Start by working out which SAU you are dealing with, because the answer changes everything that follows.
SAU offers 27 master's degrees, 17 graduate certificates, one Ed.S. and one Ed.D. Most of the master's programmes are coursework degrees defined by a credit hour total rather than a research document: the MBA at 30 to 36 hours, the MS in Business Analytics at 30, the MS in Agriculture at 33, School Counseling at 48, Clinical and Mental Health Counseling at 60.
The doctorate is where SAU's fully specified research-writing process lives, and that is what most of this guide covers.
The thing you need to know first
SAU does not publish a university-wide thesis handbook or formatting manual.
This is worth stating plainly because it is unusual, and because students arrive expecting one. The Graduate Studies pages carry graduation applications, degree audits, course substitution forms and assistantship applications. They do not carry margins, fonts, front matter order or a thesis template.
The practical consequence: do not copy formatting rules from another university's manual and assume they apply. They are not enforced here, and they may conflict with what your own programme wants. Ask your programme coordinator what the expectation actually is, and ask early enough that the answer can shape the document rather than arriving after it is written.
If your master's programme does include a thesis or research project, your department sets the terms. Get them in writing.
The Ed.D. in Rural and Diverse Educational Leadership
60 credit hours, designed around roughly 3.5 years, delivered fully online with no on-campus residency. It is built for working adults, which shapes several of the rules below.
A four-person committee with named roles
Most universities specify a committee size and leave the composition loose. SAU specifies the jobs:
| Role | What they bring |
|---|---|
| Chair | Leads the committee and supervises the work |
| Methodologist | A dedicated reader for your research design |
| Content expert | Subject knowledge in your topic area |
| Member-at-large | The fourth seat |
Having a named methodologist is genuinely useful and worth using properly. It means there is someone whose explicit remit is your design, sampling and analysis. Take methodology questions to them early, while the design can still change, rather than discovering at proposal defence that the approach does not support the question.
Your dissertation topic must be approved by this committee.
Dissertation hours
A minimum of nine dissertation hours. That is a floor, not a target; a study that needs more time needs more hours.
The sequence
- Complete coursework
- Pass Comprehensive Exams (a course, not just a sitting)
- Apply for doctoral candidacy
- Successfully defend the research proposal
- Obtain IRB approval to proceed
- Successfully defend the dissertation by oral presentation
Note where the IRB sits: after the proposal defence and before the final defence. You cannot collect data on the strength of a passed proposal alone. Build the IRB turnaround into your timeline as a real step with real duration, because it is the stage most likely to stall a plan that assumed approval was a formality.
The grade rules are strict
These are stricter than most doctoral programmes and they compound.
The Comprehensive Exams course must be completed with an A grade. Failure on a second attempt results in dismissal.
Doctoral students must maintain a 3.0 GPA or higher. Only A or B grades are acceptable. A C or below cannot be used toward doctoral degree requirements.
Read the second one carefully. It is not that a C drags your average down; it is that the credit does not count at all. A C in a required course means retaking that course, with the cost and the calendar time that implies, inside a seven year limit.
Two rules that end programmes
Both of these are stated as dismissal conditions rather than as warnings.
Continuous enrolment. You must maintain it. Failure to do so results in dismissal. For a programme aimed at working professionals, this is the one to plan around: a busy term at work is not a reason to sit out a semester without first talking to the programme. If life genuinely intervenes, raise it before the enrolment lapses, not after.
The seven year limit. All requirements must be completed within seven academic years from enrolment in your first course. Extensions go to the Graduate Council by petition, on extenuating circumstances. That route exists, but a petition is not a formality and you should not design a timeline that assumes one.
The Ed.S. route
The Education Specialist in Rural Educational Leadership is 30 hours, taking up to about two years. It sits between the master's and the doctorate. If you are weighing it against the Ed.D., the difference in commitment is substantial: 30 hours over two years against 60 hours over roughly three and a half, with a dissertation attached.
What SAU does not publish
Being straight about this is more useful than filling the gaps with plausible-sounding numbers.
- No university-wide thesis or dissertation formatting manual: no margins, font, spacing, page numbering or front matter order
- No required citation style at university level, though education programmes conventionally use APA; confirm with your chair
- No word count or page count for the dissertation
- No stated similarity or plagiarism-check threshold
- No published policy on generative AI use in dissertations or coursework
- No published embargo options for the completed dissertation
- No central list of which master's programmes carry a thesis option, so check your own programme's page and catalogue entry
Where nothing is published, the answer is your chair or programme coordinator, and it is worth having it in writing when it affects your timeline.
Pre-submission checklist
For Ed.D. candidates:
- Committee formed with all four roles filled, including a methodologist
- Topic approved by the committee
- Comprehensive Exams passed with an A
- Applied for doctoral candidacy after passing comps
- GPA at or above 3.0, with no C grades counted toward the degree
- Minimum nine dissertation hours completed
- Proposal successfully defended
- IRB approval obtained before any data collection
- Continuous enrolment maintained throughout
- Inside the seven year window, or a Graduate Council petition filed
- Formatting expectations confirmed with my chair, since none are published centrally
- Oral defence prepared as an examination, not a summary
For master's students on a thesis or research project track:
- Confirmed with my programme whether a thesis is required or optional
- Obtained my department's formatting expectations in writing
- Confirmed the citation style my programme expects
- Confirmed whether IRB review applies to my project
Where to get help
For the doctorate, the programme's own policy pages are the authority and your chair owns everything they leave open. For master's work, your programme coordinator is the first stop, because there is no central document standing behind them.
The School of Graduate Studies handles graduation applications, degree audits and course substitutions rather than thesis content.
If the writing itself is what is slowing you down rather than the rules, our thesis writing support works through it chapter by chapter with you.
