Graduation

Students will need to ensure they will be completing all degree requirements by the end of their graduating quarter.

You can review your degree audit regularly to verify the current status of your courses. A red “X” indicates that a requirement has not been fully satisfied. Blue dots indicate that a requirement is in-progress, and a green check-mark indicates that a requirement has been met.

Once you have enrolled in courses for your final quarter, run your degree audit to ensure that it says all requirements are complete using in-progress courses.

It is also recommended that students meet with their departmental advisor(s) and an Eighth College advisor if there are any questions about degree requirements and/or review their degree audits for completion.

Please meet with your departmental advisors first. Then stop by Eighth College’s drop-in advising or schedule an appointment with Eighth College advising for graduation support.

Please see the Degree and Diploma Application (DDA) filing deadlines:

Your quarter of graduation is the quarter in which all requirements for graduation have been met and all coursework has been completed. To file for official graduation and receive your diploma, you will need to submit your Degree and Diploma Application (DDA). 

Submitting a DDA the quarter prior to your graduation quarter will allow advisors to do a preliminary review your Degree Audit to ensure you are on track for graduation by your intended quarter of graduation. The final deadline to submit a Degree and Diploma Application is the Friday of Finals week of your graduating quarter.

Please be advised, filing a DDA does not guarantee graduation. After final grades are posted, your DDA will be reviewed and approved by your major(s) department, your College, and the Office of the Registrar.

If you miss the deadline, contact your College advisors via the VAC to request to file a retroactive DDA.

Your diploma will be sent to the permanent address that is on your Tritonlink account. Please ensure that your permanent address is up-to-date on TritonLink, since this is where your diploma will be mailed.

To update your address on TritonLink:

• Log into TritonLink
• Under "Toolbox" --> "Personal Tools", click "Addresses"
• Click the "Mailing Address" tab
• Click the Change button for the Current Address or Permanent Address

Your lived name, as it appears on TritonLink, will be printed on your diploma. If you have not entered a lived name, your legal name will be used. Students can update their lived name via the Social Identities Tool on TritonLink. For more information about lived names, please see Lived Name for Students.

Official graduation and participating in the Commencement Ceremony are two separate things. 

Graduation is the term used to describe when a student has completed all requirements and their degree has been officially posted to the academic record. Students must complete a Degree and Diploma Application (DDA) to file for graduation. Graduation eligibility is coursework completion and is not required for commencement participation. 

Commencement is a voluntary ceremony held in June each year in which eligible seniors are welcome to participate. Students are eligible to participate in Commencement when they have earned at least 135 units by Winter quarter of their graduating year. Please be advised, participation in commencement does not constitute official graduation from the University.

Please be advised, Eighth College will not have its first campus Commencement Ceremony until Spring 2027. However, Eighth College will be working with any students that are graduating and want to participate in the June 2026 Commencement. More information about how to go about participating in the June 2026 Commencement, for those that are eligible, will be sent to students as we approach closer to the ceremony.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Eighth College Advising via the Virtual Advising Center’s ‘Ask a Question’ tab.

It takes up to 10 weeks after grades are posted before your degree will be officially conferred (due to the multiple stages of manual review by the major(s), College, and Registrar's Office). At that time, your transcript will show the degree has been awarded.

Then, your diploma will be mailed to the permanent address listed on TritonLink. Diplomas can take 3-6 months (90-180 days) to be mailed after the degree is conferred. The Office of the Registrar manages all diplomas. Read more About Diplomas.

For Summer Graduates: All summer graduates will be processed at the conclusion of Summer Session II.

Priority posting is available for students who need their degrees posted to their academic records sooner due to graduate school admission (e.g., medical, law, pharmacy, dental, etc.), employment, military service, or participation in a specialized program upon graduation from the university (e.g.,Teach for America, Peace Corps, etc.). Please see next tab for more information on priority posting.

Please be advised, completing coursework outside of UC San Diego in your final quarter (including Study abroad), you must request a copy of your official transcript be sent to UC San Diego Admissions upon course completion. It can take 6-8 weeks for transfer coursework to be posted to your Academic History once the transcript is received by Admissions. Delays in the receipt or posting of transcripts can delay the processing of your degree as all transfer work will need to be posted prior to your degree being processed.

Priority posting is available for students who need their degrees posted to their academic records sooner due to graduate school admission (e.g., medical, law, pharmacy, dental, etc.), employment, military service, or participation in a specialized program upon graduation from the university (e.g.,Teach for America, Peace Corps, etc.). Contact your College advisors via the VAC for information about their priority posting process.

To submit an application for priority posting, including submitting necessary supporting documentation (graduate school admissions letter, offer letter of employment, etc.), please use the Eighth College Petition Submission Form.

The Alumni Email Service offers users a Gmail-hosted mailbox with an @ucsd.edu domain email address, send/receive capabilities and 1GB of storage. It is offered to UC San Diego alumni at no charge.

The service is currently in its pilot phase, which will continue through 2025 before rolling out more widely.

New graduates should not request the Alumni Email Service. Rather, they will receive an invitation.

Each year, the top 14 percent of the graduating seniors on campus are eligible for honors. The honors are organized into three levels:

• Cum Laude
• Magna Cum Laude
• Summa Cum Laude

The ranking of students for eligibility for college honors is based on their cumulative grade point average. To be eligible for honors, you must receive letter grades for at least 72 quarter-units of course work at the University of California.

To see the current GPA eligibility for Latin Honors, please see the UC San Diego Latin Honors Website.