<p>I'm not a parent...but I was just curious and didn't know where to post this.</p>
<p>I've been hearing a lot of students complain that their major was not printed on their diploma. I find this interesting, because after all you did work hard for that major. On the other hand I understand that you do not carry your diploma to job interviews, ect. it all goes by your official transcript. </p>
<p>Anyway, I was just wondering if anyone else heard of this...</p>
<p>My guess is it varies by degree and by college. My old BS diploma from the 1970s does not list my major but my PhD from a different school in the 1980s does. My daughter’s BA degree from her Ivy just a couple of years ago does not list her major.</p>
<p>Either way I don’t know what there is to be distressed about. As you said yourself it’s the transcript that matters to employers and grad school, not the diploma. The diploma is just for show on your wall. It’s not very useful documentation of much of anything.</p>
<p>Same here - no major on the BA, but it is on the PhD.</p>
<p>There is no major listed on the BA. D’s diploma is written in Latin so the only thing on it I can read is her name and the school’s name.</p>
<p>The year I received my BA was the first year that college had included the major on the diploma. They had to hire a whole staff of calligraphers to get the major (and any honors) written in in Latin. And, to be honest, it is really obvious where the print ends and the handwriting begins.</p>
<p>My MS diploma doesn’t include the major. Which is annoying, because the department has changed names at least twice since I graduated, and I don’t know what to tell people that my degree is in when I have no hard proof of the old name.</p>
<p>Nope, no major on acutal BA diploma…</p>
<p>Mine doesn’t include my major (actually double major), but it’s irrelevant - who is looking at my diploma anyway? I don’t even think my first job looked at my transcript. They took it at my word that I had a GPA of x.x, and why would they care if I had fulfilled my art requirement with Asian Art History or European Art History?</p>
<p>My Ivy diploma from the '80s does not list my major. My wife’s from the same school does. I have a brother-in-law from the same school whose diploma does not. Here’s the explanation.</p>
<p>My wife graduated with honors in her field, so the diploma reads something like, “Bachelor of Arts, with Honors in [field].” My brother-in-law did not write an honors thesis, so he did not receive departmental honors; his diploma reads something like “Bachelor of Arts with Honors in General Studies.”</p>
<p>I got terrible grades. (Well, actually, I got a wide variety of grades. I think the only one I missed was D+.) I didn’t graduate with honors. My diploma says just “Bachelor of Arts.” I feel lucky that it does not read “Bachelor of Arts by the Grace of God.” </p>
<p>My diploma from graduate school does list the field; I assume this is because a graduate degree really is in a discipline, and not general like a B.A.</p>
<p>Don’t know how it works at all colleges.</p>
<p>These days as part of the “background check” that many employers are doing, they verify your academic credentials. I don’t think they are receiving gpa, but degree and date graduated. I had one last year, my grad date was off by one year, so I fixed it on my application just to play it safe.</p>
<p>“Bachelor of Arts by the Grace of God.” </p>
<p>LOL</p>
<p>If that were an option, it would almost certainly be one of the most common wordings on diplomas, if not the most common!</p>
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<p>Sure, it’s funny now.</p>
<p>Mine (1978) says A. B. magna cum laude with highest honors in Visual and Environmental Studies. I think the A. B. part is written out in Latin, but I can’t remember where I’ve stuck the thing to check. :)</p>