Class Requirements
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After a quarter-century of observation and investigation, CES has adopted the following minimum standards for our reading and writing requirements. These are minimum requirements. Students may (and most times do) read more and write more than these minimums. However, all written work, regardless of length, must be excellent in content, logic, writing, grammar, and academic style.
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Student Level
Fresh. & Soph.
Junior & Senior Master's Doctoral |
Reading (Pages per Credit)
125
175 250 350 |
Writing (Pages)
3-5 pages
5-10 pages 12-15 pages 17-20 pages |
Sources Cited
2 +
4 + 10 + 15 + |
Converting Audio/Video Listening into Reading Requirements
Many students use audio resources such as MP3s or videos in their classes. There are many acceptable academic lectures on these various media that students may use as part of their General Reading Requirements. CES has established this chart of conversion.
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Audio/Video Reading Equivalents
Fresh. & Soph.
Junior & Senior Master's Doctoral |
Equivalent pages read per hour of listening/watching
50
40 30 20 |
Requirements for the Thesis and Dissertation
Please note that while two 4-credit classes (i.e., 8 credits) at the master's level would require a minimum of 2,000 pages of reading, this is not the requirement for an 8-credit thesis. A thesis is not the same as a class. It is a major research document, and an 8-credit thesis will require well more than twice as many pages as 8 credits in regular classes. This is the same with a doctoral dissertation. While there is no set limit on how many pages one will have to read for their thesis or dissertation, you can be sure that it will be more than twice that for the same amount of credits in regular classes.
The minimum length of your thesis or dissertation is determined by the word count of the thesis body, plus your footnotes.
The thesis or dissertation body begins with the first word of your Introduction and ends with the last word of your Conclusion.
When you count the words in your thesis or dissertation, do not count the Front Matter, the Table of Contents, the Bibliography, or the Appendices.
The minimum length of your thesis or dissertation is determined by the word count of the thesis body, plus your footnotes.
The thesis or dissertation body begins with the first word of your Introduction and ends with the last word of your Conclusion.
When you count the words in your thesis or dissertation, do not count the Front Matter, the Table of Contents, the Bibliography, or the Appendices.
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Culminating Research
Bachelor's Thesis
Master's Thesis Doctoral Dissertation |
Writing (words)
10,000-20,000 words
20,000-40,000 words 40,000-60,000 words |
Sources Cited
30 +
40 + 50 + |
Please note: These above are minimums and guidelines. We have seen master's theses from traditionally accredited schools that were only 30 pages long with as few as 10 sources in the bibliography; we've seen others that were 200+ pages long with as many as 70 sources. We once saw a PhD dissertation from an accredited university that was only 40 pages long with 12 sources in the bibliography. At the other end of the spectrum, there was one PhD dissertation that was 1,700 pages long, and it had about 800 sources.