Ph.D. Procedures

How to get a Ph.D. in Anthropology

A refresher on IU procedures for near-quals, post-quals, and dissertating graduate students.

Anthropology Graduate Student Association sponsored professionalization seminar, updated August 21, 2017

  • All substitutions and waivers must be approved by the Graduate School Dean
    • for any required course listed by course number in the Graduate Bulletin
    • for any course requirement listed as part of subfield requirements that you cannot take that is listed in the Graduate Bulletin
  • Individualized outside minors must be approved by the Graduate School Dean. Individualized minors are all those that are not officially listed in the Graduate Bulletin; in other words, they are not officially recognized minors.
  • The Graduate Bulletin should be your main point of reference.
  • All grad students are presumed to know and have read the rules in the Graduate Bulletin. You cannot claim ignorance (“I didn’t know”). This is not a valid excuse for extensions, permissions, etc. Valid excuses must be extreme circumstances. In most cases, only documented medical leaves, family emergencies, or administrator error count in these cases.
  • All requests must go through the DGS to the Dean.
  • The DGS needs to know that your advisor is on board with any exception, substitution, waiver, etc. and might need Graduate Affairs Committee and Dean approval to allow these.
    • Examples: You did not take H500 but took another history of anthropology course instead. – You were not on campus the semester that a required seminar was offered and so needed to meet that requirement in some other way. – You did extensive work on a topic in your prior M.A., and the faculty member who teaches that course has said you don’t have to take it. – You want to count an A595 or “A” course toward a particular inside minor course. – You want to count a course from a prior M.A. to fulfill a particular course requirement. – You were granted a waiver for religious reasons.
  • Will vary depending on what subfield you are in
  • Will vary depending on whether or not you are single or double major
  • In all cases, the last orals date = date of candidacy, no matter when the candidacy is approved.
  • You must have completed your courses within seven years of your last qualifying exam date—this holds true for transferred courses as well
    • If courses are older than seven years, they must be revalidated. See the Graduate Bulletin for rules about revalidation. Talk to your advisor and the DGS.
  • This is system for tracking all University Graduate School forms. Once you take qualifying exams, you leave the domain of the College Graduate Office and you must submit all forms through the e-doc system on One.iu.edu.
    • Log in to One.iu.edu
    • Search for forms by name or search University Graduate School forms
  • You must initiate all e-docs. The College Graduate Office cannot do them for you!
  • You must hit “submit” when you are done filling it out—The College Graduate Office can’t do anything on “saved” documents.
  • The e-doc routes to different people along the way depending on the form.
  • You can track your e-docs
    • Log in to One.iu.edu
    • Search for “document search” on the search tab
    • In the field “initiator”, search by username (your IU username).
    • Click on document ID number to see the document.
    • Click on far right to see the route log and where the form is in the routing system.
  • Please check your own e-docs, there is no need to ask us. Also, give reminders and directions on how to get there if it appears to be “stuck” in a faculty mailbox along the way.
  • Candidacy and the M.A. degree are two different things, with different requirements and different forms.
  • To qualify for an M.A. degree, you must have passed at least a 4 hour comprehensive exam (so ¼ or one question of your 4 question qualifying exam depending on the subfield) or completed a thesis, AND have taken 30 course credits. If you didn’t fully pass your qualifying exam, DON’T WAIT. If you passed at least ¼ of the written exam, you can still apply for this degree.
  • How to request an M.A. degree, if you want it:
    • Fill out the Master’s Application for Graduation on One.iu.edu
    • Do you have another M.A. from IU? If so, you can’t use any of the same courses for this M.A. that you used for the other M.A. Let Debra know.
    • Courses must have been taken within the last 5 years (5 year rule).
    • You must have completed 30 credits, with two courses outside your subfield of specialization
    • If no thesis, then you can’t use A800 hours
    • If a thesis, then no more than 6 credits of A800
    • Remind Debra to request a “program stack” for the MA
    • “Graduation date” to list on the e-doc is the date you are expecting the M.A. degree.
  • E-doc do’s and don’ts
  • You must have completed (or nearly completed) all of your course requirements (60 credits of coursework, language requirements, outside minor).
  • Attach a course list. It must show that you met each program requirement, language/research skill requirement, and outside minor requirement, and include course numbers, semesters, course titles and grades.
    • The recorder will check this list against requirements listed in the grad bulletin for the year you entered the graduate program.
    • You cannot double count courses for two different requirements.
    • Courses must have been taken within the last seven years. If not, they must be revalidated (see instructions in the Graduate Bulletin).
  • Attach all permissions and certifications (individualized minors, course substitutions or waivers, language certifications, course revalidations, etc.)
  • Courses must have been taken within the last seven years. If not, they must be revalidated (see instructions in the Graduate Bulletin).
  • You must register continuously until you finish. This means EVERY FALL OR SPRING SEMESTER regardless of where you are or if you are actively working on your dissertation. There is no “taking a break” or “taking time off”.
    • You must reach 90 GRADUATE credit hours to get a Ph.D. (this usually doesn’t include language courses.
    • If you lapse in registering, then you will be required to pay retroactive registration (at the rate it was that year), plus fees (fees currently = $290 fee per semester).
  • You qualify for six semesters of registration at the G901 rate ($150/semester).
