Graduation Checklist
The Graduate School is excited to celebrate your achievements and graduation at Commencement! Below are several actions that all students must complete to graduate and to prepare for walking at Commencement.
Please note: Students are not permitted to walk at Commencement before they complete all graduation requirements. Also, be sure to check your Penn State email for all commencement communication from the Graduate School.
Summer 2024 commencement
Saturday, August 10, 2024, 2:30 p.m. at the Bryce Jordan Center
Commencement Deferral Requests
Each semester, the Graduate School welcomes several thousand graduating students into Penn State’s alumni ranks. Commencement is an important day for not only graduating students, but also their families, their faculty advisers, support staff, and many others in the graduate education community.
Students are invited and expected to participate in the graduation ceremony held during their graduating semester due to the complexity of graduation and Commencement. Only rare exceptions due to extenuating circumstances will be considered. Before requesting a deferral, students should keep in mind the following:
- Deferral extensions will only be approved for one semester beyond the student’s official graduation semester if space permits.
- Students are unable to defer to walk at spring semester Commencement. Only students graduating in the spring are permitted to walk that semester.
- Deferral extensions from a fall or spring semester may take place the following summer.
- Deferral extensions from a summer semester may take place the following fall.
- Students are not permitted to walk at graduation before they complete all graduation requirements. This includes meeting all dissertation and thesis deadlines if that is required for a student’s program.
Send graduation deferral requests to gswww@psu.edu.