Final Public Oral (FPO) Checklist

Timeline to FPO

When planning your FPO

At least seven weeks before:

  • Confirm FPO date with your FPO committee
  • Notify the Graduate Program Administrator who your readers will be, date of the FPO and names of the examiners
  • Distribute final draft of your dissertation to readers

Four weeks before:

  • Complete the Advanced Degree Application in TigerHub
    • You will need to upload a copy of your title page and abstract. Note there is a strict 350-word limitation for the abstract
    • Upload the Ph.D. Dissertation Embargo Request and Approval form, if applicable

No less than two week before:

  • Send the Graduate Program Administrator a pdf of your final dissertation and two reader reports

At least three days before:

  • Confirm that your FPO has been approved and the announcement has been posted. 

Day of FPO:

  • Defend!

Following the FPO:

  • Submit dissertation PDF to Princeton’s ProQuest ETD site, paying any applicable publishing and copyright fees (the Graduate School requires traditional or open access publication and does not allow publication restrictions);
  • Complete the Survey of Earned Doctorates (Save a pdf copy of the "Certificate of Completion" page);
  • Complete the Graduate School Exit Questionnaire (Save a pdf copy of the "Confirmation of Completion" page);
  • Complete the checkout process for students departing the University in TigerHub.
  • Complete the MAE Department Exit form.

 

Once all actions are complete, graduate students must log in to TigerHub to complete the submission of the final paperwork process.  All final paperwork is normally submitted immediately following the successful completion of the FPO examination, but in no case later than two weeks after the defense or by the degree deadline, whichever comes first.

Beginning with the April 2022 degree list and moving forward, the vast majority of Ph.D. students will not be required to submit a printed bound copy of the dissertation to the Mudd Manuscript Library. Students who have removed content from the PDF version of the dissertation to avoid copyright infringement are still required to submit a bound copy to the library with all content included. This unredacted, bound version of the dissertation must be formatted according to the Dissertation Formatting Guidelines, and delivered by hand, mail, or delivery service to the Mudd Manuscript Library by the degree date deadline in order to be placed on the degree list. Address the bound copy to: Attn: Dissertations, Mudd Manuscript Library, 65 Olden Street, Princeton, NJ 08540.