Graduate Milestones & Committees (PDF)

Introduction

All graduate students must complete certain academic and administrative requirements in order to graduate.  Some of these requirements, such as forming a thesis committee, defending a thesis or passing a general exam, are recorded as Graduate Milestones in SPIRE.  Note:  The Graduate School uses the term “thesis” primarily to refer to a master’s thesis and “dissertation” is used for a doctoral manuscript.  The rest of this document follows the Graduate School’s use of these terms.

• The Graduate School updates the majority of the Graduate Milestones and Committees information in SPIRE.  Questions about the current use of milestone and committee information should be directed to the Graduate School. 
• Milestones vary from one program to another.  For example, some master’s programs require a thesis, while others do not. 
• The Graduate School enters most milestones in SPIRE only after they are completed.  An exception is the milestone for the doctoral dissertation defense.  The Graduate School enters the doctoral defense milestone as In Progress after the Graduate School has approved the announcement of the defense.  The milestone is updated to Completed when the Graduate School receives notice from the program that the student passed the defense.
• Milestones for master’s and doctoral committees show that the committee was appointed and give the date of appointment.  Go to Graduate Committees to see information about committee members, committee revision dates, or the status of committee problems.

View Graduate Milestones

In the Main Menu, go to Academic Records > Career & Program Information > Graduate Milestones.

1. The Student Milestones search screen will open.
2. On the Student Milestones search screen:

• In the ID field, enter the 8-digit SPIRE ID of the student whose milestones you wish see.
• If you don’t know the ID, enter the student’s Last Name and First Name farther down the screen.
• Click or press Enter key. The Student Milestones screen will open.
• Note: If your search criteria match multiple students, a list of names will appear on the search screen. Click any of the links associated with a student’s record to access the Student Milestones screen.

3. On the Student Milestones screen:

Effective Date:  Date of last update

Location	Field	Sample Values
Milestone Detail section	Milestone[1] Milestone Nbr[2] Milestone Complete Academic Plan Description of Milestone Milestone Title Transcript Level Print Milestone Detail	M-OUTLINE, D-COMPS 10, 590, 1210 Completed, In Progress MS-PSYCH Master’s Outline/Prospectus[3] Title of thesis or dissertation Official, Unofficial Always, Never
Location	Field	Sample Values
Attempts section	Attempt Nbr Milestone Complete How Attempted   Date Attempted	1, 2 Completed, In Progress, Not Completed Exam Taken, Submitted work, Submitted electronically 5/10/2015

[3] The terms “Outline,” “Prospectus,” and “Proposal” are used interchangeably by the Graduate School.

TIPS: SPIRE usually tracks one successfully completed attempt per milestone.  Occasionally more than one attempt is recorded, e.g., when a candidate fails the dissertation defense and tries again. To see if a milestone will appear on the official transcript, check the Transcript Level and Print Milestone Detail in the Milestone Detail section.