Graduation Guidelines

  1. Complete all your degree requirements. You can check out those requirements in the FMS Handbook or the guide.
  2. Clear all Incomplete grades or Progress grades in non-research courses (progress grades in 990 research may remain) but won’t count towards the degree. Your final research credits must be graded by the end of the semester.
  3. The dissertation or thesis defense is one of the final steps in the Ph.D. or MS process. At least 3-4 weeks before the defense, you must request a final defense warrant from the graduate program coordinator. FMS students are required to present their dissertation or thesis research to the committee and are strongly encouraged to make a similar presentation as a formal seminar (e.g., the Wednesday noon Limnology seminar ATM OCN/BOTANY/CIV ENGR/ENVIR ST/GEOSCI/ZOOLOGY 911).
  4. Some graduate students that do a public seminar usually promote similarly to iBio grad students. You can make your own defense poster and send it to the grad coordinator at least a week before your talk. The coordinator will email the department about your defense. There are defense poster examples at the bottom of this page.
  5. After your defense your committee should complete your warrant defense evaluation rubric. When they have signed and completed the form, send a copy of the completed warrant, rubric, and an updated CV to the graduate coordinator.
  6. Depositing your dissertation or thesis is another big factor for graduating. This is done through the graduate school.
  7. Depositing your thesis/dissertation, completing an exit survey and any other graduate school specific requirements can be found on their website. The graduate school has PhD and MS sites with instructions, requirements, and deadlines for depositing your dissertation or thesis.
  8. All graduating MS and Ph.D. students, even those not participating in commencement, are required to indicate as such in their Student Center through MyUW. For more information visit: https://registrar.wisc.edu/applyforgraduation/
  9. General information on the commencement ceremony if you plan to attend: https://commencement.wisc.edu/
  10. If you have questions about subjects 1-5 please contact boldiis@wisc.edu. If you have questions about 6-7 please contact the graduate school about it. Questions for 8-9 please contact commence@chancellor.wisc.edu about it.
  11. FAQ site regarding diplomas from UW-Madison https://registrar.wisc.edu/diplomas/ #FAQs

This is an accordion element with a series of buttons that open and close related content panels.

Grad Student Defense Poster Examples