New: Thesis Drop-in sessions available for March only.

Thesis Deadlines

A thesis may be submitted at any time. However, for each of the three annual dates for conferring degrees/convocation, there are deadlines for initial submission and for deposition of the final, corrected version of the thesis. Please note that some Units enforce earlier submission deadlines than those listed by GPS, so it is important to verify these dates with your respective graduate Unit.

The following table provides general information regarding deadlines for initial thesis submission, which determines registration status, and for final thesis submission, which determines the date of graduation. For specific initial and final thesis submission dates, as well as other milestones such as oral exams, please refer to deadlines for graduation.

Meeting the initial submission dates does not carry any guarantee regarding graduation. The final thesis deposition signals inclusion on the graduation list.

Registration Status

  • In order to submit a thesis for examination, the student must be registered in the appropriate degree program. Registration for any given year expires on the last working day in August.
  • All students must be registered and pay fees for the term prior to degree granting. Students in thesis programs will maintain their current registration status (i.e. Full-time or Additional Session status) for the term in which the initial thesis is submitted.
  • If the initial thesis submission and final thesis submission is not submitted in the same term, students in thesis programs will be registered in Thesis Evaluation status for all subsequent terms after the term of initial thesis submission until the term of final thesis submission, according to the table below.
Initial Submission Final Submission Additional Session Thesis Evaluation Graduation
Apr 16 – Aug 15 Aug 16 – Dec 15 Summer Fall February
Aug 16 – Dec 15 Dec 16 – Apr 15 Fall Winter May
Dec 16 – Apr 15 Apr 16 – Aug 15 Winter Summer October

Initial and Final Submission in the same term

Apr 16 – Aug 15 Apr 16 – Aug 15 Summer None October
Aug 16 – Dec 15 Aug 16 – Dec 15 Fall None February
Dec 16 – Apr 15 Dec 16 – Apr 15 Winter None May

NOTE: Should the deadline date (Aug 15, Dec 15, Apr 15) fall on a weekend or a holiday, the effective deadline date will be the next working day.

Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 4.0 International License.
Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, McGill University.

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