It is recommended that MA students submit a copy of their thesis to their thesis readers approximately two weeks before the student's scheduled oral exam date.  Students should check with their faculty research advisor about the latest date to submit the thesis to readers. 

• March 2025:  Commencement Regalia – Order online to be delivered to R.J. Julia Bookstore.
  
  
• Before April 4:  Students work with their advisor and committee to select the date of their MA Oral Exam. The last day for MA Oral Exams is May 2, 2025.
  
  
• By April 4, 2025, 4 pm: Students submit their Graduate Exit Forms via WesPortal/Academics/Graduate Exit Forms.  Students are responsible for the first tab “Commencement Information” and the last tab “Oral Exam & Thesis.” Faculty will be prompted to approve student forms.
  
  

In April: Students schedule their exit appointment to meet with Graduate Student Services.  The exit appointment is the final step of graduation requirements. Exit appointments are available April 7 - May 8, 2025. Link to schedule your exit appointment.

 

• By May 8, 2025, 4pm: Deadline for MA students to upload final thesis and complete their exit appointment.
  
  
• May 25, 2025: Commencement
  

   

  Recommendation to Students: Use a calendar to plan your exit 

  1. Start with knowing your oral exam date. 

  2. Count back two weeks from the oral exam date to know when to send your document to your committee of readers.

  3. Think about the time you will need to make final edits to your document and count forward from your oral exam date to schedule your exit appointment.  Exit appointments must be after you upload the final document and before the end of the MA exit period. 
  
  

Students who complete the degree requirements after Commencement of the current year will receive the degree the following May.

BA/MA students who finish the MA in the fall semester must complete the exit process before the start of the enrollment period for the subsequent spring semester. 

Contact the Office of Graduate Student Services  at graduateoffice@wesleyan.edu to schedule your exit appointment.  You must have completed your defense, made edits to your thesis, and uploaded the final document to WesScholar before the exit appointment.  Plan accordingly.  Submit the required signed forms prior to the exit appointment. 

There are three members of the committee, one is the student's research advisor.  One of the two remaining members should be from the student's department and will usually chair the exam committee; the third and final member need not be a department member.  Schedule your oral exam with your advisor/committee/department. It is recommended that you allow some time between your oral exam and your exit appointment to complete the paperwork and make final edits to your thesis.

It is recommended that MA students submit a copy of their thesis to their thesis readers approximately two weeks before the student's scheduled oral defense date.  Students should check with their faculty research advisor about the latest date to submit the thesis to readers.

MA students are required to participate in an oral defense. The oral exam may be administered using remote access technology with all committee members and the student synchronously participating in the session. 

Academic departments will schedule the student's oral defense.  Students should check with their department administrative assistant about scheduling their oral defense.

MA students  who exit during the exit period must complete the exit process with the Office of Graduate Student Services. 

Students must upload the thesis to WesScholar before their exit appointment.  Sometimes a committee will require a student to make edits to the thesis after the oral defense.  Edits must be made before uploading to WesScholar.

See "Exit Appointment" below for instructions on scheduling the exit appointment. 

Exit appointments are scheduled for 30 minutes and will take place using remote access technology.

Prior to the exit appointment, submit electronic exit forms and upload the final thesis. 

MA students who exit on or before May 8, 2025 will receive the degree in May 2025.  MA students who exit after Commencement of the current year will receive the degree in May 2026.

MA Exit Appointments for students exiting between April 7 – May 8, 2025:

You are responsible for scheduling your exit appointment in one of the available time slots.  Appointments slots are on a first-come, first-served basis.  You may schedule one appointment which must be confirmed by the Office of Graduate Student Services. Schedule your exit appointment here

You must have completed your defense, made edits to your thesis, and uploaded the final document to WesScholar before the exit appointment.  Plan accordingly. 

Exit Appointments for students who exit before April 7 or after Commencement of the current year: 

Contact the Office of Graduate Student Services  at graduateoffice@wesleyan.edu to schedule your exit appointment.  You must have completed your defense, made edits to your thesis, and uploaded the final document to WesScholar before the exit appointment.  Plan accordingly.  Submit the required signed forms prior to the exit appointment. 

BA/MA students who start the MA in the spring semester and finish the MA in the fall semester must complete the exit process before the start of the enrollment period for the subsequent spring semester.  

Graduate exit forms (Mandatory): Complete in your WesPortal/Academics/Graduate Exit forms.

SUBMIT a PDF version of your thesis via your Wesleyan Portal/Academics/Graduate Thesis/Dissertation Submission.  Complete before your exit appointment.

 

WesScholar

WesScholar is Wesleyan University's online institutional repository. Graduate students are required to submit a PDF version of their thesis or dissertation to WesScholar. Information about the work (metadata) will be entered and the PDFs will be available for download. Students who do not wish their work to be available by download may place an embargo on the work for a period of time of up to five years. Graduate students or faculty advisors may request an embargo at the time of thesis submission or any time up to five years after submission. The embargo period may not exceed five years from the time of submission.

Policies on graduate student work in WesScholar

1. Metadata for each work (the catalog information - author name, title, year, etc.) will be added to WesScholar.
2. The full text of the student work will be added to WesScholar in the form of a PDF. 
3. A student may request that his or her work be embargoed for up to five years. This may be because of a pending publication or patent issue. WesScholar administrators will notify faculty advisors when a student requests an embargo after submitting the thesis. After the embargo period ends, the thesis will be made available in WesScholar.
4. Faculty members will have the opportunity to place an embargo on an advisee's work if the content of the work compromises laboratory or other research to be published by the faculty member. This embargo will supersede a student-imposed embargo if it is greater than the student-imposed restrictions. WesScholar administrators will contact faculty advisors prior to adding student work to WesScholar to remind faculty of the option to embargo.

