/College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Physics and Astronomy

The Master Defense

This page summarizes the steps to submitting the thesis and formally graduating in the MA program. These steps include:

The most authoritative sources for everything below are the Graduate School’s own Graduation Information and Requirements page and its Student Resources page. If anything here ever seems to disagree with those pages, trust the Graduate School’s pages. Let us know so we can fix it here.

For this term’s exact dates, see the Graduate School’s Graduate School Calendar. These are the official deadlines.

The Master’s defense is an oral presentation, generally a 30-40 minute talk, so the whole defense – including questions – runs about an hour. Unlike the PhD, the MA process is handled entirely within the Department – there’s no committee approval or thesis submission required from the Graduate School. Five things need to happen, roughly in this order.

Apply for Graduation

Apply for graduation through SOLAR (Records and Registration > Degree Progress/Graduation > Apply for Graduation). Toward the end of the term, SOLAR closes to new degree applications – after that point, use the Google Form linked on the Graduate School’s Graduation Application page instead. You cannot apply for graduation after the last day of classes.

Make sure you’re registered for the term you graduate in – see Registering the Term You Graduate in Classes and Credits for what to register for if you’re finishing in the Summer, since it differs for domestic and international students.

Completing the graduation application is separate from registering for a commencement ceremony – see the University’s Commencement site for that.

Form Your Committee and Get Approval

Three faculty members are required: your advisor and two others. At least two of the three must be Stony Brook faculty; the third may be an external member, in which case you’ll need to provide their CV. Your advisor is one of the three but cannot chair the committee – one of the other two chairs instead.

Email your proposed committee to the Graduate Program Director for approval. This is an informal approval within the Department – unlike the PhD, an MA committee doesn’t need to be submitted to or approved by the Graduate School.

Write the Thesis and Hold the Defense

You arrange your own defense time and location. The defense should be a public event.

Your oral defense must happen on or before the last day of classes of the term you’re graduating in – plan to defend a few days ahead of that deadline rather than on the last day itself, in case something comes up.

Submit to your committee. Send your committee the written thesis at least two weeks before the defense, so they have time to read it carefully.

There’s no need to submit your thesis to the Graduate School, but if you choose to, it must follow the Graduate School’s Thesis and Dissertation Guidelines and use the official Thesis Template (MA) (.docx).

Most students actually write their thesis in LaTeX rather than Word, even though there’s no official University LaTeX template. A web search will turn up unofficial ones that other Stony Brook Physics students have used and passed down – it’s your responsibility to check whatever you find against the current Guidelines above, since unofficial templates can fall out of date.

Confirm the Defense Results

Right after a successful defense, have your Committee Chair email the Graduate Program Director and the Graduate Coordinator with the results.

Submit Your Thesis and Complete Certification

Send a copy of your final thesis to the Graduate Program Director and the Graduate Coordinator for departmental records, as soon as you can after the defense – but absolutely no later than the end of the term.

Shortly after the end of the term – typically within the first week of the next term – the Graduate Coordinator certifies that you’ve completed all requirements for the degree.