Doctoral students at Penn GSE are encouraged to stay in close contact with their program managers, academic advisors, and committee members to ensure they are fulfilling the doctoral milestones required by their degree.

The following resources are designed to help you navigate your curricula and degree requirements at Penn GSE.

Doctoral Student Resources

Canvas Site

This site contains in-depth guides to administrative processes, degree requirements, and more. It also catalogs communications sent to doctoral students that may contain professional development opportunities, grant information, and programming.

Visit Canvas Site

Common topics covered in the above Canvas site include:

• Understanding doctoral milestones
• Continuing enrollment after coursework
• Forming a dissertation committee
• Leaves of absence 
• PhD-specific policies and procedures, explained

Note: the above Canvas site is designed for traditional doctoral program students and may not apply to executive-format program curricula.

Dissertation Resources

The below five resources are meant to provide you the full scope of formatting expectations for your dissertation. Each of these resources provides you with a different level of depth for understanding dissertation formatting. 

Dissertation Manuals

The below dissertation manuals provide A-Z comprehensive guidance on every aspect of dissertation formatting. The templates provide easy starting points where you can plug in your own dissertation text and begin formatting.

• Ed.D. Dissertation Manual
• Ed.D. Dissertation Template
• Ph.D. Dissertation Manual
• Ph.D. Dissertation Template

Dissertation Checklist

The below checklists provide a high-level review of common issues that prevent doctoral students from advancing through dissertation submission in a timely manner. You will need to complete the checklist in order to submit your dissertation. For visual learners, we have provided a video walkthrough of the checklist below.

• Ed.D. Dissertation Formatting Checklist (Online form) (must be completed before dissertation submission)
• Ed.D. Dissertation Formatting Checklist (Word doc) 
• Ph.D. Dissertation Formatting Checklist (PDF)

Video Walkthrough of the Ed.D. Dissertation Formatting Checklist

Note: video is broken into chapters per specific formatting topic. Scrub through video playback or visit the YouTube link to skip to individual chapters.

Graduation Resources

Graduation Guides and Workshops

• Demystifying Doctoral Graduation - Spring 2026 (Registration Required)
• Dissertation Formatting: Basics and More - Spring 2026 (Registration Required)

Graduation Quick Links

• Determining Graduation Term: Flowchart
• Tuition Waiver Policy
• Schedule Final Defense (please file two weeks in advance of planned date of defense)
• Ph.D. Students: Graduate Degrees Information for Graduating Students

Do you have any questions?

We are here to help. Don't hesitate to reach out to our Director of Academic Affairs, Chris Kubik Cedeño, at cdkubik@upenn.edu.