Requirements for M.S. degree with thesis in ME/RE (Spring 2026)
In order to be eligible to receive your M.S. this Fall, you must:
1. Apply to graduate by February 6th, 2026 and have an approved Nomination of Committee form on file, ideally 6 weeks before your defense. The deadline to submit this form to segen@umd.edu is 1pm EST on March 2nd, 2026.
2. Submit a Request for Transfer or Inclusion of Credit (signed by your advisor) by March 1st, 2026 to segen@umd.edu. You need to complete this form if you want to:
- Use graduate credits not used for a previously granted degree from any University
- Use graduate credits not used for a previously granted degree when once enrolled in a department outside of ENME/ENRE at UMD (ex. MAGE, BIOE, etc.).
- Use courses you have already been approved to use for undergrad/grad credit as a B.S./M.S. student
NOTE: Courses that are older than 5 years old will need to be revalidated by our office and the Graduate School and this process can take 6-8 weeks. Please reach out if you have graduate courses older than 5 years old that you want to use towards your M.S. that were not used for a previously granted degree.
3. Submit an Approved Program form (signed by your advisor) to segen@umd.edu by April 28th, 2026. Please do not attach your degree audit to this form.
4. Email segen@umd.edu with the following information 2 weeks before your defense:
- Title of your thesis
- The date, time, & location of your defense (you are responsible for booking a room for your defense)
- Zoom link (optional)
- List of all your approved committee members
- Abstract
5. Successfully defend your thesis and submit it to ETD by April 28th, 2026:
- As a graduate student, you may, upon the recommendation of the dissertation director, and with the endorsement of the home graduate program’s Graduate Director, include your own published works as part of the final dissertation. Appropriate citations within the dissertation, including where the work was previously published, are required. All such materials must be produced in standard dissertation format. To do so, please have your advisor sign the attached letter and send it to megrad@umd.edu to obtain the Director of Graduate Studies’ signature. Once we return the letter to you, you must embed the letter into your dissertation before submission (students typically place this letter right after their cover page).
- When submitting your thesis to ETD, please ensure you select your correct home department (ENME vs. ENRE).
- You may place an embargo (a restriction) on your thesis. If you want to place an embargo for up to two years, you can email ProQuest at disspub@proquest.com to request your embargo. If you’d like to place an embargo for more than two years, please fill out the Thesis/Dissertation Embargo Request form.
Other reminders:
1. Please ensure you have met the coursework/research credit requirements to graduate and register for at least 1 credit this Fall.
2. While you are welcome to use u.Achieve to evaluate your academic progress, it does not imply degree clearance and our office will not review any potential discrepancies in your audit until after the semester is over.
3. Pending a review of the above materials and your student record, degrees earned this Fall will be awarded and appear on transcripts on/around June 11th, 2026.