Graduation - Undergraduate Engineering

Ensure minors, secondary majors, and dual degrees are posted in BuckeyeLink. You can view this on your Advising Report. If they do not display correctly, please contact your academic advisor.

Please note: Only the degree name appears on Ohio State diplomas. Minors, secondary majors, and specializations/concentrations appear on your transcript, not your diploma.

Minors

If you are completing a minor, be sure to review your Degree Audit. If you have any questions about the minor requirements or selecting courses for the minor, you should contact an advisor in the program offering the minor. If your minor is not running complete in your Degree Audit, you will are required to submit a Minor Program Form to your advisor before your final semester begins.

Secondary Majors (Double Majors)

If you are earning a second major from another college on your Engineering degree, you will need to work with an academic advisor in the second major to ensure that you are meeting requirements for the second major. If you Degree Audit is not running complete for your second major, our office will need a major program form for your second major in order to update your Degree Audit correctly. In the Commencement ceremony, you will march with and wear the tassel for the College of Engineering.

Dual Degrees

If you are earning dual degrees and are completing a degree from a college other than Engineering, you will need to file a separate application to graduate with each college. Be sure to indicate on your applications which college you would like to march with during Commencement, and wear the tassel for that college.

Graduation applications must be submitted two semesters prior to your anticipated graduation date. After submitting your application, notify your College of Engineering departmental advisor regarding any changes to your projected schedule of classes and/or your anticipated semester of graduation. Please note that you will need to submit a new application to graduate if you change your plans and decide to graduate in a different semester.

If you are transferring any credit to Ohio State or completing an examination credit test to fulfill a degree requirement during your graduation term, follow the instructions below.

Transfer Credit Completed Before Your Final Semester

Many students choose to complete coursework at other institutions to fulfill degree requirements at OSU. For the college to complete the degree certification progress, all transfer credit must be posted to the student's OSU record before their final semester begins. Thus, students are required to transfer all credit from other institutions to OSU before the first day of class of their final semester. 

Completing Transfer Credit During Your Final Semester

In general, students are discouraged from waiting until their last semester at Ohio State to transfer credit from another institution. However, if you plan to do so, please make sure that you follow proper procedures so that every effort can be made to have the credit posted as soon as possible.

It is the student’s responsibility to

1. confirm with your advisor whether the course(s) taken will fulfill the intended academic requirements at Ohio State;
2. review the academic calendar of the other institution, including grade release dates, to ensure you can still meet Ohio State deadlines;
3. indicate on your application to graduate that you intend to complete transfer credit in your final semester; and
4. have an official transcript sent from the host institution to Ohio State as soon as your final grade(s) are available.

You should review the instructions for sending official transcripts to Ohio State, which are available at http://registrar.osu.edu/transfer_credit/index.asp.

After you have completed the course and have requested a transcript to be sent to Ohio State, you can monitor your Transfer Credit Report online at Buckeye Link. After the transcript has been delivered, and Ohio State has reviewed the credit, it will be posted to your record and will appear on this report. Ohio State cannot confer a degree until the credit is officially posted to your Transfer Credit Report and has been reviewed by your advisor. Due to the time required for this process, most students completing transfer credit in their final semester do not have the process completed in time to receive their degree or diploma at the Commencement Ceremony. Students in this situation will have until the university deadline, the Friday of the second week of the subsequent term, in order to resolve any outstanding transfer credit or requirements needed to complete the degree. 

Credit By Examination

If you plan on completing some of your required coursework via Credit by Examination (EM credit), the College will check to see if your EM credit for required coursework has posted to your record by the Friday of the 10th Week of your graduating semester. You are required to complete the tests for EM credit early in the semester in order to avoid any issues with credit posting.

If your EM credit has not posted by the Friday of the 10th Week of the semester, at that point you will be removed from the Graduation Candidate List for that semester. You will NOT be permitted to participate in the Commencement Ceremony until your EM credit posts. If you earn EM credit after this deadline, notify the departmental advisor as soon as possible and you will be re-added to the Graduation Candidate List and permitted to participate in Commencement. If your EM credit never posts, you will NOT be permitted to participate in the Commencement Ceremony for this semester and will need to submit another graduation application to your advisor with your new semester of graduation.

Please note that, according to the policy from the Office of Testing, EM tests cannot be repeated. You can find more information about earning EM credit through the Office of Testing.

After you have completed any tests for EM credit, you can monitor your record by running an Advising Report via the Student Center on Buckeye Link. Once the credit has been posted to your Ohio State record, it will appear on this report.

In order to ensure your diploma is printed and, if needed, mailed correctly, you may need to update your name and/or address.

Name Changes

Diplomas will be printed using your primary name (not preferred name) on the university system.  The university now allows students to select a Diploma Name which will appear on the diploma and in the commencement program. Students have through the 10th week of the term in which they are graduating to select/update their Diploma Name.

Students can view how their name will appear on commencement materials on the Diploma Name page in BuckeyeLink. Students who would like their name to appear differently than their primary name can make this change on the Diploma Name page. Login to BuckeyeLink and click the Diploma Name link under Personal Information.

The Diploma Name is NOT an official name change. The name entered will only be used for printing the diploma and the commencement program. Transcripts and enrollment verification will continue to use the primary name. Students needing to update their primary name need to complete a Request for Change of Record by the end of the 8th week of the semester of graduation.

