How to prepare for your graduation: A graduation checklist for international graduate students

I had never had a Uni graduation before last year. As funny as that might sound, due to covid and other school breaks/delays in Nigeria, I didn’t have an undergrad convocation ceremony before I left. So imagine being in a different country, trying to navigate grueling coursework and the final phase of the thesis, and still having to figure out, for the first time, everything you need to do to graduate without any issues. In 2021, I had moved from Nigeria to begin my Masters in the United States, and two years later, I graduated successfully. One thing I learned from experience is that the steps needed to graduate successfully from grad school in the US are very different from what I was used to back in Nigeria; so, there was definitely a lot of learning and figuring out for me to do in such a short time.

It’s almost graduation season and this is definitely an exciting time for any final year student. First, congratulations to everyone graduating this year!! It’s not an easy feat and I hope you take out the time to celebrate yourself for getting to this point. I also wish you a blissful transition afterwards in whatever you decide to do — enroll for another degree, get a job, start a business, take a break to find yourself, travel, whatever you decide.

Irrespective of all the grand plans you have for yourself afterwards, please take some time after graduation to rest. The months leading up to graduating can be really intense — trying to wrap up projects, coursework, maybe even a research thesis, job hunting, maybe thinking of moving cities, and planning for your graduation ceremony. It could be really busy and overwhelming, and you should definitely take a break after all that to refresh.

To help lighten the burden and reduce uncertainty around this time, I’ll be sharing tips that helped me have a seamless graduation ceremony as a first gen international student in the US, all the preparations I did ahead, with helpful timelines. Some of these might not apply to you and timelines may vary based on your school, but I do hope a lot of these are helpful to you.

Checklist of steps to prepare for your grad school graduation

1. Speak to your advisor: This should be your first step once you believe you’re set to graduate. In fact, it is advisable to constantly have these check-ins with your advisor regularly (maybe twice a semester) even before graduation season. You want to make sure you’re on track to graduate as at when projected, as you don’t want any rude shocks when you’re nearing the finish line.
   
   Work with your advisor to clearly identify in writing any requirements you need to fulfill before graduation. How many credit hours do you have left to take? What are research expectations? And any additional requirements. You should have this in writing to avoid any misunderstanding and miscommunication in the future. After coming to an agreement with your advisor, you should then run it by your school program director and international students office to confirm that you’re not missing anything still.
2. Audit your degree: For most programs, you have core courses that are compulsory, then elective courses that you can take from multiple programs to get your degree.
   
   A degree audit pulls all your courses together and confirms that they fulfill the requirements needed for you to graduate. It is advisable to do this in advance so that if you’ve made any mistakes in picking a course or missed a requirement, you still have some time before graduation to remedy that. This was my experience last year. I did my degree audit in February ahead of my August graduation; and you can imagine my shock when I received an email saying 2 of my elective courses didn’t meet the requirements. This was inaccurate as I had confirmed clearly before taking them, but doing the degree audit gave me ample time to sort that out. And if it had been an error on my part, I still had 2 academic quarters to rectify the situation and register for the electives that meet the requirements.
3. Apply to graduate: This one was new and surprising to me. I initially thought it would be automatic – I complete all my courses, defend my thesis, and automatically get scheduled for the next graduation ceremony. At least, that’s what I was used to. However, that’s very incorrect. You actually have to submit an application to graduate usually one or two semesters in advance. You want to check in early with your graduate school so that you don’t miss the deadline and have to delay your graduation celebration. Submit your application to graduate as soon as the application window opens and follow up until it is approved. That’s the first step that qualifies you to walk the commencement stage on graduation day.
4. Invite your guests: Now that you are more certain of your graduation date, you can go ahead to draw up a list of your proposed guests and send out your save the date invitations. This is great to do early so that people can add your event to their schedules, budget and plan properly if they’ll need to make travel arrangements to attend, and if they can’t attend, it gives them enough time to let you know so you can plan adequately without expecting them. Due to the influx of guests around graduation season, hotels around the school get booked out quickly, and flights could get expensive, so you want to make reservations well in advance to lock in rates for those that RSVP.
5. Order your outfit and make reservations: If you’re like me and love fashion, give yourself 2-3 months to find your perfect grad outfit. I’m probably exaggerating, but it took me about three months to finally get my outfit. This was due to multiple (personal) reasons, but I’m really glad I started well in advance so I wasn’t making last minute buys in panic.
   
