Progress to degree
Follow these steps toward the completion of your certificate, master’s, or doctoral degree, while meeting key milestones along your journey to graduation. Individual programs may include additional requirements and deadlines, so consult your graduate program director to ensure you stay on track.
Students are required to obtain an official VCU student email account within one week of the beginning of their first semester of enrollment. Students are responsible for reading in a timely fashion university-related communications sent to their official VCU student email account. The Office of Financial Aid uses email to provide financial aid information, to request documentation to support financial aid application data and to provide financial aid application status and award information. Information on how to set up an account is available online.
Master’s and Certificate Degree Progress
- Complete the provisions of your admissions (if any) by the program deadlines.
- Meet with your advisor regularly and complete your school/college or Graduate School Compact
- Check your Degree Works each semester to monitor your grades and progress toward degree completion.
- Refer to the Graduate Bulletin for specific program requirements.
- Admission to degree candidacy, if applicable, is a formal statement by the graduate student’s faculty regarding the student’s academic achievements and the student’s readiness to proceed to the final research phase of the degree program.
- Submit the Degree Candidacy DocuSign Form.
- Students at candidacy must enroll each semester unless on approved leave of absence.
- If your program requires a thesis, a graduate advisory committee must be appointed for the master's candidate.
- To search for faculty members, download the graduate faculty list or the list of affiliate graduate faculty members.
- Request for Graduate or Affiliate Graduate Faculty Appointment DocuSign Form.
Each student who expects to complete the degree requirements by the end of a semester (fall, spring, or summer) must apply to graduate by the deadline published on the university academic calendar; typically, this deadline is two to three weeks after the first day of classes. If completing multiple programs, a graduation application needs to be submitted for each program.
- Learn more about how to submit a graduation application.
If your program requires a thesis, here are some steps that are required for completion:
- Have your thesis topic approved by both your advisor and graduate advisory committee.
- Complete prospectus
- Submit a draft of your thesis for a preliminary format check.
- Defend your thesis and make any required edits before final submission.
- Submit your thesis to VCU Scholars Compass and complete the Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) form.
- Check the university academic calendar for defense and final submission deadlines.
- Learn more about the Graduate School Electronic Thesis and Dissertation process.
- Once the thesis has been successfully defended and the final revision of the document has been accepted, complete and submit the Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) DocuSign form.
- Upload your thesis to the Graduate Schools VCU Scholars Compass repository.
- Students who have completed all academic requirements within the program’s specified time period are eligible for graduation at the close of their final semester.
- To learn more about the graduation process and commencement details, refer to the Graduate Bulletin and VCU Commencement.
- As an alumnus, it is important to remember that your access to university resources will change. Alumni have access to the following university technology resources:
- Refer to the Graduating Student Technology Checklist for a full list of technology resources that may change upon graduation.
Doctoral Degree Progress
- Complete the provisions of your admissions (if any) by the program deadlines.
- Meet with your advisor regularly and complete your school/college or Graduate School Compact
- Check your Degree Works each semester to monitor your grades and progress toward degree completion.
- Refer to the Graduate Bulletin for specific program requirements.
- Admission to degree candidacy, if applicable, is a formal statement by the graduate student’s faculty regarding the student’s academic achievements and the student’s readiness to proceed to the final research phase of the degree program.
- Submit the Degree Candidacy DocuSign Form.
- Students at candidacy must enroll each semester unless on approved leave of absence.
- A graduate advisory committee must be appointed for each doctoral candidate.
- To search for faculty members, download the graduate faculty list or the list of affiliate graduate faculty members.
- Request for Graduate or Affiliate Graduate Faculty Appointment DocuSign Form
Each student who expects to complete the degree requirements by the end of a semester (fall, spring, or summer) must apply to graduate by the deadline published on the university academic calendar; typically, this deadline is two to three weeks after the first day of classes. If completing multiple programs, a graduation application needs to be submitted for each program.
- Learn more about how to submit a graduation application.
- Here are some steps that are required for completion:
- Complete qualifying and comprehensive examinations
- Complete prospectus
- Have your dissertation topic approved by both your advisor and graduate advisory committee
- Submit a draft of your dissertation for a preliminary format check.
- Defend your dissertation and make any required edits before final submission.
- Submit your thesis to VCU Scholars Compass and complete the Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) form.
- Complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED).
- Check the university academic calendar for defense and final submission deadlines.
- Learn more about the Graduate School Electronic Thesis and Dissertation process.
- Once the dissertation has been successfully defended and the final revision of the document has been accepted, complete and submit the Electronic Thesis/Dissertation (ETD) DocuSign form.
- Upload your dissertation to the Graduate Schools VCU Scholars Compass repository.
- Complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED).
- Electronic Thesis / Dissertation Information
- Graduating Ph.D. and Ed.D. students are eligible to take part in the university-wide Commencement ceremony, where they will be hooded on stage. VCU hosts an in-person commencement celebration for summer and fall graduates in December and spring graduates in May.
- To learn more about the graduation process and commencement details, refer to the Graduate Bulletin and VCU Commencement.
- As an alumnus, it is important to remember that your access to university resources will change. Alumni have access to the following university technology resources:
- Refer to the Graduating Student Technology Checklist for a full list of technology resources that may change upon graduation.
DocuSign form school deans/designees
The school deans/designees are as follows:
- College of Engineering: Dr. Gary Tepper, gradengr@vcu.edu
- College of Health Professions: Dr. Alena Hampton, achampton@vcu.edu
- College of Humanities & Sciences: Dr. D'Arcy Mays, chsgraddean@vcu.edu
- Psychology students- For program director, list Dr. Teri Sullivan, GradDirPSYC@vcu.edu
- School of the Arts: Cynthia Myron, myroncj@vcu.edu
- School of Business:
- For ETD or Degree Candidacy forms: Dr. Mayoor Mohan, mmohan@vcu.edu
- School of Dentistry: Dr. Oonagh Loughran, oloughran@vcu.edu
- School of Education: Dr. Luciana de Oliveira, deoliveiral@vcu.edu
- School of Medicine:
- For ETD Forms: Dr. Michael Grotewiel, michael.grotewiel@vcuhealth.org
- For Degree Candidacy Forms: Harold Greenwald, haroldg@vcu.edu
- School of Nursing: Dr. Terri Jones, tjones69@vcu.edu
- School of Pharmacy: Dr. Mary Peace McRae, mpmcrae@vcu.edu
- Pharmaceutical Engineering students-program director designee is Geri Youngblood, glyoungblood@vcu.edu
- School of Public Health: Dr. Kellie Carlyle, kecarlyle@vcu.edu
- School of Social Work: Dr. Stevara Haley Clark, clarksh3@vcu.edu
- Wilder School: Dr. RaJade Berry-James, berryjamesr@vcu.edu