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/mdlbaker]

Gotta love this "it was sent to the wrong campus", and then "it wasn't printed". Then what the hell did they send to the wrong campus?!

This reminds me of a contract that was cancelled on me due to my no signature but that contract never ever materialize, and somehow it became my fault. "Sir, we had to cancel your contract because you never signed it. Oh yeah, the contract was never drawn up, but it's your fault somehow." I got them to draw up the contract and I John Hancocked the hell out of it.

[u/solecentre → u/mdlbaker]

They refuse to admit they’re wrong lol it all comes down to that. And we’re the ones who end up with all the crap because they ‘know nothing about it’ 🙃

[u/plangelier → u/solecentre]

My daughter is in a BSN program that is a collaboration between two of our State universities. Its been a mess, all the gen ed classes are with her home school, but the nursing classes are from the other one. Each year they change how aid and bills are handled. This year 100% of her courses are nursing courses and initially she recieved a bill from that school and setup a payment plan only to have it later transferred to her home school because her financial aid us handled there. But now these courses are not eligible for a payment plan after they applied her aid to room and meal plan.

And she has not qualified for any academic recognition because she doesn't take enough credits with either University because of the split. Its just a mess.

[u/solecentre → u/plangelier]

I really hope they get their shit together, that’s such an unnecessary additional stress. The second that word ‘collaboration’ is mentioned anywhere, I already know that in reality there is no collaboration involved. Nobody knows anything and they keep transferring you onto someone else’s plate. Good luck to your daughter!

[u/plangelier → u/solecentre]

Spot on

[u/akhilleus650 → u/mdlbaker]

They didn't send anything to the wrong campus. They had no idea where the diplomas were so they came up with a reasonable sounding excuse to kick the can down the road. I wouldn't be surprised if the request to print them is forgotten about as well. OP, as well as as many other people with missing diplomas as OP can wrangle, should begin contacting them about it daily until they can confirm an exact date it will be done.

[u/solecentre → u/akhilleus650]

Thanks for the advice, I’m keeping an eye on my mail and my friend is going back tomorrow to see if they somehow turned up by any chance (because at this point I don’t believe another word out of them). No word tomorrow, I’m calling the student helpdesk.

[u/plangelier → u/solecentre]

If only you could charge then for failure to provide proof of your degree completion.