Graduation
Spring 2026 Graduation Deadlines
Applications to Graduate Due: January 30, 2026
Examinations and Reports completed by: April 17, 2026
Approved thesis and dissertation submitted and accepted by: April 24, 2026
Commencement: May 10, 2026
End of Semester Deadline: May 8, 2026
Steps to Graduation - Doctoral Candidates
A student must complete and submit the Application to Graduate on GRADFORMS no later than the third Friday of the semester (or third Friday of summer term) in which graduation is expected. The application is valid for that autumn or spring semester or summer term only. Submitting this application indicates that the student expects to complete all degree requirements by the end of that semester or term. It must be submitted by the student and approved by the advisor and the Graduate Studies Committee Chair. The dissertation advisor must be listed on the form.
The dissertation committee is composed of the advisor and at least two other members of the advisory committee, although with permission of the Vice Chair other members of the graduate faculty of the program may be substituted if required (such as if an advisory committee member will be away during the time of the defense). The document must conform to the document preparation guidelines of the Graduate School.
In general, the dissertation committee should be provided a complete document at least 1-2 weeks before approval is required. Draft approval is provided by approval of the Application for Final Oral Exam by the committee. Approval of the application certifies that the dissertation is of sufficient merit to warrant holding the exam, which means it need not be ready to file but must be more than draft. An approvable document must be of a standard comparable to an article that could be submitted to a journal for publication. It also must be complete, meaning that is must have all chapters, front matter including abstract, and references, and be
substantially in the correct format.
To schedule the final exam the doctoral candidate must submit an Application for Final Examination on GRADFORMS and have this approved by each dissertation committee member at least two weeks before the proposed defense date. After the final oral examination committee has been approved by the Graduate School and the Graduate Faculty Representative has been assigned, the Report on Final Examination and Report on Final Document are made available to the examination committee. The final oral examination must take place during announced university business hours, Monday through Friday and must be on the Ohio State University campus.
The doctoral candidate must also complete a mandatory document format check at least two weeks prior to the final examination. The Graduate School’s format review is in place to help the document submission process go smoothly for the student.
Ohio State dissertations and theses must contain the following format features, which must be identified with a major heading that is centered below at least a one-inch top margin.
- Title page
- Copyright
- Abstract
- Vita
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- Bibliography
- List of Tables (if applicable)
- List of Illustrations (if applicable)
- Appendices (if applicable)
Optional features
- Frontispiece (if used, no heading is included on this page)
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
Sample pages
Detailed guidelines for formatting
More information about format review and submission
Dissertation formatting tips and tricks
A dissertation committee must have a minimum of four members. The advisor and at least two other members of the doctoral candidate's advisory committee must serve (with permission from the Vice Chair other members of the graduate faculty of the program may be substituted) and the final member of the committee will be the Graduate Faculty Representative (GFR) as appointed by the Graduate School.
The GFR is a Category P (i.e. can advise PhD graduate) faculty member who is neither a graduate faculty member in the doctoral candidate’s graduate program nor a member of the dissertation committee. No less than one week before the final oral examination, a complete dissertation or DMA document draft must be presented to the GFR for reference.
The presence of the GFR is required at the oral examination for its entire duration. The GFR is a full voting member of the final oral examination committee and is invited by the advisor to ask questions. The GFR has the right to ask at least one question and renders an opinion by observation of the student’s answers to all questions. The purpose of the GFR on the final oral examination committee is:
- to assess the rigor of the examination process.
- to assess the fairness, professionalism and integrity of the examination process.
- to assess conformity to rules of the Graduate School (e.g., duration of the exam, adequate time for questions by the committee members).
The GFR reports a judgment of the above to the Graduate School once the final oral examination is completed through an evaluation form on GRADFORMS, preferably within 48 hours after the examination.
If the doctoral candidate has three faculty (not including the advisor) on their advisory committee, all three are permitted to serve on the dissertation committee, but a GFR will still be appointed by the Graduate School.
Final oral exams should be approximately two hours in length, but the first hour can consist of a public presentation. When the doctoral candidate submits the Applicatio for Final Examination, they are required to notify the Graduate Program Coordinator that this has been done. The Program Coordinator will ask each doctoral candidate if the final exam presentation is to be public. If so, an announcement will go out to the department the Friday before the week of the exam. Public exam presentations are strongly encouraged.
There must be at least a one-hour closed period available for the committee to ask questions, although it is not required that the entire time is used by the committee. Also, the final oral examination cannot last longer than two hours.
All members of the final oral examination committee are expected to be present during the entire examination. All committee members are expected to participate fully in questioning during the course of the examination and in the discussion of and decision on the result.
Only the final oral examination committee members, including the Graduate Faculty Representative are to be present for discussion of the doctoral candidate’s performance and the decision about the outcome. After discussion, the satisfactory/unsatisfactory decision is reached by means of a vote. Each examiner indicates judgment by posting their decision on the Report on Final Examination in GRADFORMS that must be submitted to the Graduate School preferably within 24 hours of the examination’s completion, but no later than the posted deadline for the autumn or spring semester or summer term of graduation.
The examination is expected to follow all established university policies.
Satisfactory. The doctoral candidate is considered to have completed the final oral examination successfully only when the decision of the final oral examination committee (including the GFR) is unanimously affirmative.
Unsatisfactory. If the examination is judged unsatisfactory, the final oral examination committee must decide whether the doctoral candidate will be permitted to take a second final oral examination and must record that decision on the Report on Final Examination. Should the GFR cast the only negative vote at the conclusion of the examination, the matter will be referred to the Graduate School for review. Typically, second attempts are only reserved for situations in which the doctoral candidate has met almost every requirement of the final oral examination (namely, originality, independence of thought, the ability to synthesize and interpret and the quality of research presented), but needs to make minor adjustments or improvements.
