General Graduation Guidelines

Prior to the completion of your degree requirements, you should request a graduation check from the Office of Student Affairs. This will help ensure that you have met all of the requirements necessary to be eligible for graduation. The following are general guidelines to consider when verifying your graduation eligibility:

• Send an e-mail request for a graduation check to the Student Affairs Office, with “Graduation Check” in the subject heading, at least one month prior to the term you intend to graduate. The Student Affairs staff will review your file to verify that you have met all course requirements to graduate. You will be informed if you need to take additional courses or if you have other missing requirements. This will provide you with sufficient time to register for the necessary courses during your final semester.

• You will receive emails from the Student Affairs Office during the start of each term regarding graduation deadlines. These emails will contain important information about the necessary paperwork to graduate and deadlines for submission of forms. Please pay careful attention to these deadlines. The Graduate College maintains strict deadlines and exemptions are rarely granted.

• The first step in the graduation process is submitting the “Pending Degree List”.  Inform your advisor of your intention to graduate. The ‘Pending Degree List’ must be submitted via the web in the Student Self-Service section. The Pending Degree List form may be submitted from the start of registration for your graduation semester until the Friday of the third week of fall and spring semester or second week of the summer semester.

• If you are graduating with a Thesis/Dissertation, you must:

1. Submit a “Committee Recommendation Form” three weeks prior to your defense date. The form is available on-line at http://grad.uic.edu/pdfs/CommRecForm.pdf. The form must be filled out on-line, printed, signed by your advisor and submitted to Room 905 SEO.
2. Consult the Thesis Manual from the graduate college website at http://grad.uic.edu/pdfs/thesismanual.pdf and ensure your thesis is in the approved format.
3. Schedule your defense date at least one week prior to the thesis submission deadline.
4. Just prior to or immediately following your defense, submit a copy of your thesis to CS Student Affairs Office for a format check.
5. Make sure you have the correct number of copies and that all the required forms are completed and signed before submitting the thesis to the graduate college. A detailed checklist of the required documents is available in the thesis manual.
6. Submit a copy of the thesis/dissertation to Student Affairs Office along with the completed and signed thesis/dissertation checklist.

• If you are graduating under the MS Project option, make sure your advisor and the second committee member have ample time to read and approve your project. The following must be submitted by the project deadline:

1. Hard copy of the project report. There is no specific format for this report, but it should be a technically-focused and carefully written document.
2. “Certificate of Approval” form, completed and signed by your advisor and the secondary committee member. The form is available in 905 SEO or can be downloaded from https://grad.uic.edu/pdfs/CertificateofApprovalMAproject.pdf.
3. Completed and signed Project Checklist.

• Return all borrowed equipment and keys to Room 1120.

Please note that if you file for graduation by submitting the Pending Degree List but do not graduate during that term, a new Pending Degree List must be submitted again during the term you intend to graduate. The previous request will NOT be carried over to the next term.