commencing

[rivendellrose]

I'm such a sucker. Working on the Senior Gift Council has made it completely impossible for me to keep up a feeling of indifference toward commencement. I... think I might need to do this. My poor little anthropology-laden brain has been coerced by the notion that this is one of the few socially-recognized ritual events that somebody like me will ever take part in... and I might not feel like I've really graduated if I don't go through with it. Besides, you only graduate from undergrad once, and I think I would have really regretted it eventually if I hadn't walked at highschool graduation, so I probably ought to assume the same thing is true of college.

First off, shadawyn, I seem to recall you saying that you still have your robes... any chance I could borrow them? The price isn't bad at all, I'm just not sure it makes sense for me to buy the whole set.

Second thing is, I've got two departmental graduations to choose between. Should I go to both of them, or just one, do you suppose? Or maybe go to those instead of to the main ceremony, since I'll actually know people at those and might (*gasp*) even have my name read personally, etc?

Third, what's the etiquette with announcements? I know, I know, I probably ought to know all of this from my highschool graduation, but I sort of skipped the announcements that time 'round, and I don't know if it would be a huge faux pas to do the same with college. I don't really get that whole tradition, entirely.

Last thing - nekokoban, wanderingbeyond and I have talked about having a party of some kind. The question is where and when. I'd love to do it at my dad's (nice big yard, etc), but transportation out to May Valley might be a bit tricky. Next obvious options are Grimmauld (not so good, since hopefully this'd be a good number of people) or a park somewhere... any thoughts?

And just for the sake of saying? I'm totally pissed that I'm currently 0.01 grade points away from graduating cum laude. 0.01! Must... 4.0... classes....

Comments

[tonsai.livejournal.com]

i only attended one of my departmental graduations and skipped the big to-do altogether. (i chose dept. of communications, incidentally, because i knew more of the profs and students in that dept. and generally enjoyed it more than psych--a byproduct of smaller classes, if nothing else.) ceremony, yeah, okay, i feel like i graduated since you can find my name on the degree validator on UW's website. :) but i have to say, the dept. ceremony was fine, for the reasons you suggested: they actually read undergrads' names, the speakers were sort of interesting (our keynote was christine gregoire, before she was governor), i knew my fellow graduates and some of my profs attended, and i didn't have to wear a cap and gown.

i'm with you on the announcements thing. my mom forced me to send them for high school (i made them myself, using a gothy script and a photo of me wearing a long black coat and a fedora: "celebrating the end of four years..."), but i passed for college. i think if you have family and friends who like to get that sort of thing, it doesn't hurt to send out a little note to that extent; it won't be considered gift-baiting or anything, it's pretty typical.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

I was thinking I'd go to Anthro, but I'll probably go to English as well, just for the heck of it. No reason not to, really - Anthro is the smaller department, but they require robes (hehe - anthropologists and our love of ceremony, I suppose), so that'll be... interesting. Besides, I'd like to get some recognition of the departmental honors I did in English, if at all possible. ;) So maybe I'll just stick with the two departmentals... that's probably enough graduation for any sane person.

Okay, that's good to know - it was mostly the gift-baiting that I was worried about, since aside from as invitations to a grad party I couldn't really think of too many other things they could serve as, and I'm leery of anything that smacks of that sort of thing. Maybe I'll wait on that whole plan until I figure out what the situation is with a grad party - I can definitely think of a few family friends I'd like to invite, and that use of announcements would be one that made sense to me.

[shadawyn.livejournal.com]

My robes are open for use. I recommend going to the departmental graduation that has the profs you liked the most?

I did the huge-ass commencement, and I DO NOT recommend it. I didn't know anyone in the art history department, and yet still I think it would have been more intimate among strangers.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That's kind of what I was thinking, and I guess that'd be anthro. I might still do both, since they're on different afternoons, and the English one is more casual. Besides, it's at Meany Auditorium, which is kind of snazzy compared to the "Center for Urban Horticulture" where the anthro ceremony is. I've never been there, but it sounds like kind of an odd spot for a graduation...

Hmmmm, yeah - I've got one friend who's graduating from the Psych department, but we'll be all the way across the stadium from each other, so that's really no good in terms of keeping company. Probably best to just stick with the departmentals, in that case.

Who'd have thought this whole thing would be so complicated?

[hermionesviolin.livejournal.com]

I totally never did announcements for high school or college, but I am a social outlier in so many ways.

Smith just had one Commencement, with no particular departmental celebrations besides the usual end-of-year open-to-all-students parties.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, so am I, so I guess I'm in good company. ;)

The UW is so damned big that we have to have our main commencement in the stadium, so I guess they instituted departmental graduations in addition, for folks who preferred a smaller event. The main ceremony is still the big deal, but it's three and a half hours, and there are too many undergrads for them to even call our names. So... yeah. This is one of those times when I do sort of regret my decision to go here rather than dig myself into impossible amounts of debt and go to a private college.