Should I wait around for my Graduation Ceremony?

random1337

Basically I'm thinking of heading off to Canada first week of September on a work visa as I have no job lined up here. My Graduation Ceremony is the last week of October however. I was thinking of giving it a miss but I'm not sure....maybe I should delay Canada for 2 months?

What do you guys think? Will I regret not going to my graduation in years to come?
Or is it just an over-hyped day that I shouldn't worry about missing?

Thanks.

Hande hoche!

Get your grandfather to send you a video clip of him at the graduation.

I am pie

I regret going to my graduation ceremonies and can barely remember them. A complete waste of time and totally underwhelming event.

A Greedy Algorithm

Go to your graduation.

In 50 years time you will be able to look up at the picture of you on the wall dressed like a tool and wonder how different your life would be if you just went to Canada just 8 weeks earlier.

BeerWolf

And miss your opportunity to wear an open back robe and expose your buttocks to the audience as the classic cliche'd prankster!?

whiskeyman

May depend what you're graduating from.
Some crazy 8 year doctorate, or a 3 month online gardening course?

Menas

I enjoyed mine.....had a good meal and a hape of pints. But I would not be putting my life on hold to attend it.
Go live life and not be hanging around waiting to shake the Chancellors hand.

Bio Mech

Its a day for your parents really. I personally got F all out of any of time but my parents seem to enjoy it.

LizzieJones

random1337 wrote: »

Basically I'm thinking of heading off to Canada first week of September on a work visa as I have no job lined up here. My Graduation Ceremony is the last week of October however. I was thinking of giving it a miss but I'm not sure....maybe I should delay Canada for 2 months?

What do you guys think? Will I regret not going to my graduation in years to come?
Or is it just an over-hyped day that I shouldn't worry about missing?

Thanks.

If your destination is Toronto I would say you might want to wait until after the Toronto Mayoral election on October 27. The less you hear about Rob and Doug Ford the better. Trust me on this.

random1337

whiskeyman wrote: »

May depend what you're graduating from.
Some crazy 8 year doctorate, or a 3 month online gardening course?

4 year engineering degree

A Greedy Algorithm wrote: »

Go to your graduation.

In 50 years time you will be able to look up at the picture of you on the wall dressed like a tool and wonder how different your life would be if you just went to Canada just 8 weeks earlier.

I'm detecting sarcasm however being/not being in Canada in September may be the difference of landing your dream job, finding the woman of your dreams, getting hit by a bus, etc. You never know how things unfold!


And to the rest of you, I'd appreciate some serious answers..

LizzieJones

random1337 wrote: »

And to the rest of you, I'd appreciate some serious answers..

Mine was serious.

spurious

Bio Mech wrote: »

Its a day for your parents really. I personally got F all out of any of time but my parents seem to enjoy it.

This. Especially if they did not go to college themselves.

whiskeyman

Serious answer - go to Canada and enjoy yourself.
It'll only cost you money staying about and forking out for the gown / photo etc...
You'll get your piece of paper anyway, and can have a 'postponed' dinner & drinks with those who helped you (family and friends) either before or when you return.

Best of luck with Canada and the job hunting.

random1337

LizzieJones wrote: »

Mine was serious.

Okie I retract my statement and aim it at everyone bar you!




So guys the general consensus is that I should give it a miss?

random1337

whiskeyman wrote: »

Serious answer - go to Canada and enjoy yourself.
It'll only cost you money staying about and forking out for the gown / photo etc...
You'll get your piece of paper anyway, and can have a 'postponed' dinner & drinks with those who helped you (family and friends) either before or when you return.

Best of luck with Canada and the job hunting.

Good advice thanks. It will cost me waiting around. And I suppose if I really wanted I could hire out graduation attire when I get back and have loads of photos taken for the relatives!

LizzieJones

random1337 wrote: »

Okie I retract my statement and aim it at everyone bar you!




So guys the general consensus is that I should give it a miss? Your satirical replies make me not so sure..

Ultimately it really is your decision in the end. Think it over for a few days.

Bio Mech

random1337 wrote: »

4 year engineering degree


I'm detecting sarcasm however being/not being in Canada in September may be the difference of landing your dream job, finding the woman of your dreams, getting hit by a bus, etc. You never know how things unfold!


And to the rest of you, I'd appreciate some serious answers..

If you cant do both I would skip the grad. Have a cake at home or something if you want a little photo op once you get your scroll.

