Graduation Requirements and Diplomas
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Degrees are awarded in October, February, and May each year. Certain VP&S programs, and select Morningside Schools, including Columbia College and Undergraduate Engineering, also award degrees in June on an as-needed basis. Every candidate, regardless of graduation date, is invited to participate in the University's annual Commencement ceremony, held on campus in May.
In order to be considered for a degree or certificate, you should first consult with your academic advisor within your school or department to ensure all of your graduation requirements have been met. Deans and advisors are the final authorities on whether graduation requirements have been met.
If you are looking for Commencement-specific information, please visit the official Columbia University Commencement website.
Details About Qualifying for and Obtaining a Degree
You should consult with your academic advisor within your school or department to be sure all of your graduation requirements have been met.
Students in Columbia College can use the Degree Audit Report (DAR). The DAR is only an aid to advisement, not an official document. Kindly note that the Office of the Registrar no longer actively maintains the DAR platform, and so the data available on the Degree Audit Report may be inaccurate or incomplete. For precise and timely analysis of degree requirements, please consult your advising dean and/or departmental coordinator.
Except in cases where student populations have been instructed to apply for graduation through other means, students will complete the online application for degrees available directly within SSOL.
Under the Degree Application Status tab, click the button labeled Apply for Degree or Certification. Only students eligible to apply for a degree will find these buttons available to them.
The application will show multiple graduation dates. Although the application will default to the next available conferral date, students must ensure that they have selected the correct graduation date for their program from the dropdown menu.
After submitting, you may check the status of your degree application in SSOL at any time.
Application Deadlines (Morningside and Manhattanville)
You should submit the Application for Degree or Certificate by the appropriate deadline in SSOL.
For the 2024-2025 academic year, the applications deadlines are as follows:
Degrees Conferred October 16, 2024
September 1, 2024
Degrees Conferred February 12, 2025
November 1, 2024
Degrees Conferred May 21, 2025
January 1, 2025
Degrees Conferred June 30, 2025
March 1, 2025
Application Deadlines (CUIMC)
You should submit the Application for Degree or Certificate by the appropriate deadline in Vergil.
The applications deadlines are as follows:
- Graduating In
- October
- Apply By
- August 1
- Graduating In
- February
- Apply By
- December 1
- Graduating In
- May/June
- Apply By
- February 1
Schools With Different Application Procedures
Students in the following schools will receive alternative application instructions:
- General Studies students apply internally through a form specific to the School of General Studies. GS and GN students should write to their academic advisor with any questions.
- GSAS Doctoral & M. Phil. recipients should consult with their department and follow instructions from the Dissertation Office.
- Students at Teachers College and Barnard College must use forms issued by their own schools. For more information, please contact the Barnard Registrar or the Teachers College Registrar.
Diplomas will be ordered and mailed by our printing vendor roughly three weeks after the conferral date. Keeping this timeframe in mind – and the additional time required for delivery of the diploma, it’s important that we have an address on file for you that will be current for at least two months after graduation.
If you are not certain of your address after graduation, you can always elect to have your diploma held for future release. In this circumstance, please designate your Diploma Address as “HOLD FOR MAILING.” Once you have a stable address, you will need to write to the Office of the University Registrar at [email protected] so that we can release your diploma to you.
If you need to update your Diploma Address for any reason, you may do so through Student Services Online (SSOL) anytime until 5 p.m. on the Monday before graduation. You will need to navigate to the Degree Application Status tab on SSOL. You’ll see the current Diploma Address displayed there, as well as a button marked “Update Diploma Address” that will allow you to make any needed changes.
Keep in mind that your diploma will be sent exclusively to the Diploma Address on file for you. Even if you have a local and/or permanent address on file, these will not be used. You must enter a Diploma Address on SSOL in order to receive a diploma.
Do be aware that while we can accommodate international shipping, we strongly encourage all students to use an address in the United States or Canada for diploma delivery. We cannot guarantee successful delivery outside of the US or Canada.
If a diploma is lost or damaged in transit, the Office of the University Registrar will offer one reprint of the diploma free of charge. The reprint must be sent to a US address.