All students are to be advised that the responsibility to make sure that they are in compliance with the rules and regulations of the Graduate School as well as with those of the Department lies solely with the student.

• All matriculated students are required to be in status each semester from the commencement of matriculation to graduation. This means that students must either be registered or be on approved leave of absence. Individuals who are not in status will be considered withdrawn from the Graduate Center.
• Each semester’s registration is subject to the approval of both the student’s advisor (where such cases have been declared) and the Executive Officer of the Program. Published deadlines concerning registration, late registration and requesting leaves of absences are strictly enforced.
• Deadlines for academic and administration services stated by the Graduate Center are, for all intents and purposes, inviolable. It is the student’s responsibility to familiarize him/herself with each semester’s deadlines.
• The Graduate Center Student Handbook, produced bi-annually, is an invaluable source of information about almost any question a student may have. In addition, it contains many Graduate Center regulations not mentioned herein – regulations with which every student ought to be familiar.
• A student entering the Ph.D. Program in Computer Science after completing a Master’s Degree in Computer Science, or a related field, is given 14 semesters in which to complete all the required academic requirements for completing the Doctorate. A student who enters directly from an undergraduate education is given 16 semesters. After this, continuing in the Program is based on a semesterly evaluation of the student’s satisfactory progress and the likelihood that the student will actually finish the degree in a timely fashion.
• Leaves of Absence effectively stop the clock for the semester(s) a student may be awarded one, in that these semesters on Leave are not counted in the total number of semesters allowable in which to complete the degree. Students may request up to four semesters leave during their career in the Ph.D. Program in Computer Science. Leaves of absence are awarded at the discretion of the Executive Officer, and are awarded on a semesterly basis. Deadlines for requesting a Leave of Absence are published in the Semesterly Announcement of Courses, included with a student’s registration materials. These deadlines are strictly followed. A student may not fulfill any academic requirement while on Leave of Absence (no First Exams, Second Exams, Advancement to Candidacy, etc.).