BASW Advising: Commencement

Like all of the University of Washington campuses, UWT has one commencement ceremony per year, held at the end of the Spring Quarter. All students who graduated in the previous Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Spring are eligible to participate, as well as those students who are going to finish their degrees by the coming Summer Quarter. If you expect to be a summer graduate, you have a choice which ceremony you would like to participate in, but you can only "walk" once.

Information about the ceremony and what you need to do to prepare for it can be found on the UWT Commencement page.

Notes About Commencement and Graduation

There is some confusion about the differences between these two similar concepts:

Commencement

Commencement is a formal ceremony, a social event that takes months of planning and preparation. We work with the best available information we have to construct an accurate and meaningful event; however, it is not the official moment of degree granting. You do not receive your actual diploma during the ceremony.

Graduation

Graduation is that moment which occurs when an individual audit of your particular record is finished and you are entered in the computer as having graduated in the month you finished the requirements. Once your degree has been granted, a few days to a few weeks after grades are submitted, your name is included in a batch to be printed on a diploma, and it takes 3-4 months for you to receive it in the mail.

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