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Scheduling a final oral examination

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A final oral examination (“defense”) is a milestone for students completing a dissertation, thesis, or report. To schedule a defense, students must log into MyMichiganTech and navigate to the Current Students tab.

In the “Dissertation, Thesis, or Report” area in the center column, students will see a link to schedule their final oral examination. If this section is blank, please contact the Graduate School for assistance.

A link to schedule a final oral examination is on the Dissertation, Thesis, or Report status area.

Please review the information at the top of the form. If there are any errors, please contact the Graduate School for assistance. Screenshots are very helpful.

Please complete the form with the following information:

  • The title of the dissertation, thesis, or report (55 characters per line; 4 lines maximum)
  • The date of the defense (must be at least two weeks into the future)
  • Start time of the defense
  • Building (select “Virtual defense – online only” if there isn’t a physical location)
  • Room (only required if there is a physical location)
  • URL for virtual attendance – 60 character limit – be sure your entire URL is visible
    • Required for virtual defenses, optional for physical defenses
    • Passwords are not allowed as defenses must be public
    • Waiting rooms are recommended (Zoom waiting room support)

Click “Submit” when you have completed entering the information. A confirmation page will appear.

Confirmation page once a final oral examination scheduling request has been submitted.

The student, committee, and advisor will receive a confirmation email with the information provided by the student. The student should ensure that the required items listed in the email have been completed. Committee members who are not Michigan Tech employees may not be notified; please confirm details with them individually.

The advisor will receive an email from the Graduate School and can approve or reject the request online. All committee members with a Michigan Tech email address and the student will be notified of the decision. Committee members who are not Michigan Tech employees may not be notified; please confirm details with them individually. If the defense request is approved, the graduate program director and assistant will also be notified.

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Copyright Workshop for Graduate Students

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by Van Pelt and Opie Library

What’s copyright and what does it have to do with your dissertation? Do you need permission to use someone else’s figure or image, or an article you wrote? Should you make your thesis open access? And what is a Creative Commons license? Get the answers to these and other questions at the library workshop: “Copyright and Your Dissertation, Thesis, or Master’s Report.”

In this workshop, you’ll learn the role U.S. copyright law plays in writing and publishing your report, thesis, or dissertation. We will explore the legal use of copyrighted material, publishing agreements, Creative Commons licensing and the role of Michigan Tech’s institutional repository, Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech. After this workshop, you will be prepared to make informed decisions about using copyrighted material and the publishing options for your dissertation, thesis, or master’s report.

Please join us in Library 244 at noon on Monday (March 21). Registration is required.

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Copyright Workshop for Graduate Students

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What’s copyright and what does it have to do with your dissertation? Do you need permission to use someone else’s figure or image, or an article you wrote? Should you make your thesis open access? And what is a Creative Commons license? Get the answers to these and other questions at the library workshop: “Copyright and Your Dissertation, Thesis, or Master’s Report.”

In this workshop, you’ll learn the role U.S. copyright law plays in writing and publishing your report, thesis or dissertation. We will explore the legal use of copyrighted material, publishing agreements and Creative Commons licensing, and the role of Michigan Tech’s institutional repository Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech. After this workshop, you will be prepared to make informed decisions about using copyrighted material and the publishing options for your dissertation, thesis or master’s report.

Join us on Oct. 14 at noon in the Van Pelt and Opie Library, Room 244. Registration is required.

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How to use a preflight profile

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Preflight profiles in Adobe Acrobat® Pro can be used to check properties of a PDF document, as well as make some automatic fixes to them.  In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to use preflight profiles developed by the Graduate School to check the image quality in a PDF file.

To begin, download a preflight profile and save it to your computer. Depending on your browser settings, you might need to right click on the link to save the file to your computer as a *.kfp (or*.xml) file. The Graduate School has created the four below:

  1. Graduate School All Items will show you all items that have errors (red “x”) or should be examined (yellow exclamation point).  It includes checking page size (red “x”), embedded fonts (red “x”), type 3 fonts (red “x”), image quality (yellow exclamation point), and color images (only important if saving printing costs is a concern for you).  This is the same checker that the Graduate School uses.
  2. Graduate School Embedded Fonts will show you all of the fonts that aren’t embedded and where type 3 fonts are used.
  3. Graduate School Images will show you which images have a resolution below 300ppi.
  4. Graduate School Color Pages will show you which pages are in color.

First, you need to open the preflight tool.  In Adobe Acrobat® XI Pro, the preflight tool is located in the “Print Production” section of the “Tools.”

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Dissertation

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This article from Inside Higher Ed’s blog will show you how to love your dissertation (or thesis). Writing can be an overwhelming task, and everyone can use tips on how to manage the writing process and motivate yourself to do just a little bit every day. These tips also apply to any large-scale project, like writing a proposal or journal article.

One of the pieces of advice that we often give students is that the best dissertation is a finished dissertation. Focus on completing your degree and starting the next stage in your career rather than seeking perfection.

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Embedding fonts in Microsoft Word

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Embedding fonts in a dissertation or thesis is a requirement for ProQuest and the Graduate School.  We recommend using Adobe Acrobat to embed fonts for files created in Microsoft Word.  If you do not have access to Adobe Acrobat, this alternative method will allow you to embed fonts directly from Microsoft Word.

Step 1. Click the file tab at the top of the page and select the “Options” menu from the bottom left.

Screen shot showing how to navigate to Word Options.
Screen shot showing how to navigate to Word Options.

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How to determine if fonts are embedded in a pdf file

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Embedding fonts in your pdf file allows anyone who opens your file to see the document as you intended.  If you don’t embed a font, the pdf viewer will substitute a font if it is not available on the computer viewing the document, and the result usually isn’t what you intended.

To determine if all of your fonts are embedded in your pdf file, open your pdf file in Adobe Acrobat or Adobe Reader.

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Formatting 101 Seminar Series Continues

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The Graduate School is pleased to announce the final two seminars in its summer seminar series, “Formatting 101.” These short seminars (approximately 30-minutes, followed by time for your questions) are designed for students formatting their dissertation, thesis, or report.  Each seminar will be held in Fisher 138 beginning at 2:30pm and will also be live streamed. Please register so we can plan for your attendance and provide information about the live stream for our off campus participants.

  • June 14, 2017 – Copyright for Dissertations and Theses – the basics of using copyrighted material in your document
  • June 28, 2017 – How to Check and Fix your Document – how to check and fix your document using Adobe Acrobat

Seminar materials are archived online if you’re unable to attend the live event.

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Fall 2015 Formatting Help Sessions

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Are you working on formatting corrections for your dissertation, thesis, or report? Do you need help? Join Harriet King (gscap@mtu.edu), coordinator of the Graduate School Communications Assistance Program for group work hours. These workshops are provided at no charge to students working on a dissertation, thesis, or report. Harriet is skilled with MS Office, Open Office, and Adobe Acrobat Pro. These rooms are equipped with PCs with University software, or you may bring your own laptop. If you need additional help or prefer one-on-one assistance, please contact Harriet to arrange for times and inquire about the services available.

Except for the event on November 20th, all workshops will be held in Dillman 213.

  • Tue Sep 22 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Tue Oct 27 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Tue Nov 3 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Tue Nov 10- this session has been cancelled
  • Thu Nov 12 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Mon Nov 16 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Tue Nov 17 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Wed Nov 18 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Thu Nov 19 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Fri Nov 20 1:00pm – 3:00pm – EERC 723 (note the room change)
  • Mon Nov 30 10:00am – 4:00pm
  • Tue Dec 8 1:00pm – 3:00pm
  • Tue Dec 15 1:00pm – 3:00pm
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Formatting and submission help sessions for spring 2017

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Are you working on formatting corrections for your dissertation, thesis, or report? Do you need help? Are you unsure where to submit your dissertation, thesis, or report?

Join the Graduate School (gradschool@mtu.edu) for group work hours. These workshops are provided at no charge to students working on a dissertation, thesis, or report. Staff will able to help with the changes required by the Graduate School for these documents in MS Office.  Assistance will also be available for converting documents to PDF from Word and how to make simple corrections and check your document in Adobe Acrobat. The workshops will be in rooms with PCs with University software, or you may bring your own laptop. Distance students may contact gradschool@mtu.edu about remote assistance during these times via web conferencing.  If you need additional help outside of these times, please contact the Graduate School.  On a limited basis, one-on-one assistance may be available. Please contact the Graduate School for more information.

All workshops will be held from 1-3pm on the following dates in Dillman 101 unless otherwise noted:

  • Wednesday, April 5, 2017 | 9 – 11am | EERC 723
  • Thursday, April 6, 2017 | 9 – 11am | EERC 723
  • Monday, April 10, 2017 | 11am – 1pm | MEEM 202 – Deadline for spring 2017 is 4pm on April 10th
  • Tuesday, April 18, 2017 | 2 – 4pm | Dillman 208
  • Wednesday, April 26, 2017 | 12:45 – 2:45 pm | MEEM 202
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