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Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Sat Dec 02, 2017 11:36 pm
by thesisquestion
For master's degrees with a thesis requirement:

Has anyone needed to extend their award because they hadn't completed their thesis? Almost everyone in my program "graduates" with their master's without defending their thesis, and come back months later to defend. I am assuming this would be difficult with SMART, but am wondering if anyone has experience with this.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 2:11 pm
by littlehope
Ooo same exact boat here and same question. Also, if you just graduate without thesis when originally stating you would graduate with, do you need to put in a degree change? I was looking at the form and there is no indications between masters with as without thesis. Asking as a precautionary measure.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 5:23 pm
by kbl2017
littlehope wrote:Ooo same exact boat here and same question. Also, if you just graduate without thesis when originally stating you would graduate with, do you need to put in a degree change? I was looking at the form and there is no indications between masters with as without thesis. Asking as a precautionary measure.
I would tell them, but it shouldn't change anything. I think we are also supposed to update our education plan every time we switch what class we are taking each semester so I assume they just like to have it on record!

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 11:39 am
by cmeeks21
I was also wondering if smart distinguished between a thesis and non-thesis master's because it looks like my thesis may cause me to extend my contract which I would rather not do, so if anybody hears anything please post on the thread.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 3:13 pm
by kbl2017
cmeeks21 wrote:I was also wondering if smart distinguished between a thesis and non-thesis master's because it looks like my thesis may cause me to extend my contract which I would rather not do, so if anybody hears anything please post on the thread.
no - as long as you get the degree they don't care

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 3:17 pm
by thesisornah
kbl2017 wrote:
cmeeks21 wrote:I was also wondering if smart distinguished between a thesis and non-thesis master's because it looks like my thesis may cause me to extend my contract which I would rather not do, so if anybody hears anything please post on the thread.
no - as long as you get the degree they don't care
So they don't care if you don't finish the thesis and get a non-thesis degree, or if you choose to finish the thesis and extend the award?

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 3:58 pm
by kbl2017
thesisornah wrote:
kbl2017 wrote:
cmeeks21 wrote:I was also wondering if smart distinguished between a thesis and non-thesis master's because it looks like my thesis may cause me to extend my contract which I would rather not do, so if anybody hears anything please post on the thread.
no - as long as you get the degree they don't care
So they don't care if you don't finish the thesis and get a non-thesis degree, or if you choose to finish the thesis and extend the award?
well they don't care about the thesis option - no one really even asked me about it and I had the option of doing either. And I think if your research is applicable to your SF then extending to finish your thesis shouldn't be too hard.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2018 4:11 pm
by littlehope
Good luck to everyone attempting to finish because I’m sure many of us in the same boat can surely sympathize. I turned in my first draft last week and have to defend next week. I am at a level way past paranoid, but fingers crossed it all goes well and I don’t even have to contemplate the “what if” scenario.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:47 pm
by Guestwhoitis
littlehope wrote:Good luck to everyone attempting to finish because I’m sure many of us in the same boat can surely sympathize. I turned in my first draft last week and have to defend next week. I am at a level way past paranoid, but fingers crossed it all goes well and I don’t even have to contemplate the “what if” scenario.

I am in the process of filling out the paper work to extend it into the summer. Good Luck!!!

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:54 pm
by thesisornah
Guestwhoitis wrote:
littlehope wrote:Good luck to everyone attempting to finish because I’m sure many of us in the same boat can surely sympathize. I turned in my first draft last week and have to defend next week. I am at a level way past paranoid, but fingers crossed it all goes well and I don’t even have to contemplate the “what if” scenario.

I am in the process of filling out the paper work to extend it into the summer. Good Luck!!!
Could you let us know how SMART responds? I think I will have to extend into the summer to finish as well.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 8:28 am
by hello
hi- I just received the award and haven't been able to chat with my SF yet. I applied for masters and I don't want to do the thesis anymore...do you guys knowif this will be an issue? it will make my time in school shorter.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 3:49 pm
by Guest
Not sure on your specifics, but for my Masters (outside of SMART) I could do a with or without thesis degree. However, the thesis study credits wouldn't count if you didn't finish a thesis, so if you were to just drop it, you would need to take more courses to have enough credits to graduate. I would make sure you're not in this boat.

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Wed May 09, 2018 11:13 pm
by Guest
At my school the thesis option is an M.S. and the non-thesis is an M.S.E. essentially the same, but a few more classes for the non-thesis option, but since they are technically different degrees should we fill out a SAAR to try to switch?

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 12:49 am
by Guest
Yeah, but in the SAAR form, the only option that seems applicable is the degree level, but in the case on thesis versus non-thesis master's you are not really changing the degree level?

Re: Not completing the master's thesis requirement

Posted: Tue May 15, 2018 5:29 pm
by extenze
My original conferral date was to be this June. I don't think I have enough time to finish before then, but my university allows graduate students to take a "filing quarter" which means I have until September to file without paying additional tuition. Obviously it is late but has anyone done something like this before?