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Your Degree....

edited November 2007 in General
Once you are all done your courses that you need to graduate, would you:

1) keep your degree open
2) close it and graduate

What are the pros and cons of each one? Some people have been telling me to keep it open in case I want to go back and do some more courses. Others tell me to close it in order to find a good job.

Will a company not hire me unless I have actually graduated (as in, have the degree in my hand).

Would closing it affect me getting into grad school at all if i ever decided to go?

I know very little about this obviously.

Comments

  • edited November 2007
    I think it needs to be closed to even be considered to be accepted into grad school...and from what I've read I could be wrong, you can only use the same courses for double majors that are specified by the university? and if you do grad theyre completely unusable. To any other degree
  • edited November 2007
    I'm not even sure what "keep your degree open" means. I'm so clueless about this stuff...
  • edited November 2007
    That is a pretty hard question...I'm graduating soon and I haven't even thought about that :S
  • edited November 2007
    Morro;17188 said:
    I'm not even sure what "keep your degree open" means. I'm so clueless about this stuff...
    I mean, when you are done all your required courses that you need for your major and minor and etc, you dont actually go and graduate. You are still registered at SFU as a student and can take more classes if you want to.

    So essentially, you have everything done and you are done school completely, but just dont have the physical degree in your hand and havent actually graduated yet.
  • edited November 2007
    honestly i never even thought about this, i just want to finish school and get my degree
  • edited November 2007
    I'm pretty sure it's very easy to come back and take more courses if you're an SFU graduate.
  • edited November 2007
    Good question Baby E,

    You would not apply for graduation if you have intentions to further
    your studies in the immediate future. If you don't know whether you
    want to further your studies or not, but you've met all the
    requirements for your program and for your degree, it may be best to
    at least apply for a grad check with your Faculty.

    Normally, employers do prefer the degree to be awarded (as in, have
    the degree in hand) because if you do not convocate (as in, go across the
    stage to receive your degree in an official ceremony), then your
    record does remain open as a continuing student. So if a future employer
    does do a background check, I don't think the school can tell them that you've graduated.

    On the other hand, if you want to apply to a graduate or a
    professional school (i.e. medical, dental) and want to improve your
    GPA, then you should not apply for graduation. Once you have
    graduated and the degree awarded, your record is closed permanently
    and your GPA is frozen. You cannot go back to improve it without opening a new record.

    The good thing about keeping it open is that if you continue studying after you have graduated, it's a simple matter of reactivating your account by completing an online reactivation form.

    Hope that helped!

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