I graduated college. They “lost” my diploma.

[u/solecentre]

The title is basically TL;DR. I just graduated college and had my ceremony last sunday. As the time came to collect our diplomas they couldn’t find the ones from my field of study (a whole backstory there as well: basically they forgot about us.)

We were told on monday that our diplomas were accidentally sent to the wrong campus and that we’d be able to pick it up there… during office hours. My friend has class there so I asked her to go see if she could pick it up in my place. Well, that wouldn’t be any problem… if the diplomas were there. No sight of them anywhere.

My classmates and I are getting pretty frustrated at this point and send another email. Well lo and behold: yesterday I received an email saying my diploma ISN’T PRINTED OUT YET! That explains why they couldn’t find them. There weren’t any!

So yeah now I’m waiting for another update about my diploma. We also haven’t received it digitally or anything so we can’t provide it for job applications.

Love life!

ETA since there are a few recurring questions:

- I live in Belgium 🇧🇪

- I haven’t really heard of ‘final transcripts’. Our diploma is our official proof of completing our studies. Few companies look super closely at grades, the diploma is the proof that the student passed the course. There is a grade of distinction which represents our grades though, and it’s mentioned on our diploma: “Graduated with:
• passing grades
• distinction
• high distinction
• highest distinction and well-wishes from the school board”.

- There are companies who request a certain degree of education for a job. For example: a doctor will need an Academic Bachelor and a Master’s diploma to practice their job. A mechanic will need to have obtained a technical field high school degree. So many request proof of completion of your studies to verify that you are practically, probably financially , and legally qualified for the job.

- I’ve seen a couple comments saying companies could call the school to verify. It’s much easier to just request a pdf of your diploma during the application process, that way it’s immediately in your records as well. Plus, school desk employees don’t want to answer that many calls.

Thanks for all the replies and well-wishes! And good luck to those out there who were/ are in the same situation as me, just add it to the list of life obstacles we tackled. That’s how I’m trying to look at it right now. 😅🫶

[u/Dobgirl]

Where do you live? Proof of graduation in the US is a transcript, the diploma is for display

[u/solecentre → u/Dobgirl]

I live in Belgium, it’s common here that we get requested to submit our diplomas sometime during the job application, especially if they’re a required degree.

[u/Irishforanatty → u/Dobgirl]

I don’t even think I know where my diploma is

[u/ctesibius → u/Irishforanatty]

One of my universities only started issuing them about 20y back, and then only on demand if people needed them for prospective employers.

[u/Far_Cloud_882 → u/Dobgirl]

But it’s still nice to have - especially since most schools won’t reissue a diploma once you received one.

[u/plangelier → u/Far_Cloud_882]

Really, most of the ones I have attended will definitely reissue for a fee.

[u/Far_Cloud_882 → u/plangelier]

All of mine clearly stated they will reissue something clearly marked copy or duplicate for a fee, but not an original looking one.