Students who miss the listed Thesis/Dissertation Submission deadline on the Deadlines page for a given term may graduate in the following term without registering in that term if they submit the final dissertation by the Early Term Thesis/Dissertation Submission Deadline. Students must be registered in the term immediately preceding the deadline; for example, a student who misses the regular Spring term submission deadline but submits by the Summer Early Term Submission Deadline must be registered in Spring term.
There is no defense deadline associated with Early Term Graduation, but if you are planning to meet an Early Term Thesis/Dissertation Submission deadline, you should allow enough time (about two weeks) between the defense and the submission deadline to make all revisions provided at the defense and obtain final committee approval.
For master's degree students, no coursework applied to degree requirements can be more than seven years old at the time of graduation; for example, a course taken in fall 2014 can only be used through fall 2021 graduation. Early Term Graduation allows use of coursework though the term of graduation; for example, a course taken in fall 2014 can be used for winter 2022 Early Term Graduation.
The primary difference between Early Term Graduation and regular graduation is that you do not have to register in your term of graduation. Early Term Graduation is processed on the same timeline as regular graduation, which means that degrees are awarded after the end of the term. It does not mean that your graduation will be processed as soon as all degree requirements are completed, so please plan accordingly.