With the May 2014 Elliott School Celebration and University Commencement ceremonies just a few days away, it’s a very exciting time for many of our students. Along with the excitement can come a slight sense of anxiety, as students want to make sure everything they need to do to graduate is complete.
Take a deep breath. You don’t need to have everything done by the time the countdown to commencement clock hits zero! (i.e. if you still have outstanding grades, you haven’t officially received your language proficiency scores, or your DegreeMAP doesn’t look perfect), you can still participate in commencement ceremonies because applying to graduate and/or ‘walking’ in the Elliott School Celebration or University Commencement in no way certifies degree completion. In other words, participating in these events does not mean you’ve graduated. No degrees will be conferred until after the spring degree conferral date, and it generally takes a few weeks after the conferral date for graduation clearances to be processed.
Graduation clearances occur after each term concludes and final grades are posted. Your advisor will alert you of your clearance status during the degree clearance process. A careful review of your file is required during this process which can take some time. Please be patient and know that we also want you to receive your degree ASAP. There are a few things you can do to help make this process as smooth as it can be: update your plan of study (updates must be signed by your program director) and, while it’s not required, you can schedule an appointment with your advisor to review your record to avoid any surprises during the degree clearance process. Degree audits are not conducted via email.
DegreeMAP is a tool that allows you to see the progress you have made toward the completion of your degree. If there are issues with your DegreeMAP, there is no need to panic. The accuracy or inaccuracy of this tool will not prevent you from participating in graduation. If there are issues, you can email your advisor from your GWU e-mail account to request the changes you think are needed. Please be as specific as possible and include your GWID. Please allow 4-6 weeks for changes to be reflected. Once 4-6 weeks have passed, log-in to DegreeMAP and click “Process New” to see if the changes were made.
We hope you enjoy the upcoming commencement weekend!
Alec Weltzien graduated with majors in history and German from Middlebury College in 2009. Following a year in Germany as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, he worked five months for Dagmar Freitag (MdB) as part of the German Bundestag's International Parliamentary Scholarship program. In 2012 Alec followed the rebalance to Asia, spending five months learning Japanese on a dairy farm in northern Hokkaido, Japan and in Tokyo. Alec joined the Masters in International Affairs Program in August 2012 as a Wolcott Foundation Fellow. He is interested in European politics, East Asian politics, memory studies, and German-Japanese comparative history. Along with academics, Alec has completed internships at the American Enterprise Institute, Asahi TV, The Department of State, and the Department of Commerce, with a summer in Himeji, Japan, studying Japanese as part of the State Department's Critical Language Fellowship. At the moment Alec enjoys working with students in the International Dialogue Program. He hopes to graduate in August and find a career in the federal government afterwards.