    • Choose wisely when selecting when to use these rates.
  • If you do not use G901, then register for A800, either the on-campus or off-campus section
    • fees are more expensive for the on-campus section – they go by the address that you list in One.iu.edu so check and make sure this is accurate
    • how many A800 hours are necessary to take depends on your funding and financial aid status (do you have loans that require minimum credit hour enrollment? do you have a fee remission? do you need more credits to reach 90?, do you have a fellowship or an AIship?)
    • If you have a fellowship of some kind, you can apply for a tuition reduction
  • You have seven years from the date of your last oral qualifying exam (date of candidacy) until your candidacy expires. You must submit the dissertation before this date. Extensions are rarely granted, only for exceptional circumstances, and even better if you have a documented medical leave on file with the College Graduate Office. “You didn’t finish” or “you didn’t know” are not valid justifications.
    • If your candidacy expires you can request reinstatement. This requires re-taking qualifying exams and meeting current course requirements.
  • After your qualifying exam, your advisory committee is officially defunct. You must file for a research committee. You can only file your Nomination of Research Committee after your candidacy is approved.
  • Attached an approved “research prospectus” and research permissions (IRB, or whatever applies) to the form
  • Committee must include four IU faculty members, of which at least three must be from ANTH. One must be outside ANTH.
  • Outside (non-IU) members can also be added, but they are in addition to the four IU members.
    • you must attach the CV for any member who is outside of IU
  • You MUST have the research committee approved (fully routed) at least six months before the defense
  • If you make changes in membership along the way, you have to file a Change of Research Committee form. Changes can be made within six months of the defense, but before defense is approved.
  • file your request for defense date a few months out(e-doc is Ph.D. Defense Announcement) – has to be completed and approved at least 30 days in advance of the defense
    • rules for a defense is that it has to be held on campus
    • you have to be there in person, but your committee members can teleconference in if they can’t be present
  • you must bring the abstract pages and title pages to the defense and get physical signatures.
    • All committee members have to physically sign, so if you have an outside member who teleconferenced in, you will have to mail them original forms to sign.
    • Everyone has to sign on the same page, no digitized or digital signatures allowed.
    • Some faculty advisors like to hold onto these and won’t sign until revisions are complete.
  • Whatever month you need to graduate, you have to have the dissertation submitted by the 15th. If the 15th falls on a weekend, then submit it the Friday before. If you miss this, your degree will not post until the following month.
    • For May and August, the deadline is even earlier, around the 6th of the month. This will depend on what day of the week the dates fall.
    • If your candidacy is due to expire on a particular date, then that is the date by which you must submit your content-complete dissertation to ProQuest and your signed abstract and acceptance pages.
  • You will graduate whenever your final dissertation is accepted by the graduate school, so if you can get comments back from your committee members and make revisions prior to the defense, then you will be that much closer to filing ASAP after the defense.
  • You have to format everything according to University Graduate School rules. Follow their instructions, posted online, closely.
  • Once you submit the dissertation (in hard copy or electronically) to Proquest and the Grad School, it will be checked by the Ph.D. recorder, Shelly Gerber-Sparks. She will process them in the order received and needs at least that much lead time to get to them. Another reference to a particular person.
  • Respond to any formatting revisions requested by the Ph.D. recorder as quickly as possible. She will email you with the required changes. Only the Ph.D. recorder decides when the formatting is complete and accurate. Do not ask Debra or myself to check it.
  • Once the dissertation is accepted, the UGS will check to see that you have a zero balance bursar bill before a Ph.D. will be awarded. You must demonstrate continuous enrollment, having registered every fall and spring semester since candidacy. If you haven’t, you will have to be retroactively registered for at least one credit hour for each missed semester and will have to pay late fees ($290/semester, at last count).
  • All 800 grades of “R” must be removed before the registrar can award the degree. You will need to submit a PDF of your final “approved” dissertation to Debra on CD before she can change your A800 “R” grades to actual letter grades.
    • Debra needs to know from your advisor what that grade should be (based on your performance at the defense). Remind them to let Debra know.
  • You can walk whenever you want, timed to near or before the time of your defense and final submission of your dissertation. Talk to your adviser to decide if you are ready to walk in graduation. Fill out the e-doc Ph.D. Commencement Participation Application (FYI: M.A. students can also choose to walk.)
    • You will have to list which faculty member is going to hood you. Please check with your advisor(s) and make sure he/she can be there.
    • Another faculty member can hood you if need be. If you are having trouble finding someone, contact the department.
    • The e-doc is due on February 25 for May graduation and September 25 for Dec graduation. Make sure to apply on time!
    • You can walk, but your name will not appear in the program if you officially finished in the fall and you want to walk the next spring graduation. Technically, they consider you a fall semester graduate and there is nothing that they can or will do to change that.
  • If you continue to make revisions into another fall or spring semester, then you will have register for that semester. These fees cannot be waived.
  • If you plan to submit the final dissertation over the summer, you will have to register over the summer, but the fees can usually be waived—work with Debra on this.