Explanation 22:11 Jan 10, 2014
I can attest, as one who has done it and worked in the graduate school at Georgetown University, there are several final stages to awarding the degree: (1) presentation of the thesis, at which point the readers/mentors/committee have the opportunity to make final comments; (2) defense of the thesis, when the candidate sits before his/her committee and invited outsiders and answers any questions they may have; (3) signoff by the members of the committee; and (4) award of the degree in a graduation ceremony. The defense is a time-honored tradition that goes back to the middle ages - at the University of Coimbra there is a hall where candidates defended their thesis in front of a large audience. The date the thesis is defended is different from the date of graduation. It can happen that not all the committee members sign off after the defense. I have a friend who defended her thesis, but one member of her committee requested further changes in her thesis, so she did not graduate for two more years. It is also a time-honored tradition that the candidate may be called "doctor" once he/she has defended his/her thesis.
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