Final approval of the dissertation cannot occur until the final oral examination has been completed satisfactorily. Each dissertation committee member indicates approval by posting their decision on the Report on Final Document in GRADFORMS that must be submitted to the Graduate School by the published deadline for the semester or summer term of graduation.
Steps to Graduation - Master's Examination
A student must complete and submit the Application to Graduate on GRADFORMS no later than the third Friday of the semester (or third Friday of summer term) in which graduation is expected. The application is valid for that autumn or spring semester or summer term only. Submitting this application indicates that the student expects to complete all degree requirements by the end of that semester or term. It must be submitted by the student and approved by the advisor and the Graduate Studies Committee Chair. The dissertation advisor must be listed on the form.
The M.S. in Chemistry is a thesis-based program. Students must conduct original research under the guidance of a member of the graduate faculty of the Chemistry program, and write and defend a thesis based on this research that adds to the knowledge in some area of chemistry or biochemistry.
Ohio State dissertations and theses must contain the following format features, which must be identified with a major heading that is centered below at least a one-inch top margin.
- Title page
- Copyright
- Abstract
- Vita
- Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- Bibliography
- List of Tables (if applicable)
- List of Illustrations (if applicable)
- Appendices (if applicable)
Optional features
- Frontispiece (if used, no heading is included on this page)
- Dedication
- Acknowledgments
Sample pages
Detailed guidelines for formatting
More information about format review and submission
Dissertation formatting tips and tricks
A format check is optional, but strongly recommended, for Master's students and should be completed no later than the posted examination deadline for the semester.
The candidate must pass an oral examination before a committee composed of at least two faculty members from Chemistry program, one of whom must be the student's research advisor. Should the graduate record of the candidate be satisfactory to the examining committee, the scope of the examination will be confined to the candidate's field of specialization. The electronic approval of the report on the final exam and the report on the final document in gradforms, as well as electronic submission of the approved thesis to OhioLink, must be completed by the deadline published by the Graduate School for the semester or summer term of graduation.
Unlike doctoral examinations, Master's students are not required to submit an Application for Final Examination in order to schedule a thesis defense. Rather, concurrent with the Graduate School's approval of the Application to Graduate, the Report on Final Examination and Report on Final Document will be automatically generated in GradForms. A Master's student can hold their defense at any point after the Application to Graduate is approved and before the defense deadlines for the semester or summer term.
When the Master's student schedules their defense, they must email the following information to the Graduate Program Coordinator:
- Date of defense
- Thesis title
- Is the Master's terminal (i.e. the student is leaving the Chemistry graduate program with the MS) or do they plan to continue on in the PhD program.
The candidate must pass an oral examination before a committee composed of at least two faculty members from the Chemistry program, and one of the members must be the student's research advisor. Should the graduate record of the candidate be satisfactory to the examining committee, the scope of the examination will be confined to the candidate's field of specialization. The electronic approval of the report on the final exam and the report on the final document in gradforms, as well as electronic submission of the approved thesis to OhioLink, must be completed by the deadline published by the Graduate School for the semester or summer term of graduation.
The Graduate School does not specify the exact format of the Master’s exam, but these exams are generally ~one hour, which includes ~20 minutes of presentation and ~40 minutes of questions from the committee. It is not customary to have a public presentation with the master’s exam, but it is allowed if limited to 30 minutes and if it is followed by a closed period for questions of about an hour. Exams should not exceed 2 hours total in either format.
Exiting CBC and Ohio State
All MS and PhD graduates are required to complete the Chemistry Graduate Program Exit Survey before departing Ohio State.
All PhD graduates are required to complete the Ohio State Doctoral Exit Survey, which will be added to their course list on Carmen. The survey will be added to Carmen in the semester that the degree will be conferred, thus end-of-semester graduates will complete their exit survey in the semester that their degree will issued to them and not the semester that they complete their degree requirements.
Graduates should complete the following tasks prior to departing CBC.
- Update your personal information and contact information
- Students are required to make all personal information changes in BuckeyeLink.osu.edu. Personal information changes, other than payment elections, made in Workday will be overwritten from details in your BuckeyeLink account. Students should review the student personal information job aid for additional information.
- Students are required to make all personal information changes in BuckeyeLink.osu.edu. Personal information changes, other than payment elections, made in Workday will be overwritten from details in your BuckeyeLink account. Students should review the student personal information job aid for additional information.
- Forward your BuckeyeMail (optional)
- Mail sent to your Ohio State email address (name.#@osu.edu) and BuckeyeMail account (name.#@buckeymail.osu.edu) can continue to be accessed through Buckeyemail. In the future, if you choose to forward this mail to another account, you can log in to my.osu.edu and select "Change Email Delivery."
- Mail sent to your Ohio State email address (name.#@osu.edu) and BuckeyeMail account (name.#@buckeymail.osu.edu) can continue to be accessed through Buckeyemail. In the future, if you choose to forward this mail to another account, you can log in to my.osu.edu and select "Change Email Delivery."
- Return keys
- Students with keys for North Campus buildings (Evans, Newman Wolfrom, Celeste, McPherson, and CBEC) must return keys to Walter, Harley, or Steve in the Materials Management Office in CBEC 165.
- Students with keys for South Campus buildings (BRT, Riffe, Biosci, DHLRI) must return keys to Jason Clark in room 148A Biological Sciences Building.
- Return any OSU tech assets or property to the ASC Tech staff in 2105 Newman Wolfrom Lab
- Complete a safety checkout.
- Contact Amy Moore at 614-597-3569 or Don Tong at 614-597-3298 for an appointment
- Return all PPE at this time.
- Visa holders; contact Office of International Affairs to inquire about immigration-related check-out procedures.