Well, it’s official: my thesis is finally accepted, published, and done. And this marks now my second of three milestones having been met for the PhD.

Before I unpack the three ways a PhD finishes, I want to link now to the archival version of my thesis which will live over at the Carnegie Libraries at this link.

If you happen upon this blog post and haven’t seen my other one on, “Who actually reads a PhD dissertation?” I also generate a bunch of versions of my thesis that are smaller and focused on certain audiences. It’s a good read and a fun chance to see how I chopped my thesis up for easier reading. Perhaps this will catch on?

But this short post will outline the three ways that a PhD is considered “complete” and moments where a person can consider themselves a PhD in something, officially or unofficially. I organize these three as: The Social, The Official, and the Ritual methods for being considered a PhD.

On The Social

When a PhD candidate is prepping for their dissertation, it is common to propose your thesis (which is often done as a talk) and then, after some time, the thesis is defended (also as a talk). The candidate is socially considered a PhD once they pass their defense.

For me, I had to defend my thesis publicly (which I invited folks to). I had many in attendance (maybe 100? more?). But often, a thesis defense is attended by just a small handful of people, plus the thesis committee (who are often on offense).

Passing the defense tends to result in folks announcing on social media, calling their mom, hosting a bbq, and so on. This is the moment that the rest of society sees a person as having achieved a PhD.

On the Official

But technically, a PhD is awarded by an institution. And this means that there is paperwork. And sometimes, like with me, I had some more work to do on my thesis before submitting it for institutional go ahead. This moment tends to be lackluster and unexciting, but it is when the actual PhD is awarded and the thesis document is published somewhere in an archival format.

Sometimes, this happens the same day as the defense. But in other cases, there have been stories I’ve heard where the official stuff took years. Sometimes people can even get jobs after their PhD “ends” and they are still working on their thesis document.

But at CMU and the HCII, I had the privilege to stay on stipend and get paid all the way up until the absolute final moments (when I need to start processing my paperwork for my next job as a professor at Cal Poly). So for us, I had the chance to polish my thesis, integrate my changes from my conditionally accepted chapter at IEEE VIS, and get a little extra pay for the 2+ months I was hanging around. I love that the day of the defense isn’t closely tied to the day the official paperwork goes through. It’s a great part of the way the system currently works.

On the Ritual

Now, the coolest part of the PhD is when you get “hooded” in your robes (and in places like Finland, you get an incredibly sick ceremonial sword and silk top hat).

The hooding of a PhD is an ancient ritual and is when the PhD’s total journey is considered complete. However, due to the highly variable nature in which PhDs tend to be completed, it is common that a hooding takes place long after the social and official milestones are completed. For me, this will be the case.

I missed the deadline to be included in the PhD ceremonies at CMU by a few weeks (based on my defense) and a few months (based on my official documentation). But in my case, I am incredibly fortunate: CHI (our top research venue) is being hosted by CMU and others in Pittsburgh next year just about a week off from the time that the ceremony takes place. So I’ll be returning in June of 2027 to get my hood.

The hood is a fun part of the process, because you get a color that corresponds to where you got your PhD (mine has the CMU tartan pattern) in addition to a color based on your discipline. The color based on discipline tends to be regionally determined, and in the United States, computer science is a philosophy degree, meaning it is dark blue. Dark blue elsewhere could refer to law or something else.

But once these three milestones are met, there’s generally nothing else major worth noting. You’re PhDone three times out of three.