Names with Special Characters

The BuckeyeLink system does not support special characters (accents, tildes, etc.). Thus updating the Diploma Name or submitting a Change of Record will not correct these characters. After their graduation application has been approved, students with a special character (ex. è, ñ, ö, etc.) in their name can contact Engineering Graduation Services for these characters to be manually updated in the commencement materials.

Address Changes

It's important that you make sure your permanent address in Buckeye Link is correct. If for any reason the university needs to mail your diploma to you, it will be sent to the permanent address listed in your Student Center.

To change your address:
1. Go to “My Student Center” in Buckeye Link.
2. Go to the “Personal Information” section.
3. Click on “Permanent Address”.
4. Click on the “edit” button.
5. Update address information and click on “OK”.
6. Choose the date on which your changes should take effect.
7. Click on “Save”.

Detailed information about the Commencement ceremony for both graduates and guests can be found at the commencement website. Be sure to review the information on this website in detail as it becomes available. This is where you will find details about attire, invitations, rehearsal, parking, and other common questions.

If you will not be attending the commencement ceremony, submit the Commencement Ceremony Absence Excuse Form online.

Found a job? Going to grad school? Still looking? If you're looking for a job, Engineering Career Services (ECS) can help. Contact ECS for individual coaching on your resume and interview skills. Other services include on-campus interviews, resume referrals, and job postings.

What an exciting time to be in! You are finishing up your undergraduate career and, hopefully, looking back with fond memories of the last few years. Many look to this time with excitement about future prospects, such as graduate school or getting into industry. And the excitement is true...to a point. We are presented with this expectation that every chapter in our academic and employment career consists of smooth transitions without delays or barriers to graduation. Life, however, has a way of sometimes not working out exactly as we hoped, planned, or expected. With academic and career decisions to make, the uncertainty can be a bit scary and lead to stress, inaction, and procrastination. It happens, and you are not alone.

As you are looking down the tunnel at the last leg of your undergraduate career, it is important to maintain balance and have an overall sense of wellness. It won’t do you or your academic performance any good if you are stressed, anxious, and overwhelmed. Below are some tips and resources available to you to help you in your endeavors.

• Talk with your advisor. It’s better to know ahead of time when you can if you are graduating. It’s also better to have a conversation ahead of time of what to do should you not graduate. We know that grades don’t often come in until the Friday before Commencement, so you may initially think you are going to graduate until that weekend. Your advisor can help you figure out if you can walk for graduation and what classes you may be able to take over summer to get the degree. Or they may be able to help you figure out what plans B through Z are. I encourage you to make an appointment with your advisor sooner rather than later if you think it’s a good possibility you won’t graduate, or if you are uncertain.

• Talk with Engineering Career Services. Sitting down with a Career Counselor can be very helpful. They can help you with connecting to employers if you have had difficulty finding employment. They also have a workshop that can be very helpful in developing plans of action.

• Utilize Campus Resources. The Ohio State University is committed to supporting students with multiple resources. Below is a list of free resources and links to their website.​

  • Dennis Learning Center: The Dennis Learning Center provides free Academic Coaching to assist with learning and motivation strategies. dennislearningcenter.osu.edu
  • Office of Disability Services: slds.osu.edu
  • Student Advocacy: advocacy.osu.edu
  • For even more details about resources and programs, visit advising.engineering.osu.edu/current-osu-students/wellness

Barriers to graduation can happen, and delays in success sometimes occur. Sometimes we can predict that these might happen and sometimes we cannot. Some of you may be aware of these barriers or delays in your own preparation for graduating and have anxiety, fear of disappointing your loved ones, embarrassment of how you believe your friends, classmates, and/or faculty may see you, and even thoughts and feelings that you are a failure. While these reactions may seem understandable because of what and how we think about others and ourselves, the reality is they happen to many of us, and most folks won’t view you as a failure.

When experiencing this anxiety, embarrassment, and fear of disappointment or being a failure, some folks try to cope with these feelings through procrastination or avoidance, using drugs and alcohol, engaging in self-injurious behavior (such as cutting, punching, burning, or banging one’s head against a hard object), or even contemplate or attempt suicide. We get it. You are freezing up and looking for a way to escape because you are not sure what to do next. We wanted to provide you options beyond these unhealthy and even unsafe coping skills to help you be as successful and healthy as you can be. You are not alone. You have many folks and resources available to help you come up with options beyond your number one, which is graduation. Being prepared for other possible outcomes is not self-doubt or weakness, as some might think. It’s having safety nets available so that if option 1 (graduation) doesn’t happen, we can take steps to move forward in a healthy, productive way.

Reaching out to any of the resources listed above can be a great first step.

If you are missing any final grades on the Friday before Commencement, please contact the graduation coordinator at ENG-Graduation@osu.edu.

Graduating students may participate in Commencement, even if final grades are missing. However, students with missing grades or other unresolved issues will not have a diploma in the red cover they receive during Commencement. Any student in this situation will need to work with their advisor and the graduation coordinator to resolve any outstanding issues, and will be able to receive a diploma only after he/she has been certified to graduate.

Looking for a job? Engineering Career Services (ECS) can help. Contact ECS for individual coaching on your resume and interview skills. Other services include on-campus interviews, resume referrals, and job postings. For more information, call 292-6651, stop by 122 Hitchcock Hall, email eng-ecs@osu.edu, or visit the ECS website.

Already employed or have other plans? Please report this information at the report your plans page.