   If you’re also like me and you love planning great experiences for your guests, you can also draw up an itinerary for the grad season for your guests. A lot of your guests might be traveling in for the graduation ceremony, and for some, that might be their first time visiting your city. It’d be really nice to plan a little touristy activity that they could do before or after graduation, before returning back to their cities. A graduation lunch is also really nice, so you can also make plans for that, reserve with the restaurant, and also communicate any expectations to your guests, so there are no surprises around your plans.
   
   Surprisingly, finding a spot for my graduation lunch also took me weeks to finalize. I had a large graduation party, so it was a struggle to find a reservation for 15+ people to have lunch, on a Saturday, at around 3pm – which is the time restaurants are usually closed from their brunch/lunch service and preparing for dinner — without incurring the fees for a private event. I was finally able to make a reservation at a really nice restaurant that we loved and was so accommodating, about a month before graduation.
6. Finish up degree requirements: Moving on to more serious things, so you’ve applied to graduate, sent out first invitations to your guests, made reservations, and even picked out your fits; now you need to do the work in order for you to actually walk that graduation stage. You need to focus on passing all outstanding courses, finishing your thesis and all pending research work, schedule your thesis defense, effect all corrections in time, and submit any publication manuscripts. I know that it does get really tiring towards the end, but I want you to remember that you’re almost at the finish line. You’ve already come so far, and can’t give up just when you’re almost there. Prioritize your physical and mental health at this time, take breaks, talk to your friends and family, make memories, try to get as much sleep as you can. In a couple of months, this will all be over and in the past.
7. Figure out immigration processes early: As an International student, please make sure you’re also keeping updated with every immigration process you need to do at this transition time. If you studied at an accredited higher institution, you are entitled to Optional Practical Training (OPT) which allows you to work in the country for a year upon graduation. You can apply for the OPT from up to 90 days before your graduation date. It usually gets approved in a few weeks, however, due to an influx of applications around spring/summer graduation season sometimes, the process could be really slow, so try to apply as soon as you can. You cannot start working without your Employment Authorization Document (EAD) which the US Citizenship And Immigration Services (USCIS) will send to you when your OPT is approved, so you want to get that in good time.
8. Aim to secure an offer: Speaking about working, if you have not secured a full-time role yet, this is the time to double down on seeking that. Send out applications, ask for referrals, connect with people, build your network, speak to your advisor and school career office, attend career fairs, revamp your resume, use LinkedIn, practice your interviewing, put yourself out there as much as you can. After graduation, international students have a few weeks/months (~90 days at this time) to begin working to maintain their immigration status and be allowed to legally remain in the US. If they’re unable to secure employment within this timeframe, they have to leave the country. If that’s not your plan, prioritizing getting a job should be your focus at this time. Don’t wait until you actually graduate to start applying and interviewing for jobs, people sign offers in the US well in advance (as far back as 2 years before the start date and even earlier), so you should aim to sign an offer and then you can set your start date to after your graduation.
9. Make memories with your friends: As sad as it sounds, after graduation, you might not see most of your school friends again for many years. Although this is a very busy season for you, try and make as many memories as possible with your friends. These are people that you spent the last 1-7+ years with, and you want to make sure the last days together are memorable. Take pictures, make videos together, take long walks, visit the park, spend quality time. Also, take some time to explore the city. As students, especially grad students in the US, I know the schedule can be so intense that you don’t get any free time to explore the city outside of your school environs. However, you might be leaving that city after graduation if you get a job elsewhere, why not take this one last chance to explore the city you’ve called home for the past years?
   
   Personally, I knew I’d be moving from Colorado after graduation to start my job. So, I prioritized exploring Denver and neighboring towns in Colorado as much as possible in my final months of grad school. I’m so glad I did this, because I miss Colorado now, and I wish I explored even more. My one regret is not going skiing or exploring the winter season and mountains much, but hopefully, I get to rectify that soon.

Conclusion
I hope this article is useful to anyone that is preparing to graduate. And if you’re graduating this May (spring/summer), I hope you’ve already gone past a lot of items on this checklist, and you’re able to sort out any outstanding items soon. Remember, the journey to get here wasn’t easy, but you’re almost done.

So, congratulations!!

You could drop a comment below or shoot me an email at: contactaniekan at gmail dot com letting me know how this article helps you in any way and feel free to share any comments, questions, suggestions, or grad school related topic ideas you’d like me to cover in the future.

I wish you success in everything and I pray that your dreams materialize.

Thank you for reading,
Aniekan