It’s official, I’m graduating from my college program this year! It’s been a long time coming, and there are so many things that need to be done. I’m trying not to be too overwhelmed as I figure this all out, but I’ve also decided to start this Grad Series in an effort to help any graduates and future grads out there.
Depending on your school, your process may look different when compared to mine. It could be much more elaborate, low-key, maybe you can’t make it to graduation or decide to skip it altogether. For my family and I, it’s a bit of a big deal. I don’t have any older siblings who have gone through this, and neither of my parents had the chance to attend post-secondary education when they were younger. So for us, it’s a little more symbolic and meaningful.
Your first step before deciding on your look is to make sure you are on the right track to graduate. So if you haven’t already, double-check that you have taken all your required courses, have passing marks in the previous classes, that you’re on track with passing marks in your current classes, etc. If you aren’t sure, you’ll have to reach out to your academic advisor as soon as possible, or it might delay your graduation.
After that’s done, sometime in the school year (I think it was March or April for me), you should be able to apply to graduate within your student centre or student dashboard. I thought I did this early enough, but it didn’t go through, and I had to submit a service ticket to get that done. Things like this happen, so you have to keep on top of it.
Once that’s done, you should check on how to book grad photos for your school, but only if you want them. Some schools start this right away in January (like mine did), and some start later in the year. I did mine a little late because I forgot we had to book a sit-in session, but they’re done. Some grad photo sessions also allow you to bring in a prop, so think of something you may want to bring. At my session, the cap and gown were provided by the photographer.
My photos were taken in a studio-like setting, but if you want those outdoor grad photos, you may want to ask if the photographer does that, or you may want to hire one yourself/ask some friends to help you out. Once you get the proofs back (my proofs were online within 24-48 hours), you should try to order them right away if you want them. It takes time to edit and develop these photos, so the earlier you order, the earlier you’ll receive them.
Finally, the last of your first steps to graduation is keeping a lookout for an email, etc, from your school about the graduation ceremony itself. Some schools will share this early on, sometimes you’ll hear about it from other students, and sometimes your school may give notice of it a little later. My program does a small program-centred ceremony at our school, and then we also have the bigger school-run ceremony at a hall.
This year, the program ceremony is in the afternoon and the school ceremony is in the evening. I get that it’s better to be in the evening to ensure that grads and guests can make it, but I’m so used to seeing those afternoon ceremonies all over social media that it feels almost weird.
Once these first steps are done, you can move on to other aspects of planning your own graduation. It gets a little easier from this point on, so take a deep breath, new graduate, get ready for your new journey!
