I’m on mobile so sorry for the formatting. TL;DR at the bottom.
This happened yesterday but I guess the FU technically spans approximately 5 years.
I finished my master’s degree in late 2019, or at least I thought I did. After a grueling year of working part-time and writing my dissertation, at long last I got it finished, presented it in November, got my grade immediately after, my dad was even there to watch the presentation, good times. Because the holidays were right around the corner I didn’t have my diploma until February 2020 and, well… I think we all know what happened to the world right after.
When I got home after getting the diploma, I scanned it so I would have a digital copy to send to employers and stuff, put the physical version safely away, and proceeded to not really think about it anymore. That’s where the FU began. To be honest I didn’t even really look at it super carefully, writing my dissertation was so incredibly exhausting and draining that I was just glad it was over and wanted to focus on my work.
Years went by. I got through the pandemic, my career as a freelancer started gaining momentum, I fell in love, even moved to a different country.
Recently I changed my name and emailed my university to ask about getting new copies of my diplomas with the new name. Somewhere in one of the replies from the university they asked “are you perhaps referring to your specialization diploma? We have no record of you finishing a dissertation, only all the other classes in the master’s degree.”
My heart dropped.
I looked at the digital copy I’ve kept for years, even dug up the physical version just to be sure, and lo and behold… While the diploma does mention the master’s degree by its name very early on, on the middle of the second page it does specify that it’s a “Specialization”.
I have to admit I panicked. I scoured my old emails for something, anything, that could help me prove that I didn’t imagine the whole thing and wrote back explaining that I did finish my dissertation and asking what can be done to try to understand what actually happened here. They haven’t replied yet, hopefully they will in the next few days. I know the professor who was my advisor can vouch for the fact that the presentation did indeed happen but I’m terrified that, because it’s been so long, nothing can really be done about it anymore. I guess time will tell.
I honestly feel heartbroken. Thinking that all that hard work could go to waste makes me want to cry. More than anything I’m furious at myself for not paying more attention and catching this sooner, I feel like such an idiot!
Wish me luck figuring this out.
TL;DR: I thought I finished my master’s degree but the university didn’t actually have any record of me finishing my dissertation and only gave me a specialization diploma. I didn’t notice for five years and have no idea if this can be fixed or if it’s too late.
Edit: you guys I found my dissertation in the university’s online repository, it was published after all! I’m emailing them again with this information, hopefully it will be enough proof that this is most likely an administrative error. Tomorrow is a holiday in my home country so I’m not expecting to hear back from them until Monday, but I will make an update post as soon as I have more news.
Also I understand that in most English-speaking countries you write and defend a thesis for a master’s degree, but I’m not from an English-speaking country. In my university they call it a dissertation, I’m sorry that caused some confusion.
Comments
Can yoy not contact the people who graded it that might remember you? Seems like a MASSIVE fuck up on the side of the college. Surely that’s something yoy can fix lol
That sucks… can you start assembling grades, emails, assignments? Maybe reach out to your advisor?
Bro, what? This is like my worst nightmare
Opposite take. It doesn’t matter. Employers most certainly rarely ask for a copy of your masters degree. You put it in the work and gained the needed knowledge. I never ordered a copy of my masters diploma and 15 years later it has never mattered at all.
It was a surprise final test.
I’m glad you got through the pandemic <3
My career in Higher Ed is from the US, so what I know may not work for you.
Get a copy of your school transcript, which shows your classes, grades, and likely the program you were enrolled under.
Does you transcript show you were enrolled in a masters, specialization, or both?
Get a copy of your school’s catalog from the years you attended so you can pull up the info of the program you were in. You can compare what the catalog shows as the requirements for the masters or specialization against the courses listed on your transcript.
In my experience, it occasionally happens that a student forgets to apply to graduate. The application to graduate is what triggers the degree-awarding process in the Registrar’s Office. It’s possible you might have done the work needed to finish your master’s but didn’t do whatever steps were necessary to have your degree officially awarded.
Best of luck. Hope everything gets sorted out quickly for you.
