<p>I seem to have a small collection of diplomas around the house between my wife and me, and it will be growing over the years.</p>
<p>What in the heck do I do with them? I don't care to hang them on the wall because they look rather stuffy. I've stuffed them in a box but would be nice to do something with them that isn't stuffy or pretentious.</p>
<p>Mine are in a box in the closet. When I was a college prof, I displayed them. My husband, a prof, displays his. Otherwise, I think the closet is fine.</p>
<p>Good question! Happydad’s first one and my first one are hanging on the wall where I can see them as I write this, but the others are in a box in the bedroom closet. Cleaning house after my parents had both died, we came across not only their diplomas, but also my paternal grandfather’s diploma. I think my eldest sister has all of them in a box in her (very dry) basement!</p>
<p>Mine and DH’s are framed nicely (Dad was a photographer and did it for free), but I’ve never displayed them. We are displaying 8th grade grad certificates from two of my kids, but they went to a private school and the “diplomas” are actually original prints from a local artist.</p>
<p>Shove them in a drawer someplace. Honestly, unless someone has the kind of profession where it might be considered appropriate to frame / hang diplomas (such as in a doctor’s office), wouldn’t that be pretty tacky to put them on the wall of your house?</p>
<p>A box but make sure all of them are bound first, so they are protected. </p>
<p>I think in some occupations and workplaces, it’s very appropriate to put them on your wall (don’t all medical doctors do this?). </p>
<p>Where we work and have worked as professors, talked about this a lot. For our culture, putting up diplomas and academic awards on the wall is considered tacky (perhaps because it’s so assumed that everyone has these, so it seems pointless and possibly reflecting insecurity, not sure).</p>
<p>Unless you’re in one of those fields where people post their diplomas on their office walls, it’s a pretty useless document. What counts is your transcript, and even that only counts for the first few years of your career or if you seek further education.</p>
<p>It’s appropriate for DH and me to hang ours on the walls of our home office, because we’re structural engineers. People are interested in where we went to school. In addition, we have to display our professional engineering licenses for each state. I also have my grandfather’s masters’ diploma from U. Wisconsin (1921 or so). It’s HUGE, which is funny since DH’s from UW is really tiny (smaller than 8 1/2 x 11).</p>
<p>When I had a significantly larger office, my dual diplomas were framed and hung on a discrete part of the wall, next to my certificate of election (Treasurer.)</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl: While I don’t hang mine in my office, I’ve walked through quite a few homes where people have hung their diplomas up on the wall. I’ve always checked the degree and seen a wide variety of degrees.</p>
<p>@MaineLonghorn: I’m also a licensed Professional Engineer but haven’t hung either my license or my diplomas up. I actually don’t know where either my high school or college diploma is right now!</p>
<p>Mine sat in a box until I had a job where many people hang there’s on the wall. I framed mine, and my Phi Beta Kappa for good measure - that one was a waste, if anybody notices they say things like “Oh, I was a Pi Phi!”. I probably won’t bother to hang it next time I change classrooms.
One very well educated couple that I know decorated their powder room with all the various degrees, awards, certificates, etc. Kind of a fun tongue-in-cheek take on it. Pretty much covered the walls with frames.</p>
<p>DH and I attended the same college, so our degrees are framed to match and hanging over the desk in our bedroom. Mine says “Magna Cum Laude” on it… DH always said if the kids asked what that meant and why his doesn’t say that, he was going to tell them that it meant I only sort-of graduated, that my grades were bad but the college felt bad for me so they gave me a diploma, haha.</p>
<p>Mine hang in my office, along with my phi beta kappa certificate and my bar admission certificate.</p>
<p>It’s fairly typical for lawyers to do that.</p>
<p>Obviously, I had to get new ones issued a few years ago to reflect my change in circumstances. (It wasn’t difficult to do after I presented the proper documentation.) Leaving the old ones up would have been rather confusing to people, as well as a self-inflicted invasion of privacy.</p>
<p>I only wish that what they say now had been true when they were originally issued.</p>
<p>DH and I only have one each,neither of them large or ostentatious looking. I was halfway through college when we got married and he (one yr. out of college) took over paying my way. So when I graduated we took both our diplomas to be framed as a celebration of finally making it through.
They have hung in the upstairs hall ever since…more for the memory of our early years struggling through together than any college accolades. We also have my great aunt’s giant sheepskin diploma printed in Latin hanging in the hall too…Guilford College 1918.</p>
<p>All my diplomas, like those of my sibs, are hanging framed on the den wall in my parents’ home. It’s kind of a trophy room. They paid for our education; they get the paper as a prize. I think they’ve appreciated having it as a memento.</p>
<p>All of my diplomas (my personal ones) are hanging in my laundry room. Something had to go on the walls and this seemed like an appropriate spot for the diplomas:)</p>
<p>My husbands diploma is framed and hanging in his office.</p>
<p>My son’s two diplomas are in the leather binders on his bookshelf.</p>
<p>My daughter hasn’t graduated…yet. I seriously doubt her two diplomas will be framed either…it’s up to her!!</p>
<p>My license to practice my profession and my certification by my national organization and my state are framed and on my wall at work.</p>
<p>When I practiced law, mine were on the wall in my office. They are in a closet now - I think. </p>
<p>I always check out doctors’ diplomas when I’m in their offices. I hate it when they hang them in a place where I can’t read the fine print. I am a med school snob when it comes to doctors.</p>
<p>Our graduation gift to our kids is a framed diploma. We don’t care if they want to display it, the idea is that they have graduated with no (or minimally, negotiated) debt. Our gift is the degree.</p>