Students are expected to be aware of and follow the policies and requirements in effect at their term of admission. Departmental and Graduate College policies may change subsequent to the term of admission, but subsequent changes in program and degree requirements may not be imposed on students. Master’s students should also review chapter IV.
The Graduate College requires a minimum of 32 semester hours of graduate credit for the master's degree, although a number of programs require more. The Graduate College requires that at least 12 hours be at the 500-level (including thesis, research or independent study credit), and that 8 of these 12 hours be in the major. Half or more of the hours applied to a master's degree must be earned in courses counted for residence credit, (see chapter IV.A.4 and chapter III.C for more details and to see when transfer credit may count as residence credit). See chapter IV.A.4 if enrolling for thesis research credit.
The Graduate College does not require a final examination or thesis committee for the master's degree. Departments that have such requirements determine their own rules for committee membership and administration of the examination. Master’s students are not required by the Graduate College to be registered during the term in which they take their final exam, but some departments may.
The Graduate College does not require thesis deposit for the master's degree, however, many programs do. In programs requiring a thesis deposit, the Graduate College does not require master’s students to be registered during the term in which they deposit, but some departments may.
The Graduate College requires that a master's candidate depositing a thesis have an adviser who is a member of the Graduate Faculty.
A master's degree candidate is expected to complete all degree requirements within five years of first registering in the Graduate College, unless the student is enrolled in a program with a different time limit that has been approved by the Graduate College. Therefore, a master's degree candidate with course work that is more than five years old at the time of degree conferral must petition the Graduate College asking that the course work be accepted for the degree. The petition must include an explanation from the department regarding how the student's knowledge in the areas covered by the old course work meets current standards. This justification is needed for degree certification, and the petition should be filed during the term when the student is placed on the degree list.