Hi everyone! I was hoping some US fellow writer/enthusiast would be able to help me… I’m working on a story which follows a recent university graduate but as an European myself I am a bit uncertain as of when, in your student life, graduation ceremony actually happens. Are you completely done with your studies when you attend the ceremony or are you still at university? In my original idea my character would attend the ceremony and then leave campus the next day but during my research I found out that most ceremonies happen between the months of March and April and supposedly classes only finish around end May? Can someone help??
Ceremony doesn't matter, when you complete the application for degree does. I would venture today most people don't even go to the graduation ceremony for that year because they are far too busy working or finding work. Also you're forgetting that many don't even graduate in spring semester. You can still complete graduation requirements in fall, summer, winter, or if you're in a month to month, literally any month. Getting out the door from a four year degree in four years is kind of a running joke. A lot happens in that time. Or it could be disastrous like it was in my life. You never know.
Most university graduations take place in late May, or maybe early June. You have to be finished with your studies before you can graduate, so, yeah, you'd be off campus the next day. Though come to think of it, I had to take an Incomplete in one subject my senior year, and I was permitted to graduate with my class. That said, it was up to me to complete the work on my own, after I'd left campus and gotten my own apartment in another city. It's true that a lot of people graduate in December, etc. But if you want your character to attend the ceremony and leave campus the next day, that's quite all right. The interesting thing is, what does he/she do between attending the ceremony in the afternoon and moving out the next day? Does he have parents and other family to entertain? Does she have one last party/bar-hop with her friends? Does he get any sleep, or is he up all night packing up? Oh, yeah. Unless things have changed, it's traditional for the band or something to play Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1" at some point, maybe when the graduates troop into the stadium (it usually is the stadium). However, for your big American universities, the individual graduates will not file by the podium and pick up their degrees. There's just too many of them. Instead, the graduating classes of each separate school will be announced and that group stands, gets applauded, and sits down again. If they're being creative they might have sparklers or bottle rockets up the sleeves of their gowns to set off, though maybe the university admins have cracked down on that in recent years. It hits me, too, that your graduate will have to stop off somewhere, his college's office or wherever, to drop off his cap and gown (rented) and pick up his actual degree. Or it could be mailed to him.
I graduated in May. My exit exam (where i had to give a presentation to the English Literature faculty and provide them with 4 years work of writing and argue why I earned my degree--- phew! I'm glad thats over) was scheduled mid April. I literally loaded up my car and my parent's van and left campus the exact same day I graduated. Graduation ceremony was in the morning, and I was on the road back to my state by the afternoon. For Undergrad, I was there for the ceremony. Its a huge deal. I'm in grad school now, and I'm taking my last two classes during the winter. Which means I will be done with my class by January/February. Which means I will be receiving my degree before May. However, for a masters or anything higher than undergrad, really, its not as important to attend the graduation ceremony. So i'm not attending that one. They can mail me my degree. If I were to make this fall semester my last semester, I would be graduating in December. Ideally, you graduate the end of the last semester you complete. If you finish the Fall semester, you graduate in the winter. If you finish Winter, you graduate in Spring. If you finish Spring, you graduate early Summer.
I went to a Big State University (University of Illinois), and the graduation ceremony was totally optional. I didn't even bother to learn when mine was, but my roommate was an international student and he asked me to come to his to videotape him for his parents. The graduations there were separated by the college (College of Engineering, College of Liberal Arts, College of Agriculture) etc to limit the number of students, but they just called off the names, everyone was seated in order, came up, got the roll of paper (which wasn't the actual degree, that arrived in the mail later IIRC) and a handshake for a photo shoot, and then they were off to their new lives living back in at their parents' houses wondering what to do for a living.
Well, you could do worse than pick a real university and look online for their data on graduation (which is usually referred to as Commencement, not Graduation. At least that's the formal term for it. Students and others are still likely to call it 'graduation' though.) Here is the data page from University of Michigan. (A really big university.) Other smaller ones will also have data pages, I presume. https://commencement.umich.edu/winter-commencement/preparation/graduate-checklist/
I went to a small liberal arts college and we had a whole "Graduation Weekend." After exams, classes would be over, and everyone would pack all their things and vacate the dorms. About a week later was graduation. Graduating seniors and those participating in the ceremony (band, choir, and the like) would return to campus with just a few things for the weekend. We'd be assigned temporary dorm rooms and roommates (we could pick our roommates, I believe there was a form we filled out a few weeks prior). There was an Honors Convocation on Friday and then commencement (the actual graduation ceremony) on Saturday. Since we were a small school, every name was called and each student walked across the stage. Ours took place on the campus quad, the big grassy area in the middle of campus. After the ceremony, we grabbed whatever we had brought for the weekend and we all went our separate ways.
There is a gag where Americans think 200 years ago is a long time ago and Europeans think 200 miles is a long distance away. 200 miles in Europe takes you to another country, here, it doesn't even leave the state. The town I grew up in was a 4 hour drive from the town I went to college in. Once I finished my last class, I was already packed up and ready to go. Had a night or two left on my lease to have some fun with my friends but was off the campus long before finals week was over. I'm not making a four hour drive back to the campus just to participate in a ceremony and most people don't. My school was in the center of Pennsylvania and the majority of the student body came from Philly or Pittsburgh, both several hours away, so I was the common case, not the exception. I had one friend who actually went to graduation, her parents just happened to live within 30 minutes of the campus.
