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Ed.D Progression

The information below outlines the components of doctoral students' progression throughout the program. Each student must complete all components prior to graduation.

  • The doctoral coordinator will send students information related to the orientation.
  • Determine a doctoral chair.
  • Collaborate with doctoral chair to determine two or three additional committee members, following EdD program guidelines.
  • Pass the comprehensive examination.
  • Defend a proposal (i.e., introduction, literature review, and methodology chapters) to the doctoral committee.
  • After proposal has been approveda, submit an IRB application.
  • After IRB approval, collect data related to dissertation study.
  • Analyze data and write the results and discussion chaptersb.
  • Confer with doctoral chair about which semester to apply for graduation.
  • Defend dissertation to the doctoral committee.
  • Carefully follow the guidelines in the APSU Dissertation and Thesis Manual to finalize your dissertation document.
  • Submit dissertation document to ProQuest and revise until approval is received.
  • Doctoral chair completes the Verification of Ed.D. form
  • Coordinator submits form to the College of Graduate Studies after all items on the EdD graduation checklist are completed.

a Once you pass the comprehensive examination and successfully defend your proposal, you become a doctoral candidate (instead of a doctoral student).

b Schedule the dissertation defense a minimum of 8 weeks prior to graduation to ensure time for post-defense revising, editing, formatting, and uploading to ProQuest.