Structure a graduate thesis in LaTeX before the panic sets in

The thesis is a long paper with bureaucracy attached. LaTeX handles the long paper well. The bureaucracy is usually a university class file written in 2009 and last tested on a different TeX live.

Accept the class file, fence the rest

Put the university .cls in the project. Do not rewrite it. Put your macros, packages, and chapter content in files you control. If the class breaks on a modern engine, triage with university class files that will not compile.

Front matter that committees expect

Roman page numbers for abstract, dedication, acknowledgments, TOC; arabic for the main chapters. Book/report classes expose \frontmatter / \mainmatter; article-based templates need manual \pagenumbering. Guide: roman then arabic.

Chapters as files

One root, many includes. Own chapters by yourself even if coauthors help on papers that feed the thesis. Keep figures under figures/chapter3/ so paths stay stable when you reorder chapters.

Acronyms and symbols

Glossaries packages are powerful and fussy. For many theses, a hand-maintained list of symbols in the front matter is enough. If you need auto-expanding acronyms, budget a day to learn glossaries-extra before the week of submission.

Speed

Full thesis compiles get slow. Draft mode for figures, \includeonly, and TikZ externalize buy hours back. Notes: shorter wait for the PDF.

Backup is not the same as history

A Dropbox copy is a backup. Git is a story of how the argument changed. Commit when a chapter compiles. Push to a private GitHub remote. Local tools that auto-commit on compile (as Oleafly can) make that habit harder to skip.