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Table of Contents

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After the faculty advisor has given his/her approval, the thesis is to be submitted to the thesis committee members for their feedback and suggestions. Committee members should be given at least four weeks to provide feedback. At the end of this period, committee members may require students to make changes to the thesis. Only after all committee members have given their approval should a thesis defense date be scheduled. Students should include a faculty member (other than the 3 committee members) to chair the committee. At the Masters level the chair can be from within the Human Development and Family Science Department or from other departments/colleges throughout the University. This person will act as the representative of the Graduate School and will moderate the thesis defense.  Read up on the procedures for graduate students defending theses or dissertations found at the Graduate School graduation requirements page.  All M.S. students must complete a Request for Examination form, at least three weeks prior to your defense date.

Defenses may only be scheduled during the fall and spring semesters. All thesis defenses are open to the public and students are expected to provide the departmental administrative assistant with an abstract of their thesis two weeks prior to the defense. One copy of the thesis should be made available in the departmental office for public reading two weeks prior to the defense. 

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Comprehensive Examination

After completing coursework, students have two years to prepare for, and pass, the comprehensive examination. The exam is intended to assess students’ ability to integrate substantive knowledge within the broad field of Human Development and Family Science. Students are expected to synthesize, critically analyze, and evaluate the literature in the field and articulate this scientific information. Doctoral students must successfully complete the exam before they can advance to candidacy. Students enrolled in the M.S. and who have continued on to the Ph.D. program must have submitted their Master’s thesis prior to sitting for the comprehensive examinations. 

Procedures and Guidelines:

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Evaluation and Notification of Results:

Students should notify the Graduate Director of their intents to complete their comprehensive examination requirement using the dates in Table 1. The Graduate Director shall appoint an Assessment Committee for the student’s comprehensive exam consisting of three faculty members including the student’s advisor and inform the student and the advisor of the composition of the Committee.

After notifying the Graduate Director of the intent to complete the comprehensive exam and the Director’s appointment of an Assessment Committee, the student shall develop a proposal outline for their comprehensive exam review outlining the topic, its significance, and the methods to be used in conducting the review (e.g., textual review, meta-analysis, etc.). The proposal outline also should include a preliminary list of at least 15 references from the last 10 years of research that will form the basis of the proposal.  Students should assume that the Assessment Committee will need at least 3 weeks to review the proposal outline. The Assessment Committee will review the proposal outline to determine if the topic is appropriate to meet the requirements of the comprehensive examination. The Committee may determine that the proposal is adequate as submitted or may require a meeting with the student to discuss the proposal further.  Following approval by the Assessment Committee, students will be allowed to take a semester to complete the review. Students may start the review at the beginning of either the fall or spring semester.

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Table 1: Doctoral Examination Due Dates*

*If any of the above dates falls on a weekend or a holiday, the deadline will be extended to the next business day.

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