*All school ceremonies scheduled for the South Lawn of Morningside Campus will relocate. Based on feedback from our students, we have decided to focus attention on our Class Days and school-level graduation ceremonies, where students are honored individually alongside their peers, and to forego the university-wide ceremony that is scheduled for May 15. Details about degree conferral are forthcoming.
Visit Announcements for more details.
University Commencement
This time-honored tradition is a celebration of the graduates from Columbia’s nineteen schools, colleges, and affiliate institutions and consists of two ceremonies—morning and evening—on Commencement day. Degrees are symbolically conferred en masse upon candidates by the President of the University.
School Ceremonies
Each of Columbia’s nineteen schools and institutions conduct their own ceremony to honor the accomplishments of their graduating class, where each graduate has the opportunity to be announced and walk across the stage. Sometimes called Class Day or Graduation Ceremony, these celebrations are typically smaller in size and more intimate than University Commencement.
BACCALAUREATE SERVICE
This annual service is a multifaith celebration of undergraduate commencement.
Commissioning Ceremony
This historic ceremony celebrates Columbia University graduates as they matriculate from their Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) programs and become commissioned officers in the United States Military.
Columbia’s Multicultural and Affinity Graduation Celebrations
WHAT THEY MEAN AND WHY THEY ARE SPECIAL TO GRADUATES
In addition to the university-wide Commencement ceremony and each school’s class day, our undergraduate students with campus partners organize Multicultural and Affinity Graduation Celebrations that allow them to celebrate the cultural intersections in their lives and honor the communities to which they belong. These celebrations are open to anyone in the Columbia community who would like to celebrate a particular culture or group.