Eligibility

In order to be eligible to participate in the 2021 Virtual Celebration you must meet the following criteria:

• You must have filed a doctoral dissertation approved by the Graduate Division during the Summer 2020, Fall 2020, or Winter 2021 term OR you must file a doctoral dissertation approved by the Graduate Division during the Spring 2021 term on or before Monday, May 31, 2021, by no later than 5 p.m. PDT. For information on filing: filing your doctoral dissertation.
• In order to participate in the virtual celebration, you must be a doctoral graduate.  Master’s students should contact their department regarding commencement ceremonies.

If you have eligibility questions, please contact Academic and Postdoctoral Services at academicservices@grad.ucla.edu.

Participation

Graduates who filed in Summer 2020, Fall 2020 and Winter 2021 will receive invitations to the virtual celebration beginning the second week of May. Doctoral candidates who successfully file in Spring 2021 will receive an email invitation from the Graduate Division and from StageClip, a campus-wide platform for the Virtual Celebration. Be sure to add StageClip (noreply@mail.stageclip.com) to the safe-sender, whitelist and/or contact list in order to receive the StageClip email invitation and notifications. You will be asked to complete your profile, check the phonetic pronunciation of your name, and upload (optional) assets that will be featured in your personalized student clip.

The deadline to upload the optional assets onto StageClip to personalize your student clip is June 3, 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT. The optional assets that you may upload are:

• your photo
• a 10-second video clip
• and a personal message

Doctoral candidates who are planning to file their dissertation this Spring, and are planning to participate in the virtual celebration, must file on or before May 31, 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT. Submissions after the specified date are not guaranteed to be included in the virtual celebration. You must also have your assets ready for upload onto StageClip once you receive your email invitation and before the June 3 deadline.

All doctoral graduates, regardless of their participation in the virtual celebration, will be invited to the in-person doctoral hooding ceremony at a later time.

Virtual Celebration Format

The virtual celebration will be a produced video with pre-recorded congratulatory messages from campus leadership. This will also include personalized celebration clips recognizing each registered participating doctoral graduate via StageClip. The video will premiere on the UCLA Graduate Division webpage at 5 pm on Thursday, June 10, 2021. It will also be available online via YouTube thereafter.

All personalized graduate clips will be available for download and can be shared via email and social media.

Personalize your student clip

When you receive an email from StageClip (noreply@mail.stageclip.com) with a link to personalize your student clip, do not share the link with others as it is unique to you. You will have until June 3, 2021 at 5 p.m. PDT to personalize your student celebration clip and to upload your optional assets:

• your photo
• 10-second video clip
• a personal message

If you have received the Graduate Division email but not the StageClip email, you can upload your assets through StageClip directly. The email address you enter must be the same one that the Graduate Division has on file for StageClip in order for you to access and personalize your student clip.

*Graduate names with FERPA restrictions on their official student records will not be published.
**All photographs/images submitted will be reviewed prior to being published. Any submitted photograph/image violating the Terms of Use will be removed without further notice.

Photographs

We encourage graduates and their friends, families, and colleagues celebrating at home to post and share their virtual celebration photos on social media. Tag @uclagradschool and use the hashtag #UCLADoctoralClassof2021.