Graduation Information

To obtain the MSIS degree you are required to complete 12 courses or 36 credits with a minimum grade point average of 3.0.

In order to graduate, you need to submit your Application for Candidacy (AC) and pay the graduation fee. Note that the AC and the Study Plan use the same form, but you check a different box at the top. This information can all be found at this URL: www.stevens.edu/registrar/commencement/index.html

If your concentration is Information Management, which includes most students in a lock-step program (Saturdays or off campus locations), you will find a template for the AC here: Application for Candidacy IM Template. Fill in Your Name, Your ID (this can be found on Pipeline - see below), the Year, Term and Grade for each class and replace the words "Elective 1" and "Elective 2" with your specific electives or your Master's Thesis course. If you have not taken any of the listed courses, delete them. If you have transfer credits fill in the information required. If you have taken MIS501 and/or MIS502, enter that information in the last section, "No Credit."

If you are a student in the joint program with EPITA, you will find your AC here: Application for Candidacy EPITA Template.

You may fill out the signed and completed AC and send (fax or email) it to your faculty advisor for signature and processing when you are in your final term, even though you do not have your final grades. Your faculty advisor must sign the form before it is sent to the Registrar.

If you do not know your student ID, you can find this on Pipeline: when you log onto Pipeline, there is a menu on the left where you will find "Campus Wide ID Lookup." Click this and follow the instructions for obtaining your ID. Most students prefer using the Stevens ID to the SSN when faxing or emailing the AC form.

Once the form is processed by the Registrar’s office, a graduation fee will be posted to your student account. Do not try to pay the graduation fee prior to its being posted to your account. You can pay the graduation fee on line or by downloading a credit card authorization form and faxing it. Progress on this process can be seen in Student Pipeline in your “graduation checkout” status.

After filing your AC there are three messages that you may see in the Graduation Checkout:

Filed Graduation Plans: The Registrar has received the AC, but there is a problem. Most likely Graduate Admissions has not received an official copy of the student’s undergraduate transcript. The student has been notified if this is the case and should contact Sarah Jane Crompton of Graduate Admissions ASAP: 201-216-5319 or Sarah.Crompton@stevens.edu. We cannot award a degree without this information, and if we do not receive it in January (for January graduation) or May (for May graduation) when the Faculty and Board of Trustees meet to confer degrees, the student will have to wait until the next conferment to receive their degree. 

Preliminary Checkout: The Registrar has received the AC and processed it. The student will be cleared for graduation upon the successful completion of the courses in which s/he is currently enrolled.

Cleared for Graduation: The Registrar has received all grades and all pertinent information and the diploma will be mailed to the student’s permanent address about a month after the conferment - as long as the bill has been paid.

Degrees are conferred at two times each year: January, for students who complete requirements in the fall, and May for students who complete requirements in the spring. There is, however, only one Commencement Ceremony for January and May conferees which takes place in May. There is a website set up each year with information about the commencement ceremony:

www.stevens.edu/student_life/events/graduation.htm

(Be sure to look only at the graduate section as procedures differ for undergraduates.)

You should look for the site sometime in March to see information about the upcoming May graduation. Important information is contained here about obtaining tickets for your family for attending the ceremony.

If you finish the program in the fall, diplomas are mailed out in February or March, therefore if you need something before that you should request a Letter of Completion. If your family is traveling to the U.S. from another country to attend the graduation ceremony, you may need a Letter of Completion for them to use to obtain a visa.

If you have any questions about this process or your eligibility to graduate, contact your faculty advisor. If you do not know who your faculty advisor is, you can find this on your Student Pipeline account or you may contact Angela LaSalle  at alasalle@stevens.edu.