Commencement
The School of Social Welfare’s Commencement Ceremony is held at the conclusion of the spring semester each year. Details about the ceremony are posted on our departmental Commencement website in early January.
All Social Welfare students who will have their MSW degree conferred in the current academic year (including fall, spring and summer terms) are eligible to participate in our Spring Commencement Ceremony.
Degree Conferral
Degrees may be officially awarded for MSW students in May, August or December. The official degree conferral date is last the day of the fall, spring or summer semester each academic year. Degree conferral and posting, as well as processing of diplomas and transcripts, is handled by Graduate Division and the Office of the Registrar.
UC Berkeley degrees post after the conferral date of the degree. This is done on a weekly basis by the Graduate Division starting the week after the term ends up until 4-5 weeks after the final day of the semester. The final deadline is set by the Graduate Division. In order to be eligible for degree conferral, students need to have completed all coursework, grades need to be submitted by instructors and students' EGT (expected graduation term) needs to be set for the correct term. Students who have an incomplete that will not resolve until after Graduate Division's deadline or otherwise do not meet degree conferral eligibility will need to extend their EGT to a future term. Recent graduates must wait until degrees are officially posted to transcripts before they can apply for ASW status; for more information please refer to the Board of Behavioral Sciences.
Diplomas
Diplomas are automatically mailed free of charge from the Office of the Registrar four months after graduation to the address you have on file in CalCentral. Once you no longer have access to campus student systems you may submit a Diploma Mailing Request Form. For more information please see Office of the Registrar: Transcripts and Diplomas.
Verification of Enrollment or Degrees
You may request Student Self-Service Enrollment Verification or Official Verification of Attendance and Degrees directly from the Office of the Registrar; for information and instructions please visit Verification of Enrollment/Degrees.