ABD Process

Owned by Kristine Weisblatt
Last updated: May 15, 2023
2 min read

A student should be in ABD  if:

  • Passed required 48 Credits of coursework (including Dissertation Credits)
  • Passed the qualifying examinations for the PhD in Physics
  • Passed the Departmental Oral Exam for the PhD in Physics

Filling out the ABD Memo

The date attained ABD status in the ABD Physics Program is the date they completed their last class or exam.

The degree requirements changed recently so you need to make sure that you are listing the correct core courses for their requirement year.

Check the graduate catalog year for degree requirements: Click link below, choose correct year in dropdown menu, click on Arts & Sciences, scroll down and click Physics PhD.

 http://coursecatalog.syr.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=12&poid=5989&returnto=1592

Send a copy of the DegreeWorks Audit & ABD memo to the Director of Graduate Studies for approval. Once they approve, apply their signature to ABD memo and to the top of the audit sheet.

When submitting the ABD milestone memo you will also include the signed degree audit.  Send both to degreecert@syr.edu


Saving the DegreeWorks Audit

When you print the degree audit worksheet from Degree Works to Adobe PDF, click “More Settings” then for Scale select “Custom”, then select 60.  This will lower the number of pages of the PDF…instead of an 7 page PDF it will save as 3-4 page PDF.

Important steps before saving a PDF of the Degree Audit:

  1. Be sure you are reviewing the most current degree audit in Degree Works by clicking “Process New”.
  2. Any requirement that is not checked is incomplete. The student will need to submit a petition indicate how the requirement was met.
  3. Check to see if there are any degree applicable courses that are falling into “Courses Not Allocated”. If there are, the courses must be petitioned to be used to complete the degree requirements. Please be sure you are submitting all necessary petitions with the signed PDF of the Degree Audit to degreecert@syr.edu.  
  4. ***Triple Counting*** – Degree Works does not check to see if a course is being used more than once to fulfill degree requirements. If a student is pursuing multiple degrees (CAS, MA, PhD etc.) we need to manually check each audit to ensure that a course is not being used more than twice to fulfill degree requirements and adjust the audits accordingly.  Any changes to the degree audit must be done by petition.  You might need to submit a petition to update the audit, adding or removing a course, to ensure that triple counting does not occur.  
  5. Save as a PDF.
  6. Be sure to have the saved PDF signed by the appropriate authorized signor of programs of study for your department and forward to degreecert@syr.edu
  7. Degree Works updates overnight. Updates in Peoplesoft can take 24-48 hours to appear in Degree Works.