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Pre- and Post Defense Steps

Prior to scheduling the defense of their Ph.D., students are required to publish a first-author manuscript that describes original research findings.

Pre-Defense

  1. Ensure you have met the requirement of publishing a first-author, peer-reviewed original research manuscript (Dissertation Completion), and confirm with your committee that you are permitted to defend.
  2. You must apply to graduate by the deadline (additional information and application form can be found here).
  3. Answer the question in the Graduation Publications form.
  4. Fill out the Graduation Notification form

At Defense

At your defense, we will have paperwork for your committee to sign, which will be sent to the Graduate School.

Post Defense

  1. You must submit your thesis by the deadline (additional information can be found here).
  2. We have been told the thesis approval process can be lengthy as they are picky about the formatting (Thesis and Dissertation Resources )
  3. Please email ccaaron@unc.edu & cc phco_graduate@med.unc.edu once you have uploaded your thesis so we can process the remaining paperwork.
  4. Fill out the PHCO exit survey found here https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eQAzYpialf9HtT7
  5. Once your thesis is uploaded and approved, the Graduate School will email you an exit survey.
  6. You will no longer have access to UNC email. Create an out-of-office notice and provide a new email address.
  7. If you have dependents on your insurance, call BCBS to stop dependent payments.

Students can view the status of their degree milestones in their Student Center in ConnectCarolina (please note most of the milestones are completed after your upload your thesis, and this is why it’s important to let ccaaron@unc.edu know when you upload your thesis).