When I did my thesis (PhDs defend dissertations, Masters defend thesis), I had to have it printed, bound, and retained by the library. Did you not have to do any of that? I had to submit mine to the department of graduate studies for acceptance before I could even defend and I still havw those emails to this date 15y later. Also, my diploma clearly states Masters of Science is the award but yours doesn’t say that?
This just gave credence to every time I woke up in sweat panic …. suddenly remembered I didn’t complete some middle school physical exam
did you not have a thesis defense in front of a committee?
Brother I’ve changed mid year from IT to Media/Art (same school) and half a year later I had to pause school. A year later I asked to return ,,We don’t have any recordings belonging to your name.” and I wasn’t allowed to continue my education at that school. People tell me ,,Then you didn’t visit the school.” so I know how you feel. Believe in yourself.
I wish you all the best.
I’m assuming you aren’t in the US, so this advice may not help you. Where I live in the US, transcripts can be accessed from the state government or through a service like Parchment. Is there a government department that oversees higher education where you are?
I’m lucky to be in the opposite situation. I ended up not turning in my dissertation due to homelessness and mental health issues. Obviously knew I’d failed, felt very sad but just got on with life. Then my diploma turned up in the mail with my final grades, they’d given me 50% on my dissertation, the exact grade I needed for a pass. I think someone just took pity on me, they knew what was going on with me in my personal life because I’d been having therapy through Uni and regular meetings with my tutor about everything.
Oh my GOD.
If you have a copy and some documentation and timestamps, then there’s a path out of it.
If it helps, I went through something similar with a senior project – my degree was dependent on a professor who was a hoarder, who lost a ninety-page paper I handed in. I went over his head to the Dean, raised harry, and got the grade overturned. As a bonus, the professor got fired.
You didn’t F this U. This was an F by committee, and the people responsible should hear all about it.
In my circumstance, at the end of thesis defense, the signed copy was deposited at the University library. The department also kept a copy. I was required to pay for the binding of these.
The chair of my committee is a Facebook friend and at least one other committee member still is employed by the department, even though it’s been 15 years or more.
I feel certain that the documentation should be available to you or the department.
That’s INSANE…people were there, they watched you defend, you had a committee…like holy shit someone in admin fucked up real bad.
So, for all these years you’ve had a certificate that people have accepted as a Master’s certificate, and you’ve had all the experience and knowledge of someone with a Master’s certificate. And the only problem is the university’s records are messed up?
You know what? I think you’re good here.
There should definitely be a record of your internal and external examiners’ comments, feedback, grade if applicable. These would be specific comments on the thesis. It was the case for both my MA and PhD and I was given a copy of the feedback. I’m in Europe so things might be slightly different but you could not have defended and passed your thesis without written and signed approval and ‘reports’ from your examiners, which the college/university must have a record of. Unless you went to clown college I guess.
This is going to work out in the end. Just take some deep breaths and prepare for a couple weeks of emails and phone calls. It’s going to be ok!
I just got out of a very similar situation, finished my studies right before covid so I never got a diploma ceremony and never went to pick it up. Last year I sent a mail to my school to ask them how I could get it. They replied that i was not diplomed because i never validated an english certification which is mandatory and since its been too long i’m not eligible for my diploma anymore (i did the certification but the secretary to whom i gave the certificate years ago must have lost it before registering it). After months of emails with my school they finally agreed to an exceptional additional delay to take the certification, and they gave me my diploma last month ! Not saying it will workout for you but keep trying, you just need to find someone who is willing to help you in your school !
this made me realise that i never picked up my baccalauréat. i… should see what’s up with that holy shit
OMG, that’s a major oopsie… hopefully the university can sort it out for you!
Let me tell you what saved my bacon in a similar situation
(Professional training where the trainer took the money and ran on several
Months of training. Just like you I only discovered that the trainer had not processed my paperwork years later)
I found someone else who was there as a student, and used a slow ladder out til I found someone who managed to get the trainers certifying agency to recognize that the student had completed training and then tied my case to that case and got my certification number restored.
