THESIS RESEARCH.

You may wish to meet with your candidacy/thesis committee periodically,
ideally about once per year.   We rely on students to organize these meetings,
either as desired for a check-in on progress, or as necessitated 
e.g. by changes in the scope or direction of the research.
The committee and/or its individual members should be viewed as a resource.
Please consult with them during the progression of your research
between the candidacy exam and the thesis defense.

The student is expected to complete the thesis and defend/graduate 
by the end of the Fifth year.

Beyond this point, i.e. enrolling in a Sixth year and beyond, there will 
need to be petitions to the Caltech Graduate Studies Office 
each year for extended registration in the PhD program.  See
https://gradoffice.caltech.edu/forms-petitions


THESIS COMPLETION AND DEFENSE.

The committee that gives the final approval to the thesis work,
including both the written document and the oral defense,
is generally the same as the candidacy committee. 
Circumstances such as insurmountable schedule conflicts or e.g. faculty departures,
may necessitate modifications to the membership.
Any changes to the thesis committee must be approved by the Option Rep.

See the links to the graduate office web pages for information 
on actually filing the thesis itself, and associated electronic paperwork.
You will also need to register the commiteee for the oral defense of your thesis,
and schedule the defense date within the REGIS system.

The oral defense format is similar to that of the candidacy exam. 
You should prepare an approximately 45 minute presentation
summarizing the thesis motivation, work, findings, and implications.
It usually takes about 90 minutes to get through this material,
given interruptions for questions from the committee.
A minimum of two full hours should be scheduled, though in some cases
the entire examination process could last as long as three hours.