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Graduate Thesis Submission Guide

The libraries' advice and requirements for graduate theses.

Graduate Thesis Formatting Requirements

Text Formatting:

MARGINS

  • 1" on all sides

  • Page numbers and headers do not need to be inside the margins, but all thesis body content must be in the margins.

LAYOUT

  • Letter size (8.5" by 11")

  • Portrait or Landscape orientation

 
Document organization:

  1. Title Page (See Template below) *REQUIRED

  2. Signature Page (See Template below) *REQUIRED 
    (Important! In your full thesis document, this page should only have the names of your advisor(s) and no signatures. You must submit an additional separate signature page as a supplemental file with the authentic signatures on ProQuest ETD. See example.)

  3. Acknowledgments

  4. Table of Contents

  5. List of Illustrations

  6. Text / Content *REQUIRED

  7. Bibliography

  8. Appendices

  9. List of Works Exhibited

  10. List of Multimedia Files or Digital Documents Included

 

Every thesis submitted for approval must include the * REQUIRED elements noted above.

Your department may have additional requirements so check with your thesis advisor for details about what to include with your thesis.

PDF Requirements

ProQuest requires students follow their guidelines for saving your manuscript as a .PDF file

  1. Files must be saved with embedded fonts

How to verify fonts are embedded

Embedding fonts FAQ

  1. .PDF files must be submitted without encryption

How to view and edit security settings

  1. File names must be less than 240 characters

For more information on ProQuest's PDF document guidelines: ProQuest ETD Process FAQ

Templates

Each department has specific templates which you can view on this guide. NOTE: These templates represent what is acceptable to the Libraries, but be sure to check with your department in case of special requirements.

Note regarding Graduation Date:

At the bottom of the thesis title page, students should write:

  • "February" if degree requirements are completed at the end of Fall Semester. Example: "February 2024"
  • "May" if degree requirements are completed at the end of Spring Semester. Example: "May 1984"
  • "October" if degree requirements are completed at the end of Summer Semester. Example: "October 2011"

Submission Process

Once your document has been formatted appropriately and has been approved by your advisors/department, you can prepare your thesis for submission. A full breakdown of the steps to prepare can be found here: Submitting Your Thesis.