It fucking sucks because I spent twenty years with that training prominent in my CV and who knows how many people looked me up and thought I was lying about my credentials
Please give me an update!! I hope things work out for you I’m sorry that it sucks so much
I guess this is worse than me not realizing I had a typo on my email signature. I only realized it when I was purging stuff in my corporate accounts as part of my offboarding. I worked there for more than a decade.
First, I’m sorry this is happening. Truly must be feeling shit. Especially with the hard work you had put in these years. Hope you can manage to solve the entire thing.
If you could, keep us updated!
Mate I literally have nightmares about this sort of thing. I graduated with my Bachelors in 2009, and I still have dreams where the uni gets in touch with me saying I fucked up one exam/module and I have to retake it or my degree is invalid.
Fingers crossed you get it sorted out! Update please!
Librarian from the U.S. here—may not apply where you are. At most universities here, there is a requirement that you submit your paper through a process that registers it with the university and deposits it in the library. This is the official final record. And if you didn’t do it, you might not have actually completed all of the required steps to complete the degree. The work you did while there is research and they want to make sure the work you did while supervised is accessible and on record for other students.
I have also never heard of a university redoing a person’s degree document like a diploma in a new name. That’s why I am assuming you’re outside the U.S.
This is confusing for me. I have a MSc and in order to get it I had to get a certain number of credit hours and then do a thesis defense. I had an entire thesis committee at the defense. After I passed the defense I had to sign a ton of papers, including withdrawal forms since I defended in the summer. I didn’t even get a diploma until that December but the university did give me a complete transcript to give my employer since I had received a job offer.
I had a similar situation – I finished my required classes, an internship, published a technical paper, and passed all my final tests.
I went out and got a job in the industry and never thought about college again for about 2 years when, while visiting, my parents asked to see my diploma and I realized I’d never gotten one.
I went back to the college and asked why I’d never received a diploma, and they told me I hadn’t ever completed my course of study!
I was very confused and asked what classes I was supposedly missing, and they mentioned something relating to electrical engineering, which didn’t make much sense, but also that my course of study was “[Degree Name, Course for 2016]” which was even more confusing, because that was the year AFTER I had finished all my classes…
It turned out that some error had occurred where, before the current year was even complete, they had updated my course of study to a newer, broader standard that required additional classes and hours.
Thankfully it was an easy fix, and I got my diploma in the mail a few weeks later.
That’s a huge fuck up by the admins on your University. Usually the professors who grade a viva will make a minute of the proceedings, sign and send to the uni, as part of the process. Get in touch with your advisor, who probably will know some of this, and even have a copy of the email, or some sort of proof of delivery. Or it was even his fault for not sending!
Commenting so the algorithm provides an update in a few days
My daughter did specialization after Political science and Diplomacy bachelors degree, wrote and presented specialization thesis and her current title is “Specialist in Diplomacy and Foreign Relations”. If she wants to do master, she has to do 2 more semesters and write/present a master dissertation. Are you sure it’s not the case with your studies too?
Where I am, once you defend your dissertation and your committee passes you, have to submit the dissertation to the university and apply to convocate. Submitting it to the university puts it on file and is the official notice that you are finished the degree. Applying to convocate is the official graduation with that degree, which the registrar only will give permission to do if all credits are complete.
Perhaps you defended the dissertation but didn’t complete the administrative tasks required to complete the degree?
I literally have recurring nightmares about leaving college thinking i got my bachelor’s but i really didn’t because i didn’t get enough credits.
What was your degree (almost) in?
PhD Candidate here and a holder of an MA. Definitely push to have them correct this. It’s not uncommon for there to be bureaucratic screw ups. Your supervisor should be able to vouch for you and your “grade” for your thesis should be enough proof. I’d be surprised if you got much push back from the department, as long as you’re focused on solving the problem they should be too.
It’s pretty bizarre that they can say “you finished the program, got a diploma, stopped paying tuition, but didn’t finish the masters.” That simply doesn’t make sense bureaucratically. After five years you should have had to go through the process of choosing to abandon the program or not – that process didn’t fire, so someone marked your program as complete but didn’t check the box for “masters complete.”
