Dr. Steve Tippins, who has served on over 300 dissertation committees, shares six practical tips for doctoral graduation: book hotels early, confirm your chair will attend, decide whether to buy or rent regalia, pick a gown with pockets, check family expectations, and know that walking the stage is optional. Your degree is official on your transcript either way.
You've made it to the end. Graduation is looming. I've seen people make mistakes when it comes to just even this final step that can cost them thousands of dollars. In this video, I'm going to walk you through 6 things to think about when your graduation is coming so that it can be as enjoyable for you as possible. I'm Dr. Steve Tippins, Ph.D. I've been in academia for 35 years, and I've been on over 300 dissertation committees. And hooded many candidates. So you get all the information from the university about graduation, where it's going to be, what dates are going to be, and you're excited. First, if you're going to go to graduation, reserve a room early. Many of these graduations can be huge, and there may not be a lot of hotel rooms around. And if you wait, you could end up either with A, a suite that's really expensive, or B, a really horrible place. I can tell you, I went to my brother's college graduation and he was in charge of making reservations for everyone, and he made them 2 weeks before graduation. And this was not in a huge town, and we ended up staying in a place that, well, let me just say, the next morning, everybody who was staying there at 5 o'clock in the morning was outside trying to air themselves out. And you may not want that as part of the experience for your family. So book a room early. But you also wanna check, and this is particularly important for distance learning or online universities, will your chair be there? At an online graduation, many times there are 5 or 6 faculty members for each area there, and they randomly hood people, and you may not get your chair. And if that's important to you, that you have your chair put your hood on and allow you to graduate, You really want to know if they're going to be there or not. Typically, I find the odds are they're not, but find this out before you make all kinds of commitments. And by all kinds of commitments, let's talk about the cap and gown. Think about this, because buying a cap and gown can cost over $1,000, and if you want a really fancy one, it can be even more. How often are you going to wear this? What are you going to do with this? It's something you want to think long and hard about before you go out and shell out a lot of money. Many schools also allow you to rent them. So if you aren't going to be dressing in academic regalia again for the rest of your life, you may not want to shell out $1,000, $1,200 for a cap and gown that's then going to go into a closet and be moth-eaten and all this other stuff. Or you might spend $100 and rent something for the couple of hours and hand it back in and you're done. But be aware there are options and that this is a cost. Now, another tip with your gown in particular, and I found this out at my doctoral graduation where they had thousands of people, undergraduates all the way through master's and doctorates, and the doctoral candidates walked into the auditorium first and walked across the stage last, and it was a 4-hour ceremony. There were undergraduates who woke up, put their gown on, showed up, graduated, and went home all in the time I was in the auditorium waiting to graduate. Now, one thing that my gown did not have was pockets. Why are pockets important? Because this way I can bring a phone in, I can bring a tablet in, I can have even a book in. I can have something to do during those times. And as a faculty member, when I had to go to graduation, I would use the pocket in the gown that then I would use to bring in material to grade or do other work so that I wasn't just sitting there watching people walk across stage, wave to their family, the 9 people in the stands clap for them, and then wait for the next one. And I wouldn't spend hours just doing that. The 5th point I want to make is even if you decide you don't want to do this, remember, your family may want you to do this. So you want to check with them to see are they planning to come or how important is it for them to be there. Because your family has provided a lot for you and support-wise during this process, so it may be very important for them to see you walk across stage. And the final point here, if you decide you're not going to graduation, if you decide it's not worth it for whatever reasons, you can't get the time away or you don't want to spend the money because You know, hey, I'm gonna fly to Anaheim. Okay, I'm flying. I gotta stay in a hotel room. Okay, I'm gonna buy a gown. It can cost, you know, $3,000 or more just for you to graduate. Okay, if you don't go, here's a little secret. You're still a doctor. You're still gonna graduate. You don't have to physically walk across stage to be a doctor. Okay, you finished your dissertation. Your transcript is gonna say you're done. Your transcript doesn't have a line that said didn't walk across stage, therefore not doctor. Your transcript is gonna say you completed. So think about these things and just relish the fact that you've finished, and congratulations. Before you reach this stage, if you have questions along the way, click the link below to join our free dissertation help community.
