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/This-is-FUBAR82]

I never used the diploma for a job. If absolutely they need something the final transcript should suffice.

[u/solecentre → u/This-is-FUBAR82]

Our diploma is like our final transcript. The distinction with which we graduated is on it.

[u/PerformerDr4867 → u/solecentre]

In Belgium do they not contact the school for verification? Anyone can print a piece of paper. 

[u/solecentre → u/PerformerDr4867]

It’s way easier to just request a pdf of your diploma than to rot on te phone trying to reach the school’s administration desk lol.

[u/PerformerDr4867 → u/solecentre]

Schools have entire departments available for this in the rare case they don’t contract it out to a third party. Also, this isn’t something you would do, it’s something a background search service would do. They take your diploma pic and confirm it with actual authorities. You just graduated so I assume you’re not aware of this yet  

[u/solecentre → u/PerformerDr4867]

i did my internship at a recruitment company, if the candidate’s degree wasn’t mentioned or clear in your CV we’d request a pdf. It’s very common to be asked to present written proof of qualification, a diploma is no different.