General Graduation Guidelines

Prior to the completion of your degree requirements, you should request a graduation check from the Student Affairs Office (905 SEO). 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 email should include your name, UIN, program (if MS identify project or thesis) and expected graduation term. 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 deadlines will be posted on the calendar for the student affairs website as well.

• The first step in the graduation process is submitting the “Intent to Graduate”.  Inform your advisor of your intention to graduate. To declare your intention to graduate for a certain term you must complete the online Intent to Graduate.  Students should go to the University portal, https://my.uic.edu, and login.  In the "Academics" tab of the student part of the portal (you may also have staff and faculty sections if you work on campus and/or are a teaching assistant) go to the "Records" sub-tab. Choose links, and then the link to Declare your Intent to Graduate.  Read the information carefully, and follow the instructions given. (You may view a short tutorial about the Intent to Graduate form in the "Learning Hub" of the portal (if you are logged in, go to the "My Announcements" portlet and choose the Learning Hub; if you have not yet logged into my.uic.edu - the Learning Hub is on the right.)

• 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. Hand written forms are not acceptable.
• If a member of your committee is not part of the UIC graduate college faculty (post doc or visiting faculty) or non-UIC faculty, you have to submit their Vita with the committee recommendation form.
• All PhD students must attach an abstract to the committee recommendation form for both their preliminary exam and final dissertation defense.
• All PhD students must send an advertisement of their preliminary exam and final defense at least a week prior their defense to the student affairs office. Preliminary exam are advertised to all faculty and final defenses to all faculty and graduate students.
2. Consult the ‘Thesis Manual’ (available on the graduate college website at http://grad.uic.edu/ under ‘Graduate Forms & Publications’) 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, e-mail a PDF copy of your thesis to the 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.

• 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. Check with your advisor as they may have guidelines for formatting or other requirements for the project report.
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.

• Return all borrowed equipment and keys to Room 1120.

Please note that if you do not graduate in the semester you submitted your ‘Intent to Graduate’, you submit the request again during the term you intend to graduate. The previous request will NOT be carried over to the next semester automatically.