The Beginning Of The End

Yes, seniors, that day has come. What day? The day your Bursar privileges have been taken away. PSYCH! You still have a couple months left to buy a computer/birth control/the entire 90210 DVD series for "free." What you do need to do, however, is to fill out your graduation application.

Yeah, we thought fulfilling 5,691 requirements would qualify us for graduation, too. Not so. As per an excessively long email from the assistant dean for advising, seniors who are expecting to graduate in May need to fill out a grad application by February 15th.

Dear Prospective May 2010 Graduation Candidate:

Our records show that you are scheduled to graduate in May 2010. If you do not intend to graduate at that time, please let us know so that we can correct our records. If you do intend to graduate in May 2010, you will need to take the following steps so that the College can process your graduation application:

1.      If you have not already done so, go to Penn In Touch and check your official worksheet to ensure that you will have fulfilled all of your requirements, including the requirements for your major(s) by the end of the spring semester 2010.  As you should know, your official worksheet can only be updated by your College advisor or your advisor in the major or minor. Do stop and see them if you have any questions regarding your worksheet.

2.      It is helpful to let your major department or program know that you are graduating in May 2010. If you have any questions about the requirements of your major, be sure to consult with your major advisor. The departments and programs will be certifying students in the near future.

3.      If you are graduating with a minor(s), please make sure that your minor(s) is declared and is appearing on both your official worksheet and transcript, and that you will have fulfilled all the requirements for the minor(s) by the end of spring 2010. The department or program of your minor has to certify you online.

4. The total number of credit units ("c.u.," or "credits") needed for graduation varies between 32 and 36 depending on the number of credits required in the major. Each major specifies a certain number of credits that must be completed, but never less than 12. In addition to the major, students must normally complete 20 credits outside the major. No more than 36 credits will be required for graduation. Those whose majors require more than 16 credits may take correspondingly fewer than 20 outside the major. The 20 credits taken outside the major will include courses taken to fulfill General Education requirements and Free Electives. Some of the general education courses will also count toward the major (see College website for Policies relevant to a particular requirement). In this case, students will take additional Free Electives. Since the College confers a bachelor of arts degree, 16 of the 20 credits outside the major must be Arts and Sciences courses. That means students may count as many as 4 courses from schools outside Arts and Sciences towards the College degree. Students who wish to take more than the minimum number of credits for graduation may take even more than 4 from other schools. If a major requires more than 16 credits, correspondingly fewer than 4 courses from other schools may be counted toward the College degree. A dual-degree candidate can count up to 6 non-College courses as free electives. Non-College courses are courses labeled as FNAR, EDUC, NURS, WH, LAW, SEAS etc... Notice that if any of these courses are used toward the major(s), they are exempt and are considered to have been taken in the College.

5. Be advised that no petition regarding substitution of sector requirements will be allowed. Please be sure that you fulfill your sector requirements by completing courses which are specifically designated as fulfilling the sectors' requirements.

6. For the number of CUs required for graduation in your major check the following link: http://www.college.upenn.edu/majors/credits.php

7.      You can access the Application for Graduation online by clicking on:  https://fission.sas.upenn.edu/sso/col/colgrad/

8.      The deadline for submitting this application online is February 15, 2010.

For the other appropriate deadlines relevant to May 2010 graduation, please see below:

February 15, 2010 * College Worksheet should be checked in Penn In Touch * Graduation Application must be submitted online * You should notify your Major/Minor department by this date to let them know that you will be graduating in May 2010 * A late fee of $25.00 will be imposed on students who do not submit their graduation material by the deadline. February 1, 2010 * Deadline for declaring a minor

April 2, 2010 * Final grades for courses with incompletes taken prior to spring 2010 * Students with I's, II s', GR's, NR's, U's, or S's on their transcripts will not be eligible for May graduation

May 17, 2010 * Grades for spring 2010 courses * All other obligations, i.e., Bursar, Library, etc., must be met Providing us with the necessary information and complying with the aforementioned instructions is essential in processing your graduation.

Thank you,

Hocine Fetni, Ph.D. Assistant Dean for Advising