Planning for Graduation: Start Now!

Take a deep breath, you made it!  It is a good feeling when you realize you have successfully taken all the required courses needed for graduation and you will be getting that diploma.  However, the stress of your collegiate career isn’t completely over just yet!  Graduation is definitely a time for celebration and remembrance of the supposed best years of your life, but some planning is needed to make sure your well-deserved day is great!

First things first, make sure you apply for graduation!  Just because you have taken all the required classes and even gotten the OK from your advisor doesn’t mean you are in the clear just yet.  Most schools will send out an email reminding seniors to apply and how to do so; usually it is via your school’s Web site.  The deadline date is always very early in the semester you plan to graduate so make sure you are on the lookout for the email.  Also recently, many schools have been enacting a graduation fee along with the application so make sure you are prepared for that as well.  I believe most of the fees are under $50 but in this economy, who knows!

After your graduation application is in, be on the lookout for another email regarding the graduation process and logistics of the event.  You will need to be aware of when your ceremony will take place, how many guest tickets you will receive, and what you are expected to wear.  If you are graduating from a university, make sure you know what college you are graduating from because the ceremonies are usually at different times.  If you need more than the allotted number of tickets available to you, make sure you start asking friends and classmates early so all of your family members can attend.  Also, once you know the date of the event you can make hotel accommodations for any family members who are traveling out of town.  I would advise making reservations early because a lot of people will be traveling into your town that weekend and hotel rooms will book fast!

Pat yourself on the back! You worked very hard for four years and now you get to celebrate!

Posted by Kayla Molczan