Advancement to Candidacy at San Francisco State University
Advancement to Candidacy (ATC) is required of all graduate students pursuing a Master's or Doctoral degree at San Francisco State University (5 CCR § 40510), and marks a significant milestone in your graduate program. This milestone acknowledges that you have demonstrated competence in graduate studies and are prepared to complete your degree requirements, including your Culminating Experience.
Complete the Advancement to Candidacy (ATC) form with your graduate advisor the semester you Advance:
- The ATC form acts as a contract between you, your department, and the university. It lists the specific requirements you must complete before your degree can be awarded.
- The ATC form must be approved by Graduate Studies before enrolling in and beginning research for the culminating experience course.
- You can submit the ATC form after completing at least eighteen semester units.
- Forms are submitted the semester prior to enrollment in the Culminating Experience Course and are due every October and April 1st.
- ATC form needs to be filled out in coordination with your program adviser and submitted for final review, approval and signing through the DocuSign ATC Submission Portal.
Advancement to Candidacy submissions will be temporarily paused until January.
Students:
If you must Advance to Candidacy in order to enroll in the Culminating Experience course for the Spring 2026 semester, please consult with your Graduate Coordinator.
Graduate Coordinators & Advisors:
If any of your students need to Advance to Candidacy to enroll in the Culminating Experience course in Spring 2026, please send a list of those students (including full name and student ID number) to Mariana Lara Jurado at maalara@sfsu.edu. During this period, we also encourage you to consider implementing an automated Advancement to Candidacy process for your program.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact:
- Mariana Lara Jurado at maalara@sfsu.edu, or
- Associate Dean Noah Price at nprice@sfsu.edu.
ATC Requirements
For important details on what may be included on your ATC form visit the Graduate Studies Bulletin.
ATC Coursework Substitutions
Occasionally, programs are unable to offer a course listed in the Bulletin as acceptable for the degree. When this occurs necessary paperwork must be submitted to amend the ATC form.
Electives
If an elective course is not offered or you have enrolled in a different elective after submission of the ATC, an ATC Substitution Form is required.
Core Coursework
However, if a required core course is not offered, a Petition for Waiver of Graduate Program Regulations must be approved prior to enrolling in substituting course and submitted with the ATC form.
Seven Year Limit
Title 5 of the California Code of Regulations requires that a master’s degree shall be completed in no more than seven years. Coursework expires and cannot be used to meet degree requirements after seven years. You can find when your coursework expires here in the Bulletin using our timeline to Degree Completion Table.
Download/view the ATC Forms: