The student, in consultation with his or her advisor, will decide when the dissertation is ready for defense.

Students may defend in the fall, spring, or summer, for a January, May, or September degree, respectively. Please see below for the steps that must be taken during the semester in which the student plans to defend.

1) At the beginning of the semester, the student must inform the Director of Graduate Studies, the Department Administrator, and his or her "dissertation readers" that he or she plans to defend. The readers include the student's advisor and two other faculty members. Most often, the readers are the same individuals who served on the student's dissertation proposal committee.

2) The DGS must then select two additional committee members, for a total of 5.

3) The student must apply for the Ph.D. degree using the Torchtone telephone registration system. Each semester, there is a deadline by which the student must do this. The deadlines can be found on the GSAS Academic Calendar.

4) The student must prepare the preliminary dissertation copy in accordance with GSAS dissertation guidelines. Each semester, there is a preliminary dissertation deadline by which the student must submit his or her preliminary dissertation (or excerpts) to the GSAS Office of Academic and Student Life. These deadlines are also available on the GSAS Academic Calendar.

5) The student, in consultation with the committee, must select a dissertation defense date. Ideally, the defense date should be several weeks prior to the final GSAS submission deadline (also available on the GSAS Academic Calendar). This gives the student an opportunity to incorporate any changes suggested by the committee during the defense.

6) The student must submit one bound copy of the dissertation to the department one month prior to the defense. The student must also make the dissertation available (by electronic or hard copy) to the 4th and 5th committee members no later than one month prior to the defense. To ensure that these committee members have sufficient time to read the dissertation, it is recommended that the student submit a copy (or partial copy) as soon as possible.

    Also on this date, the student must submit three "Doctoral Thesis Reader" sheets to the Departmental Administrator, signed by his or her readers. This sheet indicates that the reader has approved the dissertation for defense. This form is available in the office of the Department Administrator or online, under GSAS Forms.

7) On the date of the defense, the five committee members must sign the "Doctoral Thesis Defense Form," indicating that the student has passed the oral dissertation defense. This form is also available in the office of the Department Administrator or online, under GSAS Forms. All forms are kept on file in the department, and the department is responsible for submitting these to the registrar following the dissertation defense.

8) Finally, the student must submit the final dissertation copy, in accordance with GSAS dissertation guidelines, to the GSAS Office of Academic and Student Life. Final dissertation deadlines are available on the GSAS Academic Calendar.

Committee Members
At least 3 of the dissertation defense committee members must be from New York University. Former NYU faculty members are regarded as NYU faculty for the purpose of the dissertation defense. If the student opts to have an "outside" committee member, the department must apply to the GSAS Vice Dean's office for approval.

Under most circumstances, an outside committee member must have a Ph.D. and be on faculty at an academic institution. If this is not the case, extra paperwork must be submitted for approval.  Please notify the Department Administrator of "outside" members at the beginning of the semester so the necessary paperwork can be submitted.

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