Minnesota State Mankato publishes genuinely detailed formatting rules, which is good news: there is far less guesswork here than at universities that simply tell you to follow your discipline. The catch is that two of the specifics run against normal habit, and both are checked.
The margins are not uniform
This is the one to set before you write a word.
| Margin | Size |
|---|---|
| Top | 1.5 inches |
| Left | 1.5 inches |
| Right | 1 inch |
| Bottom | 1 inch |
The wider left margin is there so text is not swallowed by the binding. The wider top margin works with the page numbering rule below. If you started your draft in a template with a uniform 1 inch margin, reflowing the whole document late is tedious and shifts every page break, so fix it early.
Page numbers, and no running headers
Page numbers are placed 1 inch from the top and 1 inch from the right of each page. Running headers are not allowed.
So the number sits inside that 1.5 inch top margin, and nothing else may sit up there with it. If your style guide normally asks for a running head, as APA does for some document types, the university's rule wins.
The numbering itself:
- Title page: no number, and not counted
- Front matter: lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii)
- Main text: arabic numerals starting at 1
Front matter, in this order
- Title page
- Endorsement / signature page
- Acknowledgments (optional)
- Table of contents
- Abstract
The abstract sitting at position five is the surprise. Most universities place it second or third, immediately after the title page. Here it comes after the table of contents, which also means the table of contents does not list it in the usual way. Follow the order as published rather than the one you have seen elsewhere.
The endorsement page
It goes immediately after the title page. Every member of your examining committee signs it, with names and titles printed beneath each signature line. The approval statement names either thesis or dissertation, never both, so check yours says the right one for your degree.
The abstract is single-spaced
The whole document is double-spaced and single-sided, with one exception:
The abstract page is single-spaced, must be no longer than 350 words, and must fit on one page.
Three constraints that work together. 350 words single-spaced will fit a page; 350 words double-spaced will not. If you have been drafting the abstract inside your double-spaced document and it looks like it runs over, the spacing is probably the reason rather than the word count.
The abstract also has required content, which is more than a summary. It must carry the title, author, degree, area of study, university name and location, and year, and then state the problem, the procedures and the findings. That is a lot to fit in 350 words, so draft it as a structured piece rather than trimming an introduction down.
Title page
No page number. It must carry the title, your name, the identifying legend, the university's city and state, and your graduation month and year.
The legend has a set form:
A [thesis or dissertation] submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of [degree] [area of study] at Minnesota State University, Mankato
Style manual
Mankato accepts Chicago, MLA, APA and Turabian. Which one you use is a question for your department and advisor, and whichever you pick must be applied consistently across the entire document. The same typeface runs throughout, with appendices the only place it may differ.
12-point is recommended, and the font must be clear and easy to read. Note the wording: the size is a recommendation, the legibility is not.
Submission, and the cost of being late
Submission runs through the ProQuest ETD Administrator. The two halves are easy to get half-right:
- Upload the document with the endorsement page unsigned.
- Send a signed copy of that page to the Office of Graduate Studies, at [email protected], by the semester deadline.
Only minor formatting changes may be made after you submit online. Whatever you upload should already be what your committee approved.
The deadline penalty is unusually explicit
Most universities describe deadlines and leave the consequence vague. Mankato spells it out:
| Situation | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Submitted after the published deadline | Graduation delayed by one academic semester |
| Submitted after the first day of the following semester | Must register for at least one graduate-level credit, and graduation moves to that semester |
That second row is the expensive one, because it converts a paperwork slip into tuition. If you are going to be close to a deadline, the difference between late and very late is money, not just time.
Binding
Bound copies follow a colour convention: theses are maroon, dissertations are navy. Small, but it tells you which template and approval statement you should be working from if you are ever unsure which category your degree falls into.
What Mankato does not publish
- No minimum or maximum word count or page count for the document itself, beyond the 350 word abstract
- No single required citation style; four are accepted and your department chooses
- No stated similarity or plagiarism-check threshold
- No published university-wide policy on generative AI use in theses
- No embargo durations on the public submission page, so ask the Office of Graduate Studies directly if you need the full text restricted
Where nothing is published, ask rather than assume, and get the answer in writing if it affects your timeline or your publishing plans.
Pre-submission checklist
- Top and left margins 1.5 inches, right and bottom 1 inch
- Page numbers 1 inch from top and right, no running headers
- Title page unnumbered and uncounted, front matter in roman, body in arabic from 1
- Front matter in order: title, endorsement, acknowledgments, contents, abstract
- Endorsement page states thesis or dissertation, never both
- All committee signatures with names and titles printed beneath
- Abstract single-spaced, one page, 350 words or fewer
- Abstract contains title, author, degree, area, university, year, problem, procedures, findings
- Everything else double-spaced and single-sided
- One style manual applied consistently, one typeface throughout except appendices
- Unsigned version uploaded to ProQuest, signed endorsement page emailed to [email protected]
- Both arriving before the semester deadline
Where to get help
The Office of Graduate Studies owns formatting, submission and deadlines. Your advisor and committee own the style manual choice and everything the guidelines leave open.
If the writing rather than the formatting is what is holding you up, our thesis writing support works through it chapter by chapter with you.