Had similar happen and ended up not getting the degree. Had everything organized with my advisor for graduation, got a job, moved away, etc. When I actually got to the graduation part, they pulled the rug out from under me and the things they said I previously had transfer credits for, suddenly didn’t count anymore. They gave me a list of like 3 more classes to take to graduate as well as told me to go back to my 1st internship’s manager to get some paperwork signed (different city, was 5 years prior, and I’d had several more internships after of which apparently didn’t matter).
The whole thing felt like some kind of ruse despite it being a well regarded college. I complained, they didn’t care. I moved on with life and definitely hate my advisor for what they did.
If it helps, I work in academia, and I don’t even know what a specialization masters is. If you got a job, that seems like the degree was good enough.
For private industry, you already have a career. If you ever did go into academia and be a professor, community colleges tend to have profs with just the masters, but they might also accept industry experience, or they might accept “specialization degree” plus experience. For colleges and universities what was profs with PhDs, having a masters or not wouldn’t matter.
My back ground checks for jobs have been to where only academic jobs had me pay to have my transcripts sent. Non academic jobs just checked references.
I think you should bulldog it through to get it fixed – people even take years off and go back and finish the degree, so I feel it can get fixed, just you will have to keep following up, because your situation is unusual to deal with. You shouldn’t stress about it meanwhile. Places you’ve worked at seem to have accepted “specialization degree” so your work and career are fine.
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The opposite happened to me. I attended undergrad for ten years, having changed my major five or six times. One day – at a time where I didn’t think I was anywhere near completing my degree – I got a letter on a Tuesday telling me that if I didn’t return or pay for a library book I’d borrowed a few years prior, I wouldn’t be allowed to graduate.
Curious, I called the Dean’s office and they told me to come in as soon as I could.
Universities change their graduation requirements every few years – what core studies are required, what constitutes a major and a minor and what combination of math/science, arts, and social sciences need to be included among them, etc… I’d been enrolled through two or three such changes, and I forget now whether I’d assumed I was supposed to aim for the requirements in place when I started, or the then-current set of requirements.
As it turns out, if a student completes the requirements that were in place at any time while they were registered, they graduate. And that’s what happened – I had enough progress in one of the majors I’d been pursuing to earn a minor in it, and while it wasn’t an allowable combination of major/minor as far as I understood, it was at one time. So I found out on Tuesday that I was graduating college on Thursday. That was a nice surprise.
Just breathe. It hasn’t been too long. They can fix this.
I’m you, but I purposely never wrote my dissertation and just owned it my entire career. Currently a director of an org at a SaaS company so I think things worked out. (Moral of the story is it’s your knowledge and effort that matter, not the piece of paper)
That’s wild! Sorry you’re going through that and hope it works out.
I did my MBA about 10 years ago and went through an online program. I did graduate, got my official diploma, and went to the ceremony. A couple years later, though, the entire school closed down because of some lawsuit from another program they offered. So whenever I apply to jobs and try to select a school, it’s never there in the drop-down and you can’t search and find it online anymore. I try to keep tabs on the official transcript / records, but you know… things disappear over time. Guarding that physical diploma with my life!
Did you forget to submit the final version of your dissertation?
Usually after the defense the committee will give you some edits that have to be included, and then you have to submit a final version with insanely strict formatting rules, stuff like that.
At least that’s how it was for me.
Going to 1000% need an update. Best of luck!!
Email your old advisor!!! If there was also a committee could you email them too?
If it was a bureaucratic error they’d better be able to make the change if you defended successfully!
According to my wife’s university, she graduated three years later than when she walked in the graduation ceremony. They lost oR never filed some piece of paperwork but she didn’t know because she was still in the graduation program. We knew the diploma would be mailed to her parents address but they were in the middle of moving so we assumed it was packed up and buried. (Also she got calls from the university asking for donations) But we never found it and reached out to the university. So now her diploma shows it took her 7 years to get a BA
Not sure how it works where you are but in the UK you can apply for a Subject Access Request to verify the information the university holds about you. You can try and find out what the equivalent process of this would be at your institution. This allows you to figure out what happened to your degree award assuming they may still hold the record.
UpdateMe!
The horrible dream that I have every year even though I’ve been out school for 15 years?
