Students who are not meeting progression milestones may risk funding, may not be allowed to proceed into second year, or may be required to withdraw from the program. In particular, students must pay close attention to the milestones related to the thesis proposal.
Students without an approved thesis proposal by June 15 of Year 2 will be placed in the Major Research Paper option.
YEAR 1
Fall Term, Year 1
- One of:
- MS 9100: Interdisciplinary Foundations of Media Theory (required)
- MS 9101: Research Methods (required)
Winter Term, Year 1
Summer Term, Year 1
- Selection of Thesis Supervisor and Advisory Committee
- Meeting with Thesis Supervisor to discuss the selection of a thesis area
Note: In considering potential chief supervisors, students should be careful to determine that the faculty member of choice has the appropriate supervisory status.
YEAR 2
Fall Term, Year 2
- The remaining required course (9100 or 9101)
Winter Term, Year 2
- One elective
- Development of the Thesis Proposal
Summer Term, Year 2
- Approval of the Thesis Proposal by June 15
- Submission of Ethics Protocol to FIMS Research Committee in the case of all research topics involving human subjects
- Thesis research and writing (one draft chapter or equivalent is due at the start of the Fall Term, Year 3)
May 15: Last day to submit Draft Thesis Proposal (12-20 double-spaced pages)
June 1: Submission of a Revised Draft of the Thesis Proposal to the Thesis Advisory Committee.
June 15: Last day to receive approval of the Thesis Proposal. The candidate may not proceed to Year 3 without having achieved this milestone. Students without an approved proposal by June 15 will automatically be placed in the Major Research Paper option. Upon approval of the Thesis Proposal it will be recorded that the student has completed MS 9103.
It is the joint responsibility of the student and Advisory Committee to determine appropriate deadlines so that there is sufficient time for the student to receive feedback and make revisions, and so that the student’s work can be received and reviewed by Committee members in a timely fashion.
YEAR 3
Fall Term, Year 3
- MS 9102: Research Workshop (required, for credit)
- Thesis research and writing
Sept. 15: The student must submit either one draft chapter of the thesis or a comparable written component. This written work will be the focus of attention in the mandatory Research Workshop (MS 9102) in the fall term of Year 3. In addition, the student must provide his/her supervisor with a timeline for thesis completion, detailing when the various stages of the thesis (such as textual analyses or data collection) will be completed, if not already provided in the thesis proposal.
Winter Term, Year 3
- Thesis research and writing
Summer Term, Year 3
- Thesis research and writing
YEAR 4
- Thesis writing and final editing before submission to Advisory Committee
- Completion of any editing or revisions required by the Committee
- Submission of thesis and defence at an oral examination
- Thesis defence to occur no later than the end of Year 4
School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies Thesis Submission Deadlines
Specific dates will vary each year so students must confirm dates by consulting the SGPS Master's Thesis Examination Time Frame or by contacting the FIMS Graduate Programs Assistant.
Sample Time Frame (Spring):
Deadline to Submit a Completed Thesis to FIMS – late-March to early-April
Deadline for Thesis Defence – mid-April
Deadline for Final Submission of the Thesis – late-April
There are comparable deadlines in other terms. Students will be required to pay fees until the thesis is successfully defended.
05/22/2008