Applying for Graduation

DEADLINES

Any student wishing to graduate should apply for graduation well in advance of their intended graduation date. For example:

While these deadlines are suggestions, not firm deadlines, the process will be much smoother if you apply for graduation well in advance so the College will have adequate time to review your academic records and certify you for graduation.

PROCEDURE - What to do

You can apply for graduation in person in the Registrar's Office or you can apply online. If you wish to apply online, please click here and follow the instructions on that page.

Once you have applied, the College does a preliminary review of your courses. Once the term is over, we must review your final term grades. Therefore, it generally takes several weeks before all graduates are reviewed.

CERTIFICATION and NONCERTIFICATION (How do I know if if I graduated or not?)

Unfortunately, not all students who participate in the May Commencement ceremony will be certified for graduation. The College will attempt to contact nongraduating students as soon as possible to alert them that they will not be certified for graduation.

You will still have access to your Banner Web account for a few weeks after you have graduated. Once your degree is awarded, you will be able to see it in the transcript area of your Banner Web account.

If you have not been certified for graduation, you will need to complete any deficiencies and then reapply for graduation when you are ready.  You will not be charged the graduation fee a second time.

WHAT ABOUT AUGUST AND DECEMBER GRADS?

UNDERGRADUATES (B.A. and B.S. degrees)

August grads are generally allowed to participate in the May Commencement ceremony.

December grads routinely participate in the following May's Commencement ceremony, and there is a reception in December to honor our December degree candidates.

However, if the only requirement you are fulfilling in the Fall term is either an internship or student teaching, you can request permission to participate in the May Commencement, even if you are officially graduating in December.

GRADUATE STUDENTS (Master's and Doctoral Candidates)

Graduate students may not participate in a commencement ceremony unless all degree requirements are completed. Once you complete all requirements, you may participate in the following May's Commencement ceremony. If you have questions about this, please contact the School of Graduate and Extended Studies (315-792-3301).

Please note that graduate students also must complete a Degree Approval Form. Please contact the School of Graduate and Extended Studies regarding this form.

HOW DO I PROVE THAT I'VE GRADUATED TO POTENTIAL EMPLOYERS?

Once your degree is officially conferred, you have three methods available to you for confirmation of your degree:

• Request an official transcript.
• Contact the Registrar's Office to request an official letter stating that the degree has been awarded.
• Utica College uses DegreeVerify (also known as the National Student Clearinghouse) to verify awarded degrees. To do so, the employer simply has to go to DegreeVerify's web site.

WHAT IF MY DEGREE HASN'T BEEN OFFICIALLY AWARDED YET?

Once your School Dean has approved you for graduation, the Assistant Registrar for Degree Audit and Graduation can write a letter stating your anticipated degree date. You only need to call the office to request this.

WHAT IS THE GRADUATION FEE, AND FOR WHAT IS IT USED?

For Bachelor's-level students, the graduation fee is $55.
For Graduate-level students, the graduation fee is $80.

This is a graduation fee, it is not tied to participation in the May commencement ceremony or the December reception.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY DEGREE APPLICATION HAS BEEN PROCESSED?

Please recognize that if we are busy processing a prior semester's graduating class, degree applications for future terms will be held on file until we are able to process them.

Once a degree application has been processed, you can go to your academic transcript in Banner Web. Scroll down to "Degrees Awarded" (it's the third blue banner). There are three options here:

1. Sought - means the degree application has not yet been processed.
2. Pending - means your degree application has been processed, and will be reviewed for graduation purposes.
3. Awarded - means that your degree has been awarded.

Note: The graduation fee will be applied to your account when your application is processed, but if you are applying to graduate in a future term, the fee won't show on your account until just before the start of that semester.