If your university has an ombudsman, I would reach for them. Someone in my family was forgotten from the list for diplomas (!) and the ombudsman was helpful in sorting it out.
This triggered an irrational fear in me and I checked my diploma. After more than a decade I just noticed now they put the wrong specialisation in my masters diploma. Every Job I ever held checked my diploma. Nobody ever noticed.
My file was too big due to illustrations and it came up on there end as a blank page for my dissertation.
When it came to results, emailed saying I haven’t received anything yet and they said I handed in a blank page.
I CRIED my heart out.
They did sort it. I had proof of the upload and file name and size (took screenshot) they marked it but I had to graduate at the next ceremony.
If you have proof and your professor can verify hopefully should be fine. The time difference might make things difficult
My husband didn’t receive his bachelor’s degree in the mail. He finally called about it months later. They found his paperwork (to be processed) on a professor’s desk! They had to date his degree being granted at the current date, so it appeared that he took a half a year longer to complete his degree.
My thought is your forgot to apply to graduate for your Master’s, only your specialization.
Yo OP, dont know if you’ve tried but:
Many schools host their dissertations online. You can probably search for it (assuming you turned in a digital copy) and see if they have a copy online, which would be dated.
Good luck!
Updateme!
Pursue this with the university. Schools are pretty good at fixing this kind of issue. Just be polite. Good luck!
i work in higher education and you have no idea how often this happens.
My sister and I went to different universities and both of us suffered at the hands of university administrators…. I’m glad it doesn’t seem to be a phenomenon limited to UK universities!
I had something similar happen with a Business Minor that didn’t show up on my transcript. 18 years later I noticed when I applied for an MBA program. Luckily one of my college friends had gotten a job with the university and when I reached out to her to see what I should do about it she told me that her former roommate (another friend of mine) was the Assistant Dean of the business college and together they got it straightened out for me.
You’re probably just dreaming. I have an Engineering degree(2000), and every once in a while I dream that I didn’t finish my senior project or that I still need a few credits to graduate. Force yourself to wake up by letting yourself fall face first to the ground. Let me know if this is just your bad dream
This happened to someone i know. She had to start her bachelors degree all over again. I would have given up😭 my mom would have convinced me to raise hell until i get this resolved because i didn’t waste so much time and money for nothing.
I want an update if anything happens.
Your real life experience is my nightmare. Literally. I have nightmares that I didn’t really graduate. I’m SOOOOOOO sorry you’re going through this. Best wishes and let us know you’re okay.
And now I’m holding my diploma saying it’s ok as I attempt to calm down
UpdateMe!
i honestly haven’t even looked at my diploma since it was mailed to me. to find out it doesn’t exist would kill me
I got all the way to my final year at my university before anyone realize my 2 year college credits were never transfered over.
I can’t tell you how many counselors I spoke to in the 3 years I attended that school. I met with the department head. I took classes I shouldn’t have been allowed to take without having the pre-req credits. I have no idea how I slipped through the cracks, but I did, until I submitted my application to graduate and I got an email back saying I was missing every single GE requirement. Absolutely stupid.
Also, I was told at orientation that my 4 years of high school language counted towards my language requirement so i didnt need to take a languag class. Then, during the summer before my final year, I was told they DIDNT count and ai had to take 3 quarters of a language ASAP or I couldn’t graduate. I got through two semesters German before I was told by a third counselor that my high school language did, in fact, count, and I hadn’t needed to take the German classes at all.
That awkward moment when you resubmit your dissertation and it gets flagged for 100% plagiarized.
I graduated undergrad in 2019 with technically 3 credits short of a biology elective
Lucky for me the admin i emailed was convinced enough that one of my research electives was taken under psych before i knew i couldve done it for biology and she was like, oh thats fine we can waive that.
I wouldve had to stay a whole semester just to take one class lmao, glad i dodged that bullet
So this almost happened to me. My department had 2 options for masters degrees, either 4 exams or 3 exams and a thesis. They had not had anyone do a thesis for a very long time so forgot the process, which included having all of the professors we presented to literally signing a document confirming that I’d presented it. If they didn’t get that turned in to the graduate office in time I’d have been required to take another semester of classes. One of the professors was out of the country by the time they started working on it. It did get done on time, but was nerve wracking for a couple of weeks.
