<p>I am looking at the schedule for S's college graduation. They have both a commencement ceremony and a Diploma and Hooding ceremony. The commencement is the entire university and requires tickets. It says it lasts 2 hours. Their is a separate hooding and diploma ceremony in the afternoon for each College of the University. This requires no tickets. Each student is allotted 4 tickets for the commencement. We will need 6. Son can request addition tickets.
I am wondering if the grandparents and sibling really want and need to attend both ceremonies. I know for my 16 yr old she is going to be bored. Each ceremony is around 2 hours long.
This is our first graduate. Any feedback? I guess I am getting old but I don't remember having two ceremonies when I graduated.</p>
<p>Many universities do this, because there are too many grads to walk across one stage. So, they do the commencement ceremony for everyone, then break out into college-level ceremonies for the actual awarding of the diploma. </p>
<p>I have attended way too many commencements (I’m a college administrator, so I go to at least one each year, plus others for friends/family/associates), and most of them are way too long. Let’s face it, the students want to get their diplomas, and they are not in the mood to listen to scholarly musings or advice on how to go forth into the world. Most commencement speakers have not figured this out and instead choose to inflict their wisdom on a captive audience for an extended period of time. I can count the inspiring commencement speeches that I have heard on one hand.</p>
<p>So, I’d suggest sending everyone to the diploma ceremony, and only attend the commencement if there is a notable speaker that you would really like to hear.</p>
<p>Some graduations are more fun than others. If you name the school, you will get more useful info from the old-timers, I think.</p>
<p>Our grad only wanted to attend the diploma ceremony. The whole school commencement was fairly unpopular at their school. The extended family attended the diploma ceremony and it was long and more than enough at this particular school. YMMV</p>
<p>Rice just had one ceremony and it was long and hot, but very meaningful so we sat through the whole thing. It was outdoors. Did I mention hot?</p>
<p>Penn had the 2 ceremonies- one for the individual “college” and one for the whole university. We attended both and I thought they were both important and worth attending. (decent weather, too) I was so glad to get WildChild out of there and stop paying that I would have attended the setting up of the chairs!!!</p>
<p>What is a Diploma and Hooding Ceremony? I have never heard of that.</p>
<p>Nevermind. I figured it out.</p>
<p>How big is the university? One of mine went through commencement where the individual undergraduates’ names weren’t even called out. And it was raining and the ceremony outdoors. The department one was more intimate.</p>
<p>At my son’s university, the all-university graduation and individual college get-your-diploma-and-get-your-name called ceremonies were held on two successive days.</p>
<p>Even though his school was only an hour from our home, I could not attend both ceremonies because I had started a new job only a month earlier, and I only had enough vacation hours coming to me to attend one of the two events.</p>
<p>He and I decided I should attend the individual college event. It was more personal and meaningful.</p>
<p>A diploma ceremony is where undergrads actually receive their diploma if they didn’t get their name called individually at the big all-university Commencement. A hooding ceremony is where recipients of masters and/or doctoral degrees have their hood draped around their shoulders, usually by the tallest member of the school’s faculty. :)</p>
<p>The big ceremony is long and mostly tedious. If there’s great, colorful ceremony or a famous speaker, it may be a better show, but the diploma ceremony will be much more personal.</p>
<p>Thank you, Gadad.</p>
<p>Agreed. DS went to the departmental undergrad ceremony only. It was only 250 students and was much more personal…and it’s where the kids in the department all got their diplomas. It was indoors in a nice intimate theater. The LARGE ceremony was outdoors and it POURED rain. I was so grateful to be sitting in a nice restaurant eating breakfast!!</p>
<p>DDs school had ONE huge LONG (did I say LONG) graduation. It was outdoors also. The weather is usually drop dead gorgeous where DD went to college. On graduation day it was in the mid 80’s and sunny. It was VERY hot. ALL the grads (about 900) got their diplomas. We had intended to stay for all but after DD’s department, we left. It was just too long and too hot. The water vendors made a killing that day!!</p>