 

Abstract - An Abstract is not required for Master's but may be included as the last of the preliminary pages. Total words should not exceed 350.

Margins - The minimum acceptable margins for all pages of the thesis are 1.5 inch on the left and 1.25 inch on the top, bottom, and right.

Font and Point Size - Recommended fonts include Arial, New Times Roman, and Helvetica with a point size of either 11 or 12.

Spacing - The text of the thesis should be double spaced. Long quotations, footnotes, appendices, and references may be single spaced.

Photographs and Graphics - Photographs and graphics in the thesis should be printed or photocopied directly on the paper as high quality images. Scanned images must print clearly. If color is used, only color laser or color photocopy printing is acceptable.

Use of Material Copyrighted by Others - Any material included that goes beyond "fair use" requires written permission from the copyright owner. It may be useful to include the permission(s) in the thesis as an appendix.

Pagination - Preliminary pages (i.e., acknowledgments, table of contents, abstract, etc.) are to be numbered consecutively using lower case Roman numerals. All pages of the text, appendices (if any), and references must be numbered consecutively using Arabic numerals.

Landscape pages - The top of a landscape pages should be at the left margin (1.5), the bottom at the right margin (1.25). The page number is to be in the same relative position as on the portrait pages.

Sequence of the Main Components of the Thesis - The appropriate order of the major sections of the thesis are as follows: the title page, the acknowledgements, the table of contents, the text, appendices (if any), and references. The order of the appendices and the references may be reversed if the appendices are lengthy.

Footnote, Endnotes, and References - The format that is accepted in your discipline or that which is prescribed by your advisory committee should be followed.

Photocopied Journal Articles in the Thesis - When appropriate, photocopied articles already published in journals may be included in a thesis. Photocopying must conform to the margins noted above. An original letter from each journal granting permission for the inclusion of the photocopied article in the thesis must be submitted to the Office of Graduate Student Services. In requesting a letter of permission, it is important to tell the journal that the thesis will become part of the permanent collection of Wesleyan University Libraries. The journal usually will require that the journal be the first publisher of the article.

In the composition of the thesis, it is expected that the student will observe the procedure current in her/his major field of study for the publication of the results of research. Students should keep in mind the importance of precision and clarity in the use of English, as well as actions and conventional methods of documentation. The thesis should contain enough general material to make it understandable to graduate students and faculty members in allied fields. It is recommended that you use your full legal name on the abstract (if any) and on the title page. Please ensure that your name appears exactly the same way in all places. Individual graduate departments may have additional requirements regarding the format of the thesis.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

 

 

 

 

FROM ADMISSION TO EXITING:

THE GRADUATE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

AT WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By

John J. Smith

Faculty Advisor:  Dr. Susan Meyer Jones

 

 

 

 

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wesleyan University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The University Archives at Olin Library no longer collects print copies of theses.  

Department copies or personal copies may be ordered through Thesis on Demand.

The Student Account must be paid in full in order to receive a diploma or academic transcript.  Student Accounts that do not have a zero balance will receive a financial hold. 

TO DO: 

Regularly check your Student Account.

Return library materials to the library two weeks prior to Commencement.  Library fines will be charged to the Student Account. 

Make full payment to the Student Account office prior to the Thursday before Commencement in order to receive the diploma on Commencement week-end. 

Make arrangements to return all keys that belong to the University (housing, labs, etc) before leaving campus following Commencement. 

The preferred method: Purchasing (via credit card) a cap and gown from the following Oak Hall website.   https://wesleyan.shopoakhalli.com/purchasewizard/Welcome   

Pre-ordering your cap and gown allows you to avoid long lines at the bookstore. 

Students will either choose a Master’s Package, or Doctorate’s Package. The website will guide you to the correct gown size by asking height and weight questions.   

Masters and PHD candidates will either elect to pick up their package at the Wesleyan R J Julia Bookstore or have it sent to their home address.

• Masters and PHD candidates who wish to have their regalia shipped to the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore must order online by Wednesday, March 27th. Masters and PHD regalia will be available for pick up at the Wesleyan RJ  Julia   Bookstore starting Monday, May 13^th.                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
• Masters and PHD candidates who wish to have their caps and gowns shipped to a home address will have until Friday, April 26th, to order online.  

Please note: There is a $15.95 shipping and handling fee for domestic ship to residence orders.  

Description:  Black gown, black mortarboard, red and black hood with white shawl collar.

NOTE: Students that have ordered their regalia on the Oak Hall website and wish to make changes to their order or cancel it altogether, must contact Oak Hall directly at 800-456-7623

Purchasing a cap and gown at the Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore. 

If you miss the Oak Hall pre-order deadline, you may purchase regalia at the bookstore in person starting May 13^th.

Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore: 413 Main Street, Middletown, CT 06457.  (860) 685-3939. 

Hours: Sunday through Wednesday 10 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.

Renting a cap and gown 

There is a limited supply of Master’s attire available for rental. Students may rent a gown on our website here, starting Monday January 29^th.

How to rent: 

-Add size/degree to cart.
-Select “pick up at Campus Store” and use credit/debit to check out (your card will NOT be charged at this time). 
-Pick up rental starting May 13^th at the Campus Store.

-Return rental after the commencement ceremony by 3:00 PM on Sunday May 25, 2025. Graduates who do not return their rentals within this deadline will be charged $30.

Rentals do not come with a tassel. 2025 tassels may be purchased for $8 at the time of pick up.

Commencement Day:  Sunday May 25, 2025

Commencement Announcements/Invitations

Please be sure to go into your WesPortal and change the address listed as your HOME address to the location where you would like to receive your tax documents.  Important tax documents (W-2) will be mailed to the HOME address.  You can also add your new address as your mailing address.