/
Final Quarter and Graduation

Final Quarter and Graduation

Owned by Carmen Escobedo
Last updated: Apr 19, 2023
3 min read

Preparing to Graduate

All students should be aware of their responsibilities and deadlines during their final quarter, as missing a deadline will result in your graduation date being delayed a quarter.  

What to know in advance

  • You must submit a master's degree request during the quarter you intend to graduate (before finals week).

  • You must be registered for at least one credit during the quarter you intend to graduate. 

Final Quarter Timeline

This timeline, based on AA Department and Graduate School policies and procedures, is intended to help you understand the graduation process.  Pay close attention to deadlines!

First week of the quarter

  • File your master's degree request in MyGrad. 

    • This will generate a degree audit; please contact Paul if you notice anything strange or have any questions about what you see on your audit!

    • Requests will be acted upon at the end of the quarter, after your final grades post and degree audits are run.  You will receive an email when the AA Department acts on your request.

Last day of instruction 

(during summer quarter, the second-to-last Friday)

  • Deadline for all graduating students to file a master's degree request in MyGrad.

Missed Deadlines

Missing the master's degree request deadline delays your graduation to the next quarter.  

Talk to your academic advisor immediately if you miss the deadline (but there is usually not much we can do)!

After the Quarter Ends

  • The AA Department acts on your degree request (this generates an email to you) and the Graduate School does a final degree audit before awarding your degree.  When they graduate you, you will receive an email.

  • Your degree posts to your transcript 2 business days after the Graduate School processes your graduation and your diploma will be mailed 2-3 months later.

  • Set up UW email forwarding and migrate files to a personal server (see below).

Important: access to UW email and Google Drive for alumni

Alumni are no longer eligible for UW drive storage and UW email services, including UW Deskmail, UW Exchange online, UW Gmail, and UW Outlook Live.  Computing services for alumni expire on the 10th day of the second quarter in which you are not registered as a student, after which time you will no longer have access to your UW email account and all of your files stored on UW servers will be deleted.

Graduating students should set up forwarding of their UW emails to a personal account and to migrate all personal files from their UW Google Drive or another UW server to a personal server (you're not allowed to migrate official UW records). 

Learn more: Information from UW IT

Graduation Ceremonies

All graduates may participate in the AA Department's graduation celebration and the UW-wide Commencement ceremony (or just one, or neither - it's up to you!).  Be aware that there are separate registration processes for both events - so if you want to do both, you need to register for both.

AA Department Celebration

  • Who can participate: Anyone who graduated in summer, autumn, or winter or who plans to graduate in spring or the upcoming summer.

  • How to register: Respond to the RSVP survey during spring quarter and request tickets for your guests.

    • The RSVP is sent to your UW email address - MAKE SURE YOU SET UP EMAIL FORWARDING!

  • Dress code: Regalia is required.  Graduation can be expensive so if the cost of regalia is a barrier to you being able to celebrate this accomplishment please let Paul know. The department has regalia available to borrow.

UW Commencement Ceremony

  • Who can participate: Anyone who graduated in summer, autumn, or winter, or who has a master's degree request on file for spring.

  • How to register: Register through the Office of Ceremonies website.  The registration period is in May.

  • Dress code: graduation regalia are required; purchase these when you register for the ceremony. 

Summer Quarter Graduates

Many students want to participate in spring quarter graduation ceremonies this year, rather than graduating in summer and having to wait until the following June. If this applies to you, talk with Paul and he can discuss options with you.