The deposit, and not the defense, is the final requirement for the Ph.D. and professional degrees. The vast majority of candidates deposit their dissertation in the form of two unbound manuscripts (see below for depositing as commercial work.) Dissertations may be deposited at the Dissertation Office, 107 Low Memorial Library, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:45 p.m. GSAS urges the candidate to deposit the dissertation even if financial obligations to Columbia University have yet to be resolved. If outstanding amounts are owed at the time of degree conferral, Student Financial Services places a hold on the diploma and/or transcripts. Regardless of outstanding financial or other non-deposit related obligations, the graduation date of record will always be the conferral date following the complete dissertation deposit.

The regulations covering the dissertation deposit are uniform to facilitate cataloging and to ensure that the dissertation is accessible to other scholars. The availability of the dissertation to interested scholars is an integral part of the requirements for the doctoral degree. If format rules are not followed, the Dissertation Office will ask that any problem areas in the dissertation be corrected before accepting the final deposit. Candidates should ask the Dissertation Office about any special problems while preparing the manuscript and email or bring sample pages of your work to the dissertation office for a formatting check.

The candidate is eligible to receive the degree on the conferral date following the completion of all requirements including the final deposit. Degrees are awarded in October, February, and May. The Doctoral Convocation and the University Commencement ceremony take place once a year in mid-May for the three conferral dates. Those who have defended successfully, but have not yet deposited, are eligible to participate in these ceremonies.

All deposits must be completed by 4:00 p.m. on the Friday preceding the degree date, see here for dates and deadlines. As a routine part of every deposit, the Dissertation Office issues a letter certifying that all academic requirements have been completed. This letter also contains the date of degree conferral.

Diploma

The Registrar orders diplomas throughout the year. The diploma will be included in the batch order that follows the complete deposit. It generally takes four weeks after the degree conferral for the diploma to arrive at the Registrar’s Diploma Desk; after that time, one may telephone (212-854-8319) the Diploma Desk to find out if it is ready.

The earlier the deposit is made before the conferral date, the more likely it will be that the diploma will be ready for pick-up at the Diploma Desk in 210 Kent on the conferral date. If the deposit is made close to the conferral date it may not be possible to obtain the diploma on the conferral date. If the candidate chooses to have the diploma mailed, four to ten weeks are generally necessary for it to arrive. Please notify the Dissertation Office at the time of deposit which option is preferred. The diploma is not be available prior to the degree conferral date.

Name Change and Special Characters in Names

The student’s name on the diploma will be the name as it appears on the student’s SSOL. The Dissertation Office is permitted to add, change and remove middle names only. Changes to the first and/or last name must be made through the Registrar’s Office via a formal Name Change.Students are advised that formal name changes must be completed prior to the deposit. Name changes can be completed in person at the Registrar’s office in 210 Kent by bringing all of the following three forms of identification: 1. Government-issued photo ID, 2. Another form of ID, 3. Proof of use of the old name (credit card, CUID, marriage certificate, bank statement, etc.) Name changes can also be completed via mail by submitting a notarized affidavit, as well as copies of all three of the above-mentioned forms of identification. The affidavit form is available at the registrar office, here.

Special characters, or accents, are not displayed on SSOL and other student records such as the transcript, but can be inserted for the Doctoral diploma. Please notify the Dissertation Office at the time of the deposit if you would like special characters added to your name.

Cataloging

Please refer to the ProQuest “Publishing your Dissertation” booklet for information on open access and traditional publishing options.

The mandatory deposit fee to cover digitizing, microfilming, binding, shipping, and cataloging, made payable to Columbia University, is $160 for traditional publishing or $255 for open access publishing, see the ProQuest “Publishing your Dissertation” booklet. The Dissertation Office will accept U.S. Postal Money Orders, bank money orders or bank certified checks. If the candidate is depositing from abroad, a money order (in U.S. dollars) drawn on an international bank is acceptable. Cash, credit cards, personal checks and international postal money orders cannot be accepted.