FSU Thesis and Dissertation Formatting: What the Graduate School Actually Checks
If you are writing at Florida State University, the formatting rules are not suggestions you can bend with a good reason. The Graduate School’s guide is precise about margins, fonts, heading size, page-number position and the Table of Contents, and it tells you plainly that it outranks every other style guide you might be following. This page walks through those rules so you can build your document correctly from the start rather than repairing it at the end.
Help Me Bro is not affiliated with Florida State University (FSU), Tallahassee. Everything below is drawn from the Graduate School’s published materials. The official guide always wins, and guides change between editions, so check the current version before you submit.
The guide overrides your style manual
The FSU guide, titled Guidelines & Requirements for Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations, takes precedence over all other style guides and over discipline-specific formatting. That matters if your department follows APA, Chicago or something field-specific: where the two disagree on layout, FSU’s rules decide. Two further points are worth knowing early. Software limitations are not accepted as a reason for an exception, and no changes are allowed after the Graduate School has approved your manuscript.
The most recent edition we found is the 2024 version: 2024 Guidelines & Requirements (PDF). If you are working in APA for citations and references, see the APA 7 dissertation format guide, but remember that FSU’s layout rules sit above it.
Start from the official template
The Graduate School provides templates in Word and LaTeX. The Word versions come in three Table of Contents variants: main headings only, or main headings with numbered or unnumbered subheadings. Choosing the variant that matches your plan before you start saves a lot of rework. Find them on the templates and formatting assistance page.
If you use LaTeX, only the most recent FSU LaTeX template is accepted as-is. Any other LaTeX setup must still follow the guide’s requirements, so a customized or older class file is your responsibility to bring into line.
Page setup: exact numbers, no wiggle room
FSU specifies its layout in precise measurements. The rules below come from the official guide.
- Page size: 8.5 x 11 inches.
- Margins: exactly 1 inch on all four sides.
- Nothing in the margins: no content may sit in any margin.
- Top edge: text and figures start at the top edge of the 1-inch margin, and that includes reference entries.
- Page numbers: bottom center, 0.75 inch from the bottom edge.
The page-number rule trips people up because Word’s default footer distance is not 0.75 inch. Set it deliberately rather than trusting the default.
Fonts: two choices, one color
You may use Times New Roman or Arial, and nothing else. Text is black throughout, and that includes hyperlinks, so the blue underlined links Word creates automatically need to be changed. Use 12 pt everywhere except the Main Section Headings, and keep the same font and size inside tables as in the body text.
Headings: caps for main sections, one consistent case below
Main Section Headings cover the front matter, the body and the back matter. Each is ALL CAPS, centered at the top margin of a new page, 14 pt bold, and formatted consistently from the first to the last.
Subheadings, table headings and figure captions work differently. You choose either Title Case or Sentence case, then use that choice consistently. Mixing the two across chapters is one of the easiest things for a formatting reviewer to spot.
Spacing
The abstract, the body and the biographical sketch must be spaced the same way: either all double-spaced or all 1.5-spaced. Pick one and apply it to all three, rather than double-spacing the chapters and tightening the abstract to fit a page.
Table of Contents and acknowledgments
The Table of Contents must list all Main Section Headings, and those are the only entries required. Each entry gives the chapter number and title on the same line in ALL CAPS, with page numbers aligned to the right margin and joined by dot leaders. The dot leaders are required, not decorative.
Acknowledgments must cover the whole manuscript. Do not add separate acknowledgments inside individual chapters, which matters if a chapter began life as a published article.
Source for these rules: the 2024 guide.
What gets missed most often
These are the places where a manuscript that looks tidy can still fail the guide’s exact specifications:
- Footer page numbers left at the software default instead of 0.75 inch from the bottom.
- Hyperlinks left blue instead of black.
- Main headings set at 12 pt instead of 14 pt bold.
- Subheadings drifting between Title Case and Sentence case.
- Tables set in a different font or size from the body.
- Reference entries pushed below the top margin line.
- A Table of Contents missing dot leaders, or listing chapter number and title on separate lines.
- Chapter-level acknowledgments left in from earlier drafts or articles.
From formatting critique to defense: the process
Your thesis goes to the Manuscript Clearance Advisor through ProQuest for a formatting critique. It should also reach your committee members at least two weeks before your defense, and the Graduate Handbook says to defend ideally by the eighth week of the graduation semester. Read the details in the 2025 Graduate Student Handbook. For deadlines, see the Graduate School’s current deadlines page rather than relying on any date you find elsewhere.
Pre-submission checklist for FSU
- Page size is 8.5 x 11 inches.
- All four margins are exactly 1 inch, with nothing in the margins.
- Text, figures and reference entries begin at the top edge of the 1-inch margin.
- Page numbers sit bottom center, 0.75 inch from the bottom edge.
- The font is Times New Roman or Arial only, in black, including hyperlinks.
- Everything is 12 pt except Main Section Headings, including text inside tables.
- Every Main Section Heading is ALL CAPS, centered, 14 pt bold, at the top of a new page.
- Subheadings, table headings and figure captions all use one case, Title Case or Sentence case.
- The abstract, body and biographical sketch are all double-spaced or all 1.5-spaced.
- The Table of Contents lists every Main Section Heading, with chapter number and title on one line in ALL CAPS.
- Table of Contents page numbers align to the right margin with dot leaders.
- One acknowledgments section covers the whole manuscript, with none inside chapters.
- If you used LaTeX, you used the latest FSU template or matched the guide manually.
- You have checked that your copy of the guide is the current edition.
Does FSU’s guide override my department’s style manual?
Yes. The Graduate School’s guide takes precedence over all other style guides and over discipline-specific formatting. If APA or another manual disagrees with FSU on layout, margins or headings, follow FSU. Citation and reference content still comes from your style manual, but check the guide first.
Which fonts can I use in an FSU dissertation?
Times New Roman or Arial only. Text must be black, including hyperlinks, and 12 pt everywhere except Main Section Headings, which are 14 pt bold. The same font and size apply inside tables, so check any tables pasted in from other software.
Where do page numbers go?
Bottom center, 0.75 inch from the bottom edge of the page. This is a specific measurement, so check your footer settings rather than leaving the default. Margins remain exactly 1 inch on all four sides, with no content in any margin.
What does the Table of Contents have to include?
It must list all Main Section Headings, and only those are required. Chapter number and title go on the same line in ALL CAPS, with page numbers aligned to the right margin and dot leaders. Choose the Word template variant that matches how detailed you want it.
Can I make changes after the Graduate School approves my manuscript?
No. The guide states that no changes are allowed after approval, and software limitations are not accepted as a reason for an exception. That is why it helps to submit for the formatting critique early and fix every point before final approval.
Can Help Me Bro guarantee my manuscript will be approved?
No. Ahsan can check your file against the guide and leave comments and tracked changes, but he is not affiliated with Florida State University and cannot guarantee Graduate School approval. You make every change, and the official guide and Manuscript Clearance have the final word.
Having your formatting checked
I can read your manuscript against FSU’s guide and leave comments and tracked changes in your Word file. You then make the changes yourself, and the document stays yours throughout. Formatting checks are charged at the same per-1,000-word rates as editing, which you can see on the pricing page, and you can send your word count, deadline and file through the quote form. I am not affiliated with the university and cannot guarantee Graduate School approval. For the broader picture, see formatting help for theses and dissertations.