<p>It could be that the big ceremony is televised to ancillary locations that don’t require a ticket to attend. Sitting out of the rain in one of those locations would have been much better experience for us–as it was, we couldn’t hardly see anything in person and had to mostly watch the jumbotron anyway.</p>
<p>I’d park the grandparents there.</p>
<p>The Diploma ceremony is a must-attend. YOu’ll be able to get good pictures there.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the great information. I won’t stress if he doesn’t get the extra tickets for the big ceremony. The school is not huge but not tiny. I think the weather can be hot but I think both ceremonies are indoors.</p>
<p>You might check who the commencement speaker is - that might sway you or other family members.</p>
<p>I made DS go to the Commencement ceremony for A&S - it’s where they walked and got their diplomas. He probably wouldn’t have gone, but I told him he “owed” us, lol.</p>
<p>It was long and hot - his dept (Engineering) was fairly early in the walking up for diplomas. We left soon after. He had to stay for the whole thing. He never complained :).</p>
<p>In retrospect, I don’t think it’s all that important to go to any of it. But it’s all a matter of personal preference. Too bad the personal preferences of each family member don’t always align…</p>
<p>Speaker has not yet been announced. He didn’t go to his HS graduation so I am looking forward to this.This is my kid who I never thought would make it to college and once there I didn’t think he would last a semester. His school is small enough that he is graduating with a lot of kids he has known since freshmen year.</p>
<p>Agree - find out who the speaker is! Most of the time, the speakers at the large ceremonies are outstanding.
And, find out if there is handicapped access. Even if the grandparents are not using walkers, canes or wheelchairs, it is worth it to request handicapped access to these ceremonies. There is a LOT of walking involved in some of them, ascending steps in a stadium, etc., and it makes a huge difference if grandparents can take an easier route. Upenn had this access and it was wonderful! We could see several rows of grandparents (including our parents) from where we were sitting, and they looked so happy!</p>
<p>Thank goodness my alma mater changed graduation since my day. We had the everyone sits in the stadium and only the upper degrees walked the stage one. Now they have multiple indoor ceremonies for spring commencement that are simultaneously available for viewing (or later) on the website. I plan to invite relatives to attend virtually via the website- especially when we know when to look for kid so they can fast forward… I do feel sorry for the top officials and speakers who have to do multiple events the same weekend. I’m also a bit upset son stuck around another year and added a second major that puts him in the first group for L&S alphabetically- changing the afternoon to a morning ceremony. I guess lunch after instead of before, plus arriving the night before…</p>
<p>To clarify, they did not call it “handicapped access”; they called it “limited mobility access”.</p>
<p>We had two kids who graduated from college–different schools. At each, we attended both the large university commencement and then the additional ceremony for the specific college/department.</p>
<p>In D’s case, the big event was long, boring and a surprisingly terrible speaker (who sounded great on paper!). This was our first kid to graduate, and I guess we thought we should attend. Her individual department (biology) had its own ceremony later that day. So personal. Each graduate was announced, along with a little info about their successes in college as well as next steps. It was terrific.</p>
<p>In S’s case, we also attended both. His was spectacularly fun. Seriously. We had lots of family who came to celebrate with us and the verdict was unanimous–best graduation ever! Great speakers and even entertainment. After the main event, his school, the College of Liberal Arts, stayed in the Superdome and had their diplomas handed out. There were ALOT of kids, so no individual info announced here.</p>
<p>In retrospect, we generally felt we were glad we attended everything. After all, how many times will your kid graduate from college? Maybe attending both also helped us feel more like we were getting our money’s worth, down to the last moment! </p>
<p>I would absolutely agree that, most of the time, the speakers who are booked for commencement tend to be very good. That alone can make it worthwhile. </p>
<p>Oh, and congratulations to you! I honestly felt it was as much a milestone for my husband and me as it was for our graduates.</p>