• Home

    • Harvard Extension School Student Forum

    Come discuss with other HES students in a new forum who are at Harvard Extension School. Talk about life in and around Cambridge, Boston, classes, school, Harvard University, course reviews, and more. Interested in the best ways to travel to Harvard for your residency requirement? Check out the 'On and Around Campus' category for tips and advice. Want to join a book club with other Harvard Extension School students that read through the Harvard Classics? It's a Harvard education in and of itself. ExtensionStudentForum Forum categories include 'Job Postings & Job Seekers', 'Extension Confidential', 'Professional Graduate Certificates', 'HBX', 'ALB' and 'ALM' discussions. Extension Student Forum is brought to you by The Degree Tracker.

    Register with your Harvard.edu email address

    This forum is exclusively for Harvard University students. The sponsor for this forum is an exciting new web app, The Degree Tracker. Track and plan your Harvard Extension School ALM and ALB degrees or professional graduate certificate. Course ratings, instructor reviews, accomplishment badges, planning, tracking, and other tools to help guide students through their HES journey. TheDegreeTracker is proud to bring you this tool to use to track your degree at Harvard Extension School. If you are a student who has more courses than you can keep track of, and you would like to plan out your degree pathway carefully, then track and plan courses with the Degree Tracker to take control of your education. Including course reviews and course ratings, TheDegreeTracker has the potential to not only guide you through your degree, but to let you help other students who might be wondering about the HES courses that you've taken. The Degree Tracker is glad to provide the Harvard Extension School Student Forum (ESF) to help foster a nurturing environment. This forum for was born in 2015 to create better Harvard Extension School friendships, networking, and information to contribute to a better overall HES experience. Extension students formerly congregated at forums such as philfac and extensionstudent. This website has no affiliation with either the philfac or extensionstudent websites. It has been created and run by 100% completely different leadership. For the extension student who wants a bigger taste of what life with other Harvard Extension students is like, combining the Degree Tracker and the extension student forum can foster that sense of community that others have on campus. Another advantage of participating in an online community over the Harvard campus is that extension students can develop permanent relationships with other extension students that being on a physical campus might not necessarily allow, since online students are great at staying in touch online.

    What would you like to see in a forum?

    We'd be glad to hear your feedback. It's no piece of cake to graduate with your Bachelor of Liberal Arts or Master of Liberal Arts in a timely fashion, but your Bachelor's or Master's degree plan will only benefit from making use of the Degree Tracker and this exclusive forum for Harvard's marvelous students.

    ›

    Grades are Up & Graduation

    onlymybestonlymybest Posts: 37
    in Harvard Extension School General Discussions
    Grades are now up and I was hoping to see something to the effect of Congratulations you finished, but instead it just says Pending Graduate for March.

    Does anyone know why there is such a long delay from today until March to be considered a graduate? Can I say that I have a degree from HU yet? Did we actually graduate in 2015 since that is when class ended or do we put on a resume that we graduated in 2016 since that is when we receive the piece of paper?

    Comments

    • DmilesDmiles Posts: 41
      Congratulations!
    • GratGrat Posts: 293
      Congrats! Remarkable achievement! Wish I could answer your questions - your advisor could probably tell you with 100% certainty.
    • jcaudilljcaudill Posts: 26
      I don't know how things work at HES but if you're in a master's program it isn't unusual to see a delay between having a thesis or capstone approved and the official award date of the degree. When I finished my PhD I defended my dissertation by what was called the second deadline, meaning that I finished all requirements in the fall semester and didn't have to register for any classes in the spring, but I didn't officially graduate until May, rather than December. Be sure to let us know how it works at HES; I'm always curious to see how different schools approach the problem.
    • onlymybestonlymybest Posts: 37
      Thanks @jcaudill for the info. I'll post what happens.

      As for other schools, with my first master's degree I awarded my degree even though I had yet to finish my thesis. Pending graduates were allowed to walk in the May graduation if they were about to finish, but were supposed to receive the folder with basically an IOU in it for the actual degree. To my surprise they gave me an actual degree inside my folder when I got on stage. My adviser just said to get the thesis done by the end of the summer or they would revoke the degree. :smile:
    • jcaudilljcaudill Posts: 26
      @onlymybest - That reminds me of my Dad's story showing up to defend his master's thesis. He walked in the department secretary's office to speak to her, which he always did, and she freaked out trying to cover the fact that she was typing out the document indicating that he had passed his defense, before he started his defense. Of course if your committee is any good you don't get approved to defend unless the work is good enough to pass, but stranger things have happened.
    • EddEdd Posts: 59
      I was wondering the same thing re: graduation. My status now says 'pending graduate, March 6, 2016', or something like that. But I've yet to hear any communication from my advisor or the school re: the process of graduation and becoming an official alumnus.

      I'll post here if I hear anything, but in the meantime if anyone knows how this process works I'd be interested to know.
    • nancymicnancymic Posts: 185
      Mine says pending and. I still have a class left...
    • EddEdd Posts: 59
      @nancymic does it give a March date, or May?
    • onlymybestonlymybest Posts: 37
      edited January 2016
      Thanks @Edd. I sent an email to Maura, asking if there was anything else to do, but I haven't heard back from her.
    • nancymicnancymic Posts: 185
      Hey @Edd mine says May. It would have to since i have one more course
    • GratGrat Posts: 293
      They must have a lot of faith in you, Nancy!
    • nancymicnancymic Posts: 185
      edited January 2016
      Hahaha. At least online services does. Anyway, it does say expected, so they can back out :)
    • onlymybestonlymybest Posts: 37
      Maura states "Nothing more for you to do - the status will change after we award the degrees on March 8."
    • EddEdd Posts: 59
      Great - thank you! I assume after that time we'll hear more about joining HAA, etc.
    • nancymicnancymic Posts: 185
      Fyi, i believe HAA gets your name. I think just sign up for harvard key and log into the alumni site...i think
    Sign In or Register to comment.
    Website Terms  |  Privacy Policy  |  ESF Forum Rules