Requirements for the Graduation

1. Completion of at least 30 semester hours of coursework, with an average grade of "B" or above in each course approved for the program, including both didactic courses and research. Students can obtain no more than two grades of C, and these credit hours must be balanced out by the same number of credit hours in a didactic course in which a student obtains an A. This ‘balancing’ cannot occur using by grades from Thesis Research or the Graduate Seminar in a particular discipline.
2. The required 30 hours of coursework should include least 21 hours in courses intended principally for graduate students (numbered 500 or above). A maximum of six hours of graduate coursework may be transferred from another accredited institution. These 30 hours of coursework should include at least 3 registered hours, and no more than 6-9 hours (depending on the graduate program) in Thesis Research, that count toward this 30 hour requirement. In some programs, when explicitly stated, the number of credits required may exceed 30 credits.

   To allow students to be registered for at least 9 hours per semester (i.e., as a full-time graduate student) during their training, students may also register for Thesis Preparation, but the hours registered for Thesis Preparation do NOT count toward the 30 hours of graduate work.

   The grade requirements beyond the minimum 30 hours may be set by the graduate faculty of the program, but the overall GPA of a graduate student must be 3.0 or above to qualify for graduation with the Master's degree. Courses may be repeated no more than once for a higher grade, and when this is done, only the last grade received is counted toward the degree or in computation of grade point average.

   For the MS specifically:

3. Completion of a satisfactory Master's thesis on a subject approved by the student’s research mentor/supervisor and the members of the student’s thesis committee.
4. Completion, at a passing level, of an oral defense of the thesis, or an oral/written exam, depending on the program, administered by the graduate faculty of that program.
5. Receipt and approval of the final copy of the thesis. Students have NOT earned their degree after their presentation of their thesis research but only after that presentation is followed by a completed thesis document.

   Review of the final thesis document is no longer a responsibility of the Fisk University Library, but is the responsibility of the Dean of Graduate Studies. An electronic copy of this thesis must be submitted to bnelms@fisk.edu and ccoca@fisk.edu after all corrections have been made in response to requests from the thesis committee. After review and approval of this document by the Dean of Graduate studies, the Registrar of Fisk University will be informed, electronically, that the graduate student has met all of the requirements for the Master’s degree.

   Students may wish to have a bound copy of their thesis for themselves or for their thesis mentor, which they can obtain by printing the document on bond or other paper, and then having it bound by FedEx Office or other services.

6. The student is expected to take responsibility for knowing and complying with any additional requirements specific to the student's graduate program.