FTA69

I forgot to go to my graduation from UCC. I was working as a bouncer in town and while on the door I was wondering why everyone was walking around dressed up to the nines on a weekday evening. I only copped on when I noticed a load of people from my classes and lectures passing me by in groups. It's a load of sh*te and certainly not worth waiting two months for. Especially two months you could be rampaging around Canada having the craic.

dundalkfc10

I never went to mine, Went over to England where I was at Uni for it, but went on the piss instead and just met the ones I hung about with that night in town

Waste of time

kingtut

It's a waste of time, I had 2 of them and only went to please my family.
Cost a fortune to get the photos and rent the gown also! :eek:

pickarooney

Skip it. They'll probably charge you a few hundred quid to rent a stupid cloak for an hour.

floggg

The event itself is a lot of ****e and you won't miss out on much.

But your parents probably will miss out on a pretty big moment. I know mine did everything they could to help us all through school and the college and it was a big de for them.

I would never have wanted to deprive her of that.

I had a good piss up to with the classmates afterwards so there is that to look forward to as well.

Knex*

You won't miss much, and you'll probably find it harder to source a job in late October, than you would in September.

I'd be seriously considering skipping it, if I was you.

The only thing you'd be missing out on is the final 'session' with the class, really. Other than that, I do think its a thing the parents appreciate more than anything.

Edit: More I think about it, the more the job thing would have me getting to Canada asap and skipping the graduation, OP.

Came quite close to heading over myself, but doing America for a year first. Best of luck, and I hope all goes well for ya

miss no stars

Skip.

My mum loved it and was gushing about the music and the speeches and yadda yadda yadda. I took the photos, went for dinner with the family, then went out that night. Not a bad night, had a good time, but I don't think I'd hold off on emigrating just to hang around for 1 day. I don't like how the photos look FWIW, wish I'd asked to have a look at how they were turning out on the camera and could have fixed my hood which looks like it was choking me.

Stone Deaf 4evr

I had 2, only went to the first one, as someone else said, its more for your parents really. you wont miss a whole lot by skipping it and you'll not see 98% of your classmates ever again anyway.

The Cool

I had two as well. For my BA graduation, this is pretty much what went down -
-up early to get ready (may not be a big deal for you if you're a guy)
- at the university an hour beforehand, sat through a 2-hour ceremony, then a few photos with my friends afterwards
- 40 euro for an AWFUL photographer's photo, 50 for the robe
- dinner with the parents (best part of the day)
- waiting around for everyone else to be ready to go out for drinks
- because everyone else had traveled back from different places, they were all wrecked and most of them fecked off to bed around midnight. So there were 3 or 4 of us sitting in Supermacs before 1am wondering what had become of the big reunion we'd all been looking forward to.

All in all, a bit meh. If you happen to still be around at the end of October, go to it, but don't wait about for it because it's really not that exciting at all.

Ficheall

I skipped both of mine even though I hadn't anything better to be doing, and don't regret it.
I'd go to Canada, without a shadow of a doubt.

Ficheall

Also, I would like to take this opportunity to say, The Cool, I ****ing told you so :P

The Cool wrote: »

Ficheall wrote: »

The Cool wrote: »

That ****ing French department. I'm doing a MA with them, and I have a test, worth 25% of my mark, first thing the morning after my Graduation. All through my years of BA French, they planted tests and essay submissions the day after balls, Paddy's Day, during RAG week, and now, they ruin my graduation. I am devastated. BASTARDS!!!!!!

My advice: Skip the graduation - it's a tedious pile of ****. Skip going out getting pissed off your tits. Do some study, do well in your masters, which the ****ing French department has you doing, and you can do all the graduation crap next year when you have a Master's which one could argue actually means something, unlike the degree which they'd give to just about anyone who wandered in off the street.

Skip the graduation? Tedious pile of ****? Is it strange that I'm proud to be graduating and want to be a part of it along with all my classmates, in whose company I've spent the last 4 years? Yes, the MA grad will be a bigger deal, but a much smaller event. Never mind the fact that it's as big a thing for my family as it is for me. I'm doing graduation, no question about it.
Will go and talk to the lecturer this week to see what we can sort out.

The Cool wrote: »

I had two as well. For my BA graduation, this is pretty much what went down -
-up early to get ready (may not be a big deal for you if you're a guy)
- at the university an hour beforehand, sat through a 2-hour ceremony, then a few photos with my friends afterwards
- 40 euro for an AWFUL photographer's photo, 50 for the robe
- dinner with the parents (best part of the day)
- waiting around for everyone else to be ready to go out for drinks
- because everyone else had traveled back from different places, they were all wrecked and most of them fecked off to bed around midnight. So there were 3 or 4 of us sitting in Supermacs before 1am wondering what had become of the big reunion we'd all been looking forward to.

