V.   GRADUATION & COMMENCEMENT

All students must be familiar with their degree requirements and the relevant policies of the University and their School. Failure to do so may result in a delay in graduation.

Georgetown awards master’s and doctoral degrees at the end of each term (May, August, and December). The University conducts Commencement exercises annually in May. In order to be considered for graduation and to be eligible to participate in Commencement, students must apply to graduate.

V.A.  Application for Graduate Degree

Students who wish to graduate in August or December must apply to graduate by the first working day of that month.

Students who wish to graduate in May must apply no later than February 1. Those who apply later may be cleared to graduate, but they will not have their names in the Commencement Program book and their diplomas will not be available at the Commencement ceremony in May.

Instructions on how to apply online are available here. Students who have applied by the deadline for an August or December graduation have until the last working day of that month to meet all degree requirements. Please note, however, that students are strongly encouraged to submit their thesis, doctoral project, or dissertation as early in the month as possible.

For students who have applied for a May graduation, any thesis, doctoral project, or dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a May degree must be approved by the faculty and uploaded to ProQuest no later than the first working day of May. All other degree requirements must be met by the Monday preceding Commencement, including submission of all grades and examination ballots to University Registrar.

Students must be enrolled during the Fall or Spring semester or Summer term in which they graduate. Students who apply to graduate toward the end of one semester, but who do not complete all degree requirements until the following semester, will be required to enroll in the following semester.

V.B.  Publication of Theses, Doctoral Projects, and Dissertations

Georgetown requires that all theses, doctoral projects, and dissertations in partial fulfillment of the requirements of a graduate degree be published in electronic form. 

This requirement covers only those academic products that are formally designated as theses, doctoral projects, or dissertations. It does not cover capstone projects, creative works, or other activities that are required by the student’s degree program.

Ordinarily, all theses, doctoral projects, and dissertations are made publicly available in ProQuest. There are, however, circumstances under which a student may wish to request a temporary embargo. Graduate work ordinarily may be embargoed for a maximum of two years, though occasionally an extension may be granted under extraordinary circumstances. Depending on the circumstances, an embargo may entirely prevent dissemination of the work or grant access to it only to the University community. The most restrictive form of the embargo is typically approved only in cases where a patent is pending and is granted rarely. JOGS has the sole authority to approve embargos. Generally, requests to embargo work that has already been publicly available will not be approved.

During any period of embargo, metadata concerning the thesis, doctoral project, or dissertation, including title, author, and an abstract of the work, will be available online.

V.C.  Diplomas and Transcripts

University policy does not permit the release of diplomas to students with unpaid tuition or fees.