Plan your Defense

Thesis and dissertation defenses are public events and are advertised throughout the university. Your graduate coordinator can answer any questions on how you should prepare. Please complete the following steps before you may hold your defense:

• Register and submit a complete draft of your thesis/dissertation to ProQuest.
• To watch a video tutorial on how to set up your ProQuest account, click here: How to set up a ProQuest Account
• Don’t worry—you will need to click ‘submit’ several times during the account set-up.  You are NOT sending your document to ProQuest; the Graduate School does that after the Registrar verifies all requirements for your degree are finalized.
• If you feel you need to delay the release of your thesis or dissertation, please see the ISU Embargo Policy.
• Here is information about ordering bound copies of your thesis/dissertation from Milner library if you wish to do so. Binding flyer
• Any changes to your committee composition since your proposal requires a Committee Change form to be submitted to Hovey Hall 209 or dissert@ilstu.edu.
• Complete the Right to Defend form and return it to Hovey Hall 209 or dissert@ilstu.edu at least 10 days before your planned defense date. Students must wait at least 7 business days after approval of the Right to Defend to hold their defense. Be sure you check deadlines for the last date to hold your defense.
• If any changes have been made to your copyright checklist, complete section 5 of the Proposal Approval form and submit it to the Graduate School with your Right to Defend form.
• Please notify the Graduate School of the defense date and other details.

Thesis & Dissertation Format Check

As you wait for your defense date, you may want to schedule an optional thesis/dissertation format check to ensure your document is formatted correctly.

• Submit an electronic draft of your entire thesis/dissertation to ProQuest.
• E-mail dissert@ilstu.edu to schedule your format check. You do not need to be present during the format check, but you do need to reserve a time.
• Format checks are done weekly and a limited number of reservations are available. The last two weeks of the semester, and first four weeks following the end of the semester are reserved for review of final submissions. No optional format checks are done during this time. 
• Due to time limitations only one format check can be done prior to submission of final deposit materials.