All in all, a bit meh. If you happen to still be around at the end of October, go to it, but don't wait about for it because it's really not that exciting at all.

The Cool

Digging up a conversation from 2011... LITTLE bit creepy Ficheall!

c_man

Don't go. I went to my degree one, crap day and everybody is out to fleece you (how much of a racket is the cost of renting robes?). Skipped my masters one and don't regret it one bit. Go to Canada

NSAman

Hated mine, spent all day fighting with the parents as they wanted official pictures and I hate having me pic taken. Photos cost a fortune as we had little money at the time, still see them at home and cringe.

Could ya not fly over for a day or two in October?..;)

Long Gone

Don't go - Get on the plane to Canada and spend the day on the lash down The Tilted Kilt or similar instead. A much cheaper and much more rewarding experience.

The One Doctor

There's free finger food at some of them. I enjoyed that, especially considering that I wasn't the person graduating.

Ficheall

The Cool wrote: »

Digging up a conversation from 2011... LITTLE bit creepy Ficheall!

Being creepy is a small price to pay for being right.

rockbeast

Similar sized classmate and photoshop is your friend!

Seriously, as previous poster said, if you are the first of kids to graduate or parents didn't go to college it really could be a big day for them. Possible payoff for a lot of years supporting you Depends on individual situation though.

Congrats whatever you decide.

thegreatgonzo

I wouldn't skip it if it's possible. It's not that it's the most craic ever but for me it feels like the completion of a lot of hard work. It's a rite of passage I suppose. You don't have to bother paying for a photographer if you don't want, and if you are a guy well there's minimal cost to getting ready anyway.

JanaMay

I don't know. It depends on the family/person. I happened to be in Ireland when mine was on and I went with my parents.

For me it wasn't a big deal, until I saw my parents, neither of them had the opportunity to continue education beyond primary school. When my mam saw me in cap and gown, I saw her wiping away the tears. Big proud head on my dad.

They come from a background where it would never be considered that they'd ever have a daughter who had a degree.

I'm glad I went for them. They deserve it.

But it depends OP, would you have a better chance in Canada if you went now? At the end of the day, a job in the hand is worth a ceremony in the bush Did I get that right?

Long Gone

I'll tell you one thing though OP, if you can't make a simple decision like that by yourself without conducting a vox pop on boards.ie to help you decide then I'd be a little bit concerned about your future in Engineering !

Good luck whatever you decide.

Teyla Emmagan

Forget about it. I had 3 and went to 1. It wasn't that great (though it made my Mother happy).

Definitely not worth 2 months of a wait.

Santa Cruz

JanaMay wrote: »

I don't know. It depends on the family/person. I happened to be in Ireland when mine was on and I went with my parents.

For me it wasn't a big deal, until I saw my parents, neither of them had the opportunity to continue education beyond primary school. When my mam saw me in cap and gown, I saw her wiping away the tears. Big proud head on my dad.

They come from a background where it would never be considered that they'd ever have a daughter who had a degree.

I'm glad I went for them. They deserve it.

But it depends OP, would you have a better chance in Canada if you went now? At the end of the day, a job in the hand is worth a ceremony in the bush Did I get that right?

It all depends on your family background. If it is a family that has regular graduation then I'm sure it will be no big deal. However there are many young people graduating who come from a family history where the parents did not have the opportunity to take third level but worked hard so that their children had the chance. They deserve a day out and will be very proud of their son/daughter. Thankfully the gates of the third level colleges are now open to all even though it can be a hard slog financially for some.
It's not all about the graduate. Some of the selfish posters here should consider that and mature a bit.

Santa Cruz

FTA69 wrote: »

I forgot to go to my graduation from UCC. I was working as a bouncer in town and while on the door I was wondering why everyone was walking around dressed up to the nines on a weekday evening. I only copped on when I noticed a load of people from my classes and lectures passing me by in groups. It's a load of sh*te and certainly not worth waiting two months for. Especially two months you could be rampaging around Canada having the craic.

You have to say that now though. Don't you?

miss no stars

Santa Cruz wrote: »

It all depends on your family background. If it is a family that has regular graduation then I'm sure it will be no big deal. However there are many young people graduating who come from a family history where the parents did not have the opportunity to take third level but worked hard so that their children had the chance. They deserve a day out and will be very proud of their son/daughter. Thankfully the gates of the third level colleges are now open to all even though it can be a hard slog financially for some.
It's not all about the graduate. Some of the selfish posters here should consider that and mature a bit.

