General Graduation Information

Graduation and Conferral of Degree

Unlike most universities that only confer degrees twice a year, APUS confers degrees quarterly.

"Conferral date" is defined as the date on which a student's degree is officially awarded. Due to outstanding financial obligations, outstanding grade appeals, or established conferral schedules, students may actually complete their degree many months before their degree is officially conferred.

To be eligible for conferral of a degree, a student must:

• have fulfilled all course requirements in their program.
• have a minimum GPA of 3.0.
• have their dissertation accepted by their dissertation committee and submitted to the library.
• have fulfilled all program requirements for their degree.
• have applied for graduation and passed an academic review of their courses.
• have no outstanding balances.

Graduation applications are due six weeks before the conferral date. It is critical that students maintain an accurate shipping address in their student record. Students will incur additional charges if we need to reship misdirected diplomas or transcripts due to a shipping address that was no longer valid. A student's conferral could also be delayed if they are not receiving notifications of outstanding graduation process requirements.

Transcripts

A student's graduation date will not be reflected on any transcript ordered until the day of conferral, regardless of when they were academically cleared for their program.

For more information on GPA requirements, program deadline requirements, or Satisfactory Academic Progress (SAP) requirements (150% rules), students should view the Before a Course Begins section of the Student Handbook.