Three Minute Thesis Competition

Application Submission Deadline

• TBD for 2025 - End of January-Early February

Virtual Preliminary Competition

• End of January-Early February

In-Person Final Competition

• 3rd week in February

MAGS Competition 

• 3MT Winner advances to MAGS Competition which is typically the first week in April

• Graduate students enrolled in any Master's program at John Carroll may compete.
• The degree program need not formally require a thesis, but topic must cover an original research project.
• There will be one preliminary round of virtual judging with top choices selected to advance to final in-person John Carroll competition.
• Gift card prize awarded to peer choice award and competition winners.
• Competition winner advances on to Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) 3MT Competition
• One single static PowerPoint slide permitted, but not required. Slide transitions, animations or ‘movement’ of any description of slide content not allowed.
• No additional electronic media (e.g., sound and video files) or props (e.g., notecards, scripts, pointers, costumes, instruments, lab equipment) permitted.
• Presentations limited to 3 minutes; competitors exceeding that are disqualified.
• Presentations are to be spoken word (e.g., no poems, raps or songs).
• Presentations are considered to have begun when a presenter begins via movement or speech.

Developed by The University of Queensland, the Three Minute Thesis competition cultivates students’ academic, presentation, and research communication skills. The competition supports their capacity to effectively explain their research in three minutes, in a language appropriate to a non-specialist audience.

• Visit the University of Queensland website above for tips on how to craft your presentation and watch example videos from past winners.

The John Carroll University Graduate School hosted its first annual 3-Minute Thesis, Essay, or Creative Project Competition virtually in 2021. The 2022 competition was offered as a hybrid event and can be viewed on the Graduate School YouTube.

Past Winners

2023

Competition & Peer Choice Winner: Katelyn Gobbie

• Project Title: The Biocrust Canopy Beneath Your Feet

2022

Competition & Peer Choice Winner: Emily Staufer

• Project Title: Toxic Toads: Characterizing Chemical Defenses in Understudied Poison Frogs

2021

Competition & Peer Choice Winner: Kelsey Garner

• Project Title: Assessment of Differential Behavioral Syndromes in Genetically Distinct Clades of Eastern Red-backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus)