Which one
Choose thesis if you might pursue a doctorate or a research role — it's the evidence you can run a project end to end, and you'll want a faculty advisor whose work overlaps yours. Choose non-thesis if you're headed straight into practice; the extra applied coursework and a capstone tied to a real workplace problem is often more useful.
Practicalities
The thesis track usually takes longer and depends on your committee's availability for a defense. The non-thesis capstone or comprehensive exam is more predictable to schedule. Both satisfy the degree; employers rarely distinguish them. Decide with your advisor by the end of the first year.
In and around Porter Falls
Porter's eight graduate programs are small and applied — most students are working in the Valley while they study — and the Graduate School office in Millwright Hall keeps the handbooks and funding notices in one place.
The practical details
Thesis: An original research project and a written, defended thesis; fewer coursework credits. Non-thesis: More coursework plus a capstone project, portfolio, or comprehensive exam. Switching: Possible early on; hard once a thesis committee and topic are set. Anything time-sensitive — an accommodation, a booking, a deadline — is worth confirming directly before you rely on it, because the specifics here can change from term to term.
If you have a question
The office behind this is Graduate School (Millwright Hall, Room 320). Call (715) 555–0225 or email gradschool@uwporterfalls.edu during the fall and spring terms, or sign in to MyPorter to send a message or book a time. If it turns out another office owns the question, they will route it rather than send you back to the start.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.