Outstanding Thesis Award
An Outstanding Thesis Award will be available to one student whose thesis was published in May, August or December of 2024, or provisionally approved for publication by Montezuma Publishing in May 2025. The winner will receive $1,000. In addition, the winner will be presented at the University’s commencement ceremony in May and will sit with the platform party.
Each college is invited to nominate one outstanding thesis for consideration for this prestigious award. Students with degrees awarded in May, August, and December of 2024 and those with degrees to be awarded in May 2025 are eligible. We continue to include the prior May degree recipients so that high-quality work completed too late for last year’s college selection process can participate this year. Nominees sent forward to the Graduate Studies Committee last year may not be nominated again.
The deadline for submissions to the College of Graduate Studies for this year's competition is March 10, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. Nominations should be sent to graduate-studies@sjsu.edu with the subject line "Outstanding Thesis Nomination." Note: Check with your college to determine their internal deadline, which will be earlier than the CGS deadline.
Students (and former students): Please note that each college has their own method
and deadline for reviewing theses for submission to the College of Graduate Studies
for consideration of this award. If you wish to submit your thesis for your college's
consideration, please reach out to the chair of your committee as soon as possible.
Those nominated must provide an electronic copy of the thesis, a reference letter from the master's committee chairperson, and the Outstanding Thesis Award Information Form [pdf] (completed by the nominee). In addition, a second letter of reference from the college committee or dean should be provided. The letters should indicate the reasons for the nominee's selection, including some indication of the contribution made by the thesis to knowledge in the field. We ask in addition that the student fill out the Permission to Publish [pdf] form and return it to the College of Graduate Studies office; this may be done after the final selection of the Outstanding Theses by the Graduate Studies Committee and notification of the student of the award.
Please contact graduate-studies@sjsu.edu or Dr. Jeffrey Honda at jeffrey.honda@sjsu.edu with any questions you have about this process.