Yeah, but what's also to consider is what use is the degree that all the hard slog and finance went into if you can't get a job?

So, if the OP reckons he could get a job easier if he goes now rather than after grad, then go.

I was glad to go to mine, but it wasn't that spectacular a day or anything. Yeah it was nice after the 4 year slog to put on the cap and gown, but if I was looking for a job I wouldn't necessarily wait to emigrate just to be there on the day.

If the OP reckons he can go in November and get a job and wants to be there at the grad, then hang around. Most of my class hung around and most of my class got jobs. So no issue.


The one thing I would weigh in to your decision, OP, is Christmas. If you go now you've a few months to settle into things, find a job, find somewhere to live, save up a bit and get flights home for Christmas. If you go at the start of November you've 6 weeks, or you're away for Christmas. But unless you absolutely loathe the holiday I'd take it into consideration.

Senna

I went to my first one for a diploma course and my mum and dad were able to attend, during my degree my father passed away and I didn't bother going to that one, mainly because he wouldn't be there.

If I was in the OPs situation I'd be away to Canada and feck the graduation.

Ficheall

Santa Cruz wrote: »

It's not all about the graduate. Some of the selfish posters here should consider that and mature a bit.

I was working off the assumption that the graduate would tell their parents that they'd gotten the degree, even if they didn't go to the graduation. But if the only way the parents are going to find out that their offspring has done something to be proud of is to go and wait for several boring hours to watch them pick up a piece of paper along with hundreds of other graduates, then they probably should go to the graduation.


I'd be curious to hear from posters who have gone to their offspring's graduations though, seeing as the general consensus usually seems to be that it's for their benefit.

jimgoose

I spent my graduation day in 1993 under a bulldozer with a couple of hundredweight of clutch flattening me into the mud. That was a rather more pressing matter than poncing around in a Harry Potter cloak listening to a clatter of academics going on about how brilliant academia is. One of the best days of my life, and I got paid money for it too!

anncoates

I went to neither my degree or masters ceremonies. Just picked up the things later.

In retrospect, I feel kinda guilty I didn't give my ma and da the old gown photo though.

mickstupp

I went to my BA graduation and loved it. But I think I valued it so much because I never thought I'd get a degree, or that I was even capable of it. So it was a big deal for me. Between that and the parents, it was definitely worth going. Despite the disgusting rip off prices to rent a robe for 90 minutes.

I'd say go if the degree means something to you, or even if you just think your parents would get a kick out of it. I don't think a lot of people realise how much this can mean to the ma and da.

Rubberchikken

I've never been to college but i'd say go to Canada.
Have a party fir family/friends when you come home. Don't put your life on hold for the sake of a day.
And good luck over there.

Gannicus

random1337 wrote: »

Basically I'm thinking of heading off to Canada first week of September on a work visa as I have no job lined up here. My Graduation Ceremony is the last week of October however. I was thinking of giving it a miss but I'm not sure....maybe I should delay Canada for 2 months?

What do you guys think? Will I regret not going to my graduation in years to come?
Or is it just an over-hyped day that I shouldn't worry about missing?

Thanks.

Do whatever your gut tells you. At the end of the day its only a ceremony. It's not like you're skipping your final exams.

FTA69

Santa Cruz wrote: »

You have to say that now though. Don't you?

Not really to be honest, not everyone puts a massive onus on these things. I didn't bother going to my Debs when I finished school either as I was off to Amsterdam that weekend with a few lads. I suppose it would have been a nice day out for my mother etc but she doesn't go mental over these sort of things either so she wasn't put out. I simply forgot my one was on anyway.

The OP was asking was it worth waiting two months hanging around doing nothing for one day or would it be better to bunk off to Canada? No question there for me anyway.

RandomName2

random1337 wrote: »

Basically I'm thinking of heading off to Canada first week of September on a work visa as I have no job lined up here. My Graduation Ceremony is the last week of October however. I was thinking of giving it a miss but I'm not sure....maybe I should delay Canada for 2 months?

What do you guys think? Will I regret not going to my graduation in years to come?
Or is it just an over-hyped day that I shouldn't worry about missing?

Thanks.

Put a red rug down in your hallway, put on a suit and gown, walk down the rug and have your parents photo you. Oh and pick up a piece of paper with TBC written on it at the end of the rug.

There, could have your graduation over, like, today.