Learn about the Thesis/Dissertation and Defense requirements for a master's defense and thesis, and PhD exams and dissertation to complete for graduation.

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Research Requirements

The requirements for graduating with an MS or PhD are significant. “Showing up” is not sufficient. That said, specific requirements are not objectively defined nor published, because each student’s objectives for their program and career are considered. It is your responsibility to meet the requirements. Please review old thesis and dissertation documents published from your lab to understand the level of work and professionalism required.

MS Defense

Defense of your MS thesis should be scheduled at least 2 weeks prior to the deadline set forth by the graduate college. (Note: you can not schedule your thesis defense until approved by your advisor, see below). Schedule for 4 hours, including 1 hour for a public presentation of your research. The presentation should last approximately 45 minutes. Acknowledge the contributions of others to your research and thank those who helped, but refrain from long, overly personal, and inappropriate acknowledgments.  This is a scientific/academic proceeding.  

 

Expect to be asked difficult questions by each member of your committee, to gauge your understanding of your research and your overall degree program.  The term “defense” is chosen for a reason, you will be required to defend your objective, methods, analysis, and interpretation of your results. You will also be asked questions that are more general in nature related to nutrition, physiology, husbandry, statistics, economics, or other relevant disciplines to gauge your understanding of your discipline area.

PhD Exams

All of the above information pertaining to an MS defense is applicable to your written and oral PhD exams.  However, the requirements for earning a PhD are significantly increased from those required for earning an MS.  It is your responsibility to meet the requirements.  You will meet with your committee to establish when and by what means you will be examined for your introduction into candidacy. If, for example, your committee determines you will take a combination of written and oral exams, you will meet with each committee member individually to discuss their requirements for completing your qualifying exams. Each committee member will evaluate your exam upon completion and determine if it meets their standards. Until all committee members are in agreement that you have passed your written exams, you will not proceed to the oral exam. Oral exams should be scheduled at least 2 weeks prior to the deadline. Schedule for a half day.  Expect to be asked difficult questions by each member of your committee, above and beyond what was required for your MS defense.

 

After the oral exams are completed, the committee will determine if you have passed the qualifying exams and are ready to be admitted to doctoral candidacy.  After admission to doctoral candidacy, you may schedule your PhD dissertation defense once your committee has agreed you are ready to write and defend.. Your PhD dissertation defense should follow the guidelines for an MS defense above, except you will again be held to a higher standard as a doctoral candidate.  

Thesis 

A M.S. thesis is an extensive scholarly paper in which the student investigates deeply into a topic, expands on it and demonstrates how they have grown as a graduate student throughout the program. The student should demonstrate that they can apply the practical skills of being a scientist. These include asking specific meaningful questions, finding the information needed to answer those questions, and synthesizing and interpreting that information into a defensible response to the question. While specific requirements are determined for each student by their advisor and committee, a thesis is often 100 pages long.

Typically, in a thesis in Animal Science at OSU, these skills are demonstrated by the student conducting a research project. This involves direct participation in the planning, collection, analysis, and reporting of a data set. The student demonstrates in the thesis that they have a strong command of all phases of the research process.  

This research can take many forms, including:

• a traditional, classically-designed experiment
• a meta-analysis of published data
• conducting a survey
• evaluating a teaching method

 

While less common, a thesis can also be written without the student collecting their own original data. A thesis can be an in-depth investigation of a topic using published literature and the student’s analysis and synthesis of that material. A student still must demonstrate the skills of a scientist. A superficial review of literature without interpretation and summarization isn’t sufficient.

A note on length: Adding additional projects/chapters to your thesis is acceptable as long as they are executed well. Doing 1 chapter well is acceptable, and doing 3 chapters well is excellent, but doing 3 chapters poorly is not acceptable. 

A thesis is defended by the student, and successful completion and defense of a thesis is often viewed as an indicator that you are capable of being successful in a PhD program.

 

Resources

• What Is a Master’s Thesis?
• Thesis Vs. Dissertation
• Dissertation vs Thesis: The Differences that Matter
• The difference between a masters thesis and a PhD thesis

Dissertation

A Ph.D. dissertation is a very extensive, scholarly paper in which you demonstrate the skills of an academic researcher.  While specific requirements are determined for each student by their committee, a dissertation is often 150 to 200 pages long.

In Animal Science at OSU, a dissertation involves the student independently (more or less) conducting a research project from start to finish. This involves asking a researchable question, surveying the literature on that topic, developing a testable hypothesis, designing an experiment to test that hypothesis, conducting the experiment, analyzing the results, and crafting a written summary and interpretation of the results compared to the hypothesis. Often, a dissertation is a series of such experiments/activities, where each result leads to the next question.

A Ph.D. student’s major advisor and committee should participate and advise on each phase of this process, but the student should be the primary force that moves the process forward.

 

Your thesis or dissertation is not only a report of your research, but a reflection of you professionally. It should be without typographical error, clear, concise, and logical. It should be grammatically correct, use appropriate terminology and not contain superfluous or outlandish wording. 

Be sure to review previous theses and dissertations from your lab or discipline area to understand the magnitude of the expectation.  The literature review should be complete and cover the entirety of the subject of your research.  Additional topics that are related to your research may be assigned as literature review by your advisor. Chapters within your thesis or dissertation should be formatted as journal articles suitable for immediate submission to Journal of Animal Science or Applied Animal Scientist. You are encouraged to submit manuscripts to the journals prior to the defense if possible.  

A note on length: Dissertations often require that a student plan and execute a series of projects. A single project/chapter is likely not going to be acceptable. 

Your advisor and committee are available to answer questions and advise you with specific issues about your thesis/dissertation. However, do not expect your advisor or other faculty to complete a thorough review and edit of your thesis prior to your defense. The thesis is your work, and you are required to prepare and defend it successfully in your defense. This also applies to your defense presentation. You must put in the effort and care to make sure your presentation and thesis/dissertation is sound, clear, accurate, and without error. You will be held accountable for that in your defense.

There are two steps to successful completion of your degree requirements. First, you must pass the oral defense. There is a form for that. Many students do this successfully on the first try. If you do not pass your oral defense, the committee will not sign the form.  You must reschedule a second attempt with the committee.  

 

The second step in the process is final approval of the thesis.  There is a separate form for this.  This will only be signed once corrections are made to the satisfaction of the committee.  You can not graduate without both of these steps completed by the deadline.

Graduation

There are two separate (but obviously related) issues here that can get confusing.

• “Graduation” in terms of receiving your degree entails meeting the requirements with the registrar.
• “Graduation” in terms of the ceremony is different. Walking across the stage actually doesn’t require you to complete your degree yet. For example, you can walk across the stage in spring, even if you won’t complete the requirements until summer. Contact Lori Ferguson in the grad college for clarification.