Are you an advisor looking for FAQs relevant to your role? You can find them on the Canvas for Advisors page, under OtR Petitions and Processes >  Institutional Awarding Resources.

Diploma FAQs
Standalone Certificate FAQs

Institutional Awarding

Institutional awarding refers to the process of advancing an undergraduate student to graduation candidacy once a student completes or is in the process of completing their final degree requirements. It eliminates the need for the student to apply to graduate. In this instance, the Office of the Registrar's Graduation Team would work in concert with a student's academic advisor to determine if the student can be advanced as a candidate for graduation.

At this time, we are not doing institutional awarding for graduate students. You will still need to apply to graduate for the term when you anticipate completing all your degree requirements.

If you are in the graduation pool and your declared program of study [degree(s)/major(s)/minor(s)/option(s)] is incorrect in MyOregonState, work with your Academic Advisor to have this information corrected; they may have to submit a change of undergraduate program for you. The Office of the Registrar runs regular audits to find students where the declared program of study and graduation candidate information does not match. The Graduation Team will update your graduation information unless you are no longer able to graduate based on the corrected program of study. If you are no longer able to graduate, you will be removed from the graduation candidate pool.

The Graduation Team will load a standard diploma name for you, which will display in MyOregonState once you have been advanced as a candidate for graduation. They will email you and ask you to review your degree/major information and your diploma name. To check your diploma name, log into MyOregonState and go to the 'Academics' section. Select 'My Student Records.' Then select 'View Application(s) for Graduation' to verify your diploma name, graduation term, and program of study. If you need the diploma name changed, use the Update Diploma Name link to make any modifications to how you would like it displayed on your diploma.

When degree-seeking students declare a specific program of study and complete all of the requirements for that declared program, OSU will graduate them. If your current program of study is inaccurate and/or you do not feel ready to graduate, these are some options:

  • Update your program of study to include a major or minor that aligns with your desired educational outcome. 

  • Plan out your course taking so that the final courses required for your declared program of study fall in the term you wish to graduate. 

  • Graduate upon completion of the degree requirements in your declared program of study and then return to OSU as a graduate non-degree student, or a degree seeking post-bacc student, to continue taking graduate or undergraduate courses that you want or need to meet personal, academic, or career goals.

We understand that there may be special circumstances that prevent students from being able to graduate. If you find yourself in that situation, please discuss this first with your academic advisor, who can best advise you on next steps to address your situation.

This is not a reason to waive institutional awarding. If you're trying to improve your GPA via second-attempts (see AR 20), work with your academic advisor and use academic planning tools to create an academic plan that includes repeating courses prior to when final degree requirements are to be met. If your grade in a course does not meet the program or degree requirements, you will not be advanced to the graduation pool until degree requirements are met.

Students who graduated in the summer, fall, and winter terms prior to the ceremony can still register to attend Commencement via the Commencement home page.

There are many reasons to graduate students upon completion of degree requirements related to student developmentstudent debtstate expectations, and financial aid regulations.  We understand there are some special circumstances that may make graduating before you feel ready an issue; if that is the situation you're in, we ask you to work closely with your academic advisor on developing a plan that works for your circumstances.

Federal aid is intended to support enrolled students for the purpose of obtaining a degree, certificate or other recognized credential offered by that institution.

  • If your program of study is inaccurate, work with your academic advisor to correct, update, add the program of study that is correct. 

  • Starting early in your academic career, plan out your course taking so that courses required for your declared program of study fall in the term you wish to graduate. 

  • Graduate upon completion of the degree requirements in your declared program of study and then return to OSU as a graduate non-degree student to continue taking graduate or undergraduate courses that you want or need to meet personal, academic, or career goals

The Graduation Team will email you twice in your graduation term to notify you that you are a candidate for graduation. This email will include instructions on how you can view your program of study (degree/major/minor/option) and your diploma name.

The Graduation Team will send you an email once your degree(s) have been conferred.

When degree-seeking students declare a specific program of study and complete all of the requirements for that declared program, OSU will graduate them. 

  • If your program of study is inaccurate, work with your academic advisor to correct, update, add the program of study that is correct. 

  • Graduate upon completion of the degree requirements in your declared program of study and then return to OSU as a graduate non-degree student to continue taking graduate or undergraduate courses that you want or need to meet personal, academic, or career goals

After graduating upon completion of your degree requirements:

  • Pursue another degree as a post-bacc or graduate level student.  You may be eligible for a combination of Federal student loans, private student loans, institutional scholarships, outside scholarships, other outside resources (including employer reimbursement).  

  • Be a non-degree seeking student and you may be eligible for private student loans, institutional scholarships, outside scholarships, other outside resources (including employer reimbursement).

MyDegrees Planner

The Planner provides a great feature under the Requirements Section. 

  • Use the left bar to get to Requirements
  • Select Choice
  • In the popup, select the term you plan to take the course
  • In the Course field enter BACCORE @, wait for the system to recognize the course and then select
  • In the attribute field, select the Bacc Core requirement you plan to take that term
  • Enter the estimated credits
  • Select the same attribute you selected above in the Pointer field
  • Save

Course offerings differ by program but past course schedules are available and when the course was offered in previous years is one indicator of which term it may be offered in the future. For example, courses that have routinely been offered in winter term in past years have a good chance of being offered in winter terms again. Remember to look at the class plans by campus. 

In MyDegrees, the @ symbol is a wildcard. For example, ANS @ means any courses with the ANS subject code, and ANS 2@ is any 200-level course with the ANS subject code.

Some plans are set up to begin in a fall term. If there is not an appropriate template for the term you will start, you can select your start term as the fall prior to your start and add requirements starting with the term you will begin taking courses. 

This can be for a couple of reasons. If the courses are in a term that has passed or has started, the checklist will only use courses you completed or are currently registered. If you still plan to take those courses, you will need to place them in a future term in the plan. 

Another reason courses may not show in your checklist is that you used a Bacc Core attribute for the requirement but did not use the Pointer feature. The checklist only picks up Bacc Core when a specific Bacc Core course is added or if you use the Pointer field in the Choice option.  See FAQ What if I am not sure which Baccalaureate Core Course I want to take? above for directions. 

If you have additional questions about the Planner, please email [email protected].

Degrees

A student receives two diplomas for dual degrees, and one diploma with multiple majors listed for double majors.  For dual degrees, there is a higher minimum credit requirement of 212 vs 180 for double majors. Please check out our page on Double Degrees, Dual Major, & Honors Degrees for more information.

Have a question you think should be added here? Email us!