Graduation

**Don't delay! Deadline for ordering regalia for May 9, 2025 graduation is Friday, March 28!**

Graduates must wear a university adopted regalia that includes a gown, cap and tassel. Regalia should be ordered through the Herff Jones. All graduates should wear the cap tassel on the right side until the degree is awarded. Graduates may decorate their caps, but the decoration should not obstruct the view of graduates sitting behind them. Regalia is to be worn over clothes.

Only stoles and cords from recognized GSW student organizations and honor societies may be worn. Details on the university approved stoles and cords are available through the Student Affairs and Enrollment Management office.

Graduates should arrive half an hour prior to their ceremony and begin lining up for commencement in the Intramural Gym on the first floor of the Storm Dome near the Rock Climbing Wall. When you enter the gym you should go the Registrar’s table that will be set up to along the right hand wall to check in. Then you will line up according to your degree level and college.

A rehearsal for graduation will be held on May 8 at 2:00 PM in Convocation Hall (the basketball arena).

Guests may begin arriving one hour prior to the ceremony and enter at the main Storm Dome entrance. Doors to the inside of the Convocation Hall will close 5 minutes before the ceremony and no entry will be allowed at that point. Graduation will also be live streamed in SSC Room 2410 for latecomers and guests with restless children.

Graduates may join their family and friends outside for multiple photo opportunities.

We encourage those that are unable/unwilling to attend the in-person ceremony to view the ceremony online.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Georgia Southwestern YouTube page.

For those not able to attend in person, each ceremony will be live-streamed on GSW’s YouTube channel.

While we welcome well-deserved applause, loud cheers and noisemakers are not appropriate. These disruptions often drown out the names of other graduates walking across the stage and prolong the ceremony. Every GSW graduate deserves to hear his or her name read as that prized degree is awarded. Please know that loud cheers and noisemakers are not allowed. Anyone disrupting the ceremony may be asked to leave.

Balloons are not allowed in the Storm Dome, and confetti is prohibited on campus.

Parking

Lodging

We encourage guests to view the Visit Americus website for more information on lodging, restaurants, and other activities Americus has to offer during your stay. 

In order to be eligible to graduate with honors from Georgia Southwestern State University, a student must earn a total of at least 45 semester hours of academic credit at GSW with an institutional GPA of at least 3.5. The grade point average for honors will be determined not only by your institutional GPA at GSW, but also GPAs from all the accredited colleges and universities you have attended other than GSW. The Cumulative GPA includes your transfer grades and transient grades, as well as your GSW grades.

The cumulative grade point average must fall into one of the following categories to be considered graduating with honors:

Only candidates for baccalaureate degrees are considered for academic honors at graduation.