Oh, we have people in the polish government also doing stuff like that, no worries xD
I have this as my #1 recurring dream 😖
I graduated college 18 years ago and still have dreams that I didn’t actually get my degree because I was one class short.
Bro I’m graduating with my MS next week can we not
JK I am doing non thesis
Not the same, but I never walked in my high school graduation nor did I physically receive my diploma (I started a new school senior year and just wanted to get the hell out of there) and always have nightmares about finding out I didn’t actually finish and have to go back as a 32-year-old (who went to college, but somehow didn’t finish high school haha)
I was told my junior year that the degree I was pursuing hadn’t been offered for 6 years. I was taking 18+ credit hours a semester to graduate on time because I went to a hs without ap and had to take a semester off because I couldn’t get loans (parents never filed taxes so I couldn’t get fed grants or loans, no co-signer eligible ppl around). Ended up graduating on time with 32 distributed credits I didn’t get any acknowledgment for.
It sounds like someone didn’t file the proper paperwork or was filed in the wrong place, it should hopefully be a simple fix.
Schools are just terrible at record keeping. I had a situation where I graduated and about a month after graduation as I was packing up my apartment the school called to tell me that I didn’t actually graduate because my GPA in my major was 0.01 under their requirement of a 3.0 and that I would have to retake a class if I wanted my diploma even though I had a meeting with my academic advisor about a week before graduation and they said I was all set. Luckily I had friends that had an open room so I ended up moving in with them for the summer while I retook my first class which I pretty much sailed through as it was no longer a challenge.
This reads like an actual nightmare. I’m not going to sleep well tonight
someone update me
This happened with my undergraduate.
I graduated in 96, and in 2005, I was going to start my MS.
I ordered my transcripts, and was told they were ready.
My husband went to pick them up, and he was just handed a piece of paper. They were not sealed. He questioned this, and was told I never graduated. They said I was considered a “stop-out,” because I just stopped coming.
He tried to explain that I stopped coming because I graduated.
I had moved a couple of times over the 9 years, and couldn’t immediately find my diploma.
They wouldn’t budge. I had to take 3 more classes to graduate, but one ended up being waived bc I had a professional certification that far exceeded the statistics class they wanted me to take.
I had to take public speaking and a senior seminar that were added to the graduation requirements after I graduated.
I took public speaking at a community college because, PETTY, and not giving them any extra money that I didn’t have to. I had to take their senior seminar.
Best wishes it all gets sorted out for you.
Something early similar happened to my brother for his first undergrad. He thought he finished college, they let him walk and everything, but a few days after graduation they sent him an email to his SCHOOL email adress that he act needed to complete one more class before he was technically qualified. He went and got a job that never asked for his degree. Was expecting it to come in the mail, but it never did and he just figured it was a clerical error and he could just fix it with a quick phone call but never got around to it….
Until 10 years later when he was applying for grad school and they told him he at least needed an undergrad.
Something like this happened to me undergrad. I walked at graduation. Finished with honors. I was the commencement speaker for effs sake. When they mailed the diplomas 6 or 7 months later, mine never arrived. I called to ask where it was, and I was just hit with a casual, “oh you never graduated.” Excuse me? The f*** I didn’t. You weren’t going to mention this??
They dinged me on some technicality that a minor was required for my specialized major and one of my minor classes was at the wrong level. I had to petition all sorts of professors and deans to advocate for me until I got this reversed. It took months, and all the while I thought I was gonna lose my job for lying about a degree I “didn’t have.”
Glad you kept receipts and hope it all gets sorted for you. This stuff is stressful AF!
Mt wife went to her college graduation and her name wasn’t in the list of names. They actually mailed everyone their diplomas and she didn’t get one. So she figured something was wrong. She knew she had submitted the graduation request form she needed to. So she called the office and she had submitted her graduation application but they had left it unprocessed in a folder. Just sitting there.
Here’s my guess: The assessment of your dissertation was graded and the grade was put into the university’s grading and tracking system incorrectly.