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Top Ten Most Common Mistakes Students Make When Filing Dissertations or Master's Theses

10. Original signatures of faculty are on the wrong paper. Make sure they are on one of the approved archival papers as listed in the Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral Dissertation or a Master's Thesis. If the signatures are on the wrong paper, you will have to get new signatures on the right paper. Your dissertation or thesis will not be accepted unless this is done.

9. Student's name on the title page is not exactly as it is in our records. Check your unofficial transcript or your record on Bear Facts. Do not go by your name on your registration card (names are often times abbreviated due to lack of space).

8. Student's former degrees listed on title page are not exactly the same as our records. The year or name of the degree might be different. Check your unofficial transcript or your record on Bear Facts.

7. On title page the title of the degree to be received and the major conflict. See samples in the Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral Dissertation or a Master's Thesis, especially engineering majors.

6. Student's faculty committee is different from what we have. Be sure you officially changed your committee with us if it's different from when you first advanced to candidacy.

5. Dedication or acknowledgements are single-spaced. These must be double-spaced. See the Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral Dissertation or a Master's Thesis on preliminary pages.

4. Pagination varies. All page numbers must be in the same place throughout the document, including text, illustrations, bibliography, and appendices. See the Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral Dissertation or a Master's Thesis on pagination.

3. First page of each chapter does not have a page number. All pages of the main body of the document must have a page number. Beware of preformatted software programs.

2. Waiting until the last minute to have your committee read the dissertation or thesis and one of the professors is out of the country. Give that professor a copy before he or she leaves or mail it along with a blank signature page on the right paper, which they can sign and send back to you by the time you file.

1. Not reading the Guidelines for Submitting a Doctoral Dissertation or a Master's Thesis thoroughly. Please be sure that the guidelines you are using is the most updated edition. The most updated version is also available on the Web (PDF version of Guidelines).

If you have questions, please contact Graduate Degrees, 302 Sproul Hall, (510) 642-7330, degrees@berkeley.edu.