadline

The exam committee may indicate that changes / corrections are to be made in the thesis as a result of your Master’s exam. These changes should be made and a revised, final thesis provided to your examining committee. If the committee is satisfied with the document, they will indicate their approval by way of the Report on Final Document available to your committee members in their gradforms.osu.edu accounts. 

Important--A number of items need to be addressed between the oral exam and the "Approved thesis" deadline:

  • Addressing any corrections to the thesis required by the committee.
  • Providing the committee time to re-read the corrected thesis.
  • The results of the Report on Final Document posted to GradForms by all committee members.
  • Final, approved thesis uploaded to OhioLink (further details below).

Electronic submission of thesis
All Master's theses are required to be submitted electronically--i.e., in PDF format--through the state's library network, OhioLINK (www.ohiolink.edu/etd). An Electronic Thesis / Dissertation (ETD) may be prepared by using nearly any word processor or document preparation system and by incorporating relevant multimedia objects.

Further information regarding how to prepare and submit your thesis may be found within the "Dissertations and Theses" section of the Graduate School's web site. At this link you will find a tutorial on how to convert a document to PDF, templates, addition of multimedia to the document, workshops, FAQs, and more.

 

[Return to graduation timeline and further instructions]

 

More information

Questions? Please contact the MSE-WE Graduate Studies Coordinator, Mark Cooper

Room reservation
To reserve a conference room in Fontana or EJTC.

Graduate School, Graduation Services