Graduation

Graduation is the action of receiving or conferring an academic degree or the associated ceremony. The date of event is often called degree day. In the United States, it is also used to refer to the advancement from a primary or secondary school level. Many colleges have different traditions associated with the graduation ceremony, the most well known probably being throwing mortarboards in the air.

United States

Graduation ceremonies in the United States are often orchestrated procedures involving a march of students onto the stage, the reading of speeches, the giving of diplomas, and an official moment when the students are declared graduated, also called the commencement exercise. The march is often set to music, usually Edward Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1. In United States colleges and universities the speakers will include the salutatorian, an alumnus of the institution, possibly a famous speaker not associated with the institution, and the valedictorian. The giving of diplomas is usually the longest portion of the ceremony: One by one the graduates come forward as their names and major/minor announced. Each of them is given a diploma by an academic administrator or official such as the dean. It is very common for graduates not to receive their actual diploma at the ceremony but instead a certificate indicating that they participated in the ceremony or a booklet to hold the diploma in. At the high school level this allows teachers to withhold diplomas from students who are unruly during the ceremony, and at the college level this allows students who need an extra quarter or semester to participate in the official ceremony with their classmates.

Related Topics:
Edward Elgar - Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 - College - Universities - Salutatorian - Alumn - Valedictorian - Diploma - Academic administrator - Dean - High school - Teacher - Quarter

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At most colleges and universities in the US, the faculty technically

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will recommend that each candidate be given a degree, which is then

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formally conferred by the President or other institutional

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official. Typically, this is accomplished by a pair of short

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set speeches by a senior academic official and a senior

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institutional official:

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"Mr. President, on behalf of the faculty of Letters

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and Science, I hereby

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declare that these candidates have met all the requirements for

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the degree of...and request that such degree be conferred upon

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them." "Under the authority vested in me by the State of Iowa and

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the Trustees of

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Podunk College, I hereby confer upon these candidates the

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degree of..."

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Graduation speech

A graduation speech, in the U.S., is a public speech given by a student or alumnus of a university or university college to a graduating class and their guests. Common themes of the graduation speech include wishing the graduates well in the "real world," cautioning that the world of academe is a special place where they were taught to think (a common variation contradicts this view). Ultimately, the speech is ceremonial, with attempts of humor and little wisdom or insight. Most recently, especially in prestigious institutions, the trend has been to find a celebrity (often one with no apparent connection to the specific institution or education in general) or a politician.

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