Welcome to the Thesis & Dissertations Resources page! In order to effectively begin your writing journey, you will need an APA Style 7th Edition Manual, one of the templates, and the thesis & dissertation checklist.

Templates: These documents serve as models for formatting a journal-ready thesis, a journal-ready dissertation, a journal-ready 3-article dissertation, a traditional (5-chapter) thesis, and a traditional (5-chapter) dissertation and include all formatting required by BYU and the American Psychological Association (7th edition). The templates include formatted heading styles, the formatted Table of Contents, and formatted page numbers, so all you need to do is insert your text, apply styles to each heading, and update the table of contents. Please watch this introductory video to familiarize yourself with the tools available in the template. In addition, much of the instruction you need for writing your thesis or dissertation is in the directions found in each section in the templates. 

Some departments will have guidelines for specific parts, so check with them, and all theses and dissertations that include human subjects need to include a copy of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) Letter of Approval to Conduct Research and the stamped IRB consent/assent forms in an appendix.

Download your template from the following list:

McKay School of Education Checklist for Formats and Conventions of Theses and Dissertations: The checklist describes the important writing and formatting requirements of the MSE and BYU Graduate Studies. Students must submit this completed checklist (electronic or paper) to the MSE dean's office with their thesis/dissertation for approval. The more carefully you review your thesis or dissertation for these items, the faster your submission process will be. 

These videos walk through the different sections of formatting your thesis or dissertation. Please let Jena Green know if you need something specific that is not available here yet.

  • Title Page: Video
  • Abstract & Acknowledgments Pages: Video
  • Table of Contents: Video
  • List of Tables and List of Figures: Video
  • Description of Content & Structure: Video
  • Headings & Styles: Video
  • The Reference List: Video
  • Using Reciteworks.com: Video
  • The Annotated Bibliography (if needed): Video

For extra support with the writing and formatting requirements, schedule a meeting with Jena Green here and email the section you're working on to jena.green@byu.edu 2-3 days before your meeting.

MSE Thesis & Dissertation Approval Process: When you have finished your thesis or dissertation, you will need to receive approval from your committee, chair, graduate coordinator, and the dean's office. This flowchart illustrates the approval process. First submit your MS Word document to your committee and chair. When they have all reviewed it, send it to the graduate coordinator. Finally, when the graduate coordinator has reviewed it and you have made all of the corrections from the committee, chair, and graduate coordinator, you or your graduate coordinator will send an updated, clean MS Word final version to msegradsec@byu.edu. This process will take a few back-and-forths to finish. Plan enough time ahead of the submission deadlines to make corrections you will receive from your committee, chair, graduate coordinator, and the MSE dean's office. 

Creating and Uploading Your Electronic Thesis and Dissertation (ETD): After making changes from the dean's office, you will convert your MS Word document to a PDF with bookmarks and embed the fonts. This works best with Adobe Acrobat Pro and this video will show you the quickest way to embed fonts. After doing this, send the PDF to msegradsec@byu.edu, and after approval, upload it to the Graduate Progress website. Below are example PDFs to help you see how the bookmarks should appear in your final ETD.

Once your thesis/dissertation has been released for publication on the BYU Scholars Archive website, it will be available for worldwide access. You can search for and download theses/dissertations and faculty publications on this website and access article metrics (e.g., number of downloads).

2024-2025 Graduate Graduation Deadlines for the McKay School:

(Check with your department for your program's deadlines.)

December 2024 Graduation Deadlines:

See department for defense scheduling deadline. 
Sep. 13: Last day to apply for graduation 
Nov. 18: Defense has to be held by this day 
Nov. 25: Deadline to submit the electronic MS Word version to the MSE dean’s office 
Dec. 9:  Deadline to submit pdf to msegradsec@byu.edu 
Dec. 12: ETD upload deadline
 

April 2025 Graduation Deadlines:

See department for defense scheduling deadline. 
Jan. 24: Last day to apply for graduation 
Mar. 24: Defense has to be held by this day 
Mar. 31: Deadline to submit the electronic MS Word version to the MSE dean’s office 
Apr. 14:  Deadline to submit pdf to msegradsec@byu.edu 
Apr. 17: ETD upload deadline
 

June 2025 Graduation Deadlines:

See department for defense scheduling deadline. 
May 5: Last day to apply for graduation 
May 20: Defense has to be held by this day 
May 27: Deadline to submit the electronic MS Word version to the MSE dean’s office 
June 10: Deadline to submit pdf to msegradsec@byu.edu 
June 13: ETD upload deadline
 

August 2025 Graduation Deadlines:

See department for defense scheduling deadline. 
June 20: Last day to apply for graduation 
July 15: Defense has to be held by this day 
July 22: Deadline to submit the electronic MS Word version to the MSE dean’s office 
August 5: Deadline to submit pdf to msegradsec@byu.edu 
August 8: ETD upload deadline
 

The following individuals can be hired to support students in the formatting and writing process. It is not mandatory to hire an editor. Please contact editors concerning prices. Inclusion in this list does not constitute an endorsement by the McKay School of Education.

Catherine Smith

catherinesmithediting@gmail.com

(801) 830-7121

Margaret Zerkle

mzerkle@gmail.com

(801) 766-5147

Suzy Bills

suzy@writingandeditingbysuzy.com

(602) 318-2218

Jessie Scoville

jes.scoville@gmail.com 

(734) 272-1473

Stirling Miller

Smm.etd@gmail.com 

(801) 675-6044

Faculty Publishing Service, Heather Randall

byu.fps@gmail.com  

(801) 824-9334