Required Milestones for the PhD Degree

PhD 2025 Milestone Configuration
Student responsibility – Complete the below milestones in Grad Tracker 

CC – Committee Chair
SVC – Supervisory Committee
GC – Grad Coordinator
DGS – Director of Grad Studies

Milestone	Good Progress (semester)	Form in Grad Tracker	Uploads Required in Grad Tracker	Approvals Needed in Grad Tracker
Program Declaration	1	Program Declaration.pdf		GC
Supervisory Committee	4	Supervisory Committee [PhD] Form.pdf	Current CV and justification letter IF the student chooses a committee member outside of the University	CC SVC GC DGS
Written Qualifying Exam	4	Qualifying Exam Registration Form.pdf	Can upload 2-page summary or send directly to chair	CC GC
Read Thesis Handbook	5	NONE
Proposal Defense	5	Proposal [PhD] Announcement.pdf		CC GC
Milestone MS (Optional)	5
Final Program of Study	7	2025 Program of Study [PhD].pdf		CC SVC GC DGS
Submit Preliminary Review to Thesis Office	7		Proof of a Preliminary Review of format from the Thesis Office will be due for the Final Dissertation Content Acknowledgment/ Submission Milestone
Dissertation Defense	10	Defense [PhD] Announcement & Content Review.pdf	May upload manuscript here or email to Committee Chair	CC SVC GC
Apply for Graduation	10
Final Dissertation Content Acknowledgment/ Submission	10		Upload (1) a Grammarly Report showing that there are no major grammar, spelling or punctuation errors. (2) Proof of a Preliminary Review of format from the Thesis Office. An edited page or two of the manuscript is sufficient.

Stand Alone Forms
Defense Summary Guidelines.pdf
Report_PhD Qualifying Written Exam.pdf
Report_PhD Proposal.pdf
Report_ PhD Defense.pdf
Report_PhD Due Progress.pdf   

PhD Student Responsibilities, Monitoring of Progress

Good versus acceptable progress: Students completing milestones within the time frame denoted as “good” are generally considered to be in good standing in the program. Students completing milestones within the time frame denoted as “acceptable” are considered to be making acceptable progress in the program and are encouraged to continue on and attempt to meet successive milestones within the time frames denoted as “good.”

Students may or may not be considered in good standing, depending upon evaluation of the Director of Robotics Studies with input from their committee. Students not completing milestones within the time frame denoted as “acceptable” are not considered in good standing. Students not in good standing can face consequences including loss of funding or expulsion from the PhD program. See Probation.

All PhD students are required to upload a Due Progress Form in the Fall semester every year by October 15th using the Engineering Progress Tracking system. Those students who fail to submit their due progress forms by this deadline can face consequences including loss of funding or expulsion from the program. 

The faculty as a whole conducts a Graduate Student Progress Review meeting every Fall semester (typically in November) to review and monitor graduate student progress. Advice generated during this meeting and other monitoring activities will be suitably conveyed to the student (typically via email from the Director of Robotics Studies, their faculty advisor(s) and/or Graduate Advisors). 

All PhD students who are found lagging in any of their progress categories are additionally required to provide an update to their status by April 15th. By this date, they must also inform their faculty advisor(s) how they have responded to comments (if any) passed on to them. Failure to do so can result in consequences similar to those noted in our PROBATION POLICY.

Time Limit

The Graduate School states that a PhD has to be completed in seven years. If a student exceeds this time limit, they are required to submit a formal letter requesting an extension and including a completion plan, endorsed by the student, the committee chair, and the director of graduate studies and to be reviewed by the Dean of the Graduate School. Extensions may be granted for one or two semesters. Further extensions will only be considered for single semesters.