In the final term of their graduate program, research students are required to defend their thesis or non-thesis project. This defense is also called your final oral exam.
At least two weeks before the exam is to take place, three things must happen:
- An Exam Scheduling Form must be submitted. This allows the Office of Graduate Education to run a final audit on your POS.
- Thesis students must send their thesis pretext pages to the Office of Graduate Education. Non-thesis students are not required to send anything to the Office of Graduate Education.
- A defendable copy of your thesis must be distributed to your committee. Most, but not all, faculty also require their non-thesis students to distribute a defendable copy of their project report to their committee, so check with your major professor as to what they require of you.
Before submitting the Exam Scheduling Form students will need to determine the date, time and location of their exam by contacting all of their committee members (including a GCR for PhD and MS-thesis students) and coordinating the event to work with everyone’s schedules. Students may work with Stephanie Grigar in 216 Rogers Hall to reserve the MIME Seminar room or other appropriate venue for their exam.
Exams should be scheduled to minimize conflict with MIME graduate courses. Graduating MS and PhD students should announce their research presentations at least two weeks in advance. A standard form for thesis defense announcements can be obtained from Stephanie Grigar in 204B Rogers Hall. All currently enrolled MIME graduate students are strongly encouraged to attend the presentation phase of their colleagues' final oral examinations.
- PhD and MS–thesis students must submit the pretext pages of their thesis to the Office of Graduate Education before scheduling the final oral examination. The PhD and MS-thesis option final oral examination has two components: a public presentation of your research and an oral examination conducted by their committee. The exam lasts two hours. More information of exam requirements can be found on the Office of Graduate Education website.
- For MS–project students, the final oral examination is conducted by the student’s graduate committee for the purpose of ensuring a solid understanding of engineering concepts and practice within the student’s discipline. The project must be completed prior to the examination, and copies of the project report must be distributed to all committee member at least one week prior to the examination. Although there is no required public presentation component, up to one-half of the two hour exam may be devoted to presentation of and questions about the project. The exam lasts one to two hours.
- For Master of Engineering (MEng) students a portfolio of their graduate work while at Oregon State University will be used as an alternative summative assessment in lieu of a final oral exam. For MEng students who began their program prior to Fall 2025, this portfolio will be prepared as part of a class, ENGR 521 MEng Portfolio Completion (1 credit), which is taken during their final term. For MEng students who began Fall 2025 or later, this portfolio will be written in WR 545 Technical Writing for Professional Engineers (3 credits), take during their last or second to last term.