Graduation Weekend at UNC

phonyreal98
Sat, 29 Mar 2014 18:06:47 +0000

I have been to 4 of the last 5 commencements for various reasons (friends, my own, it’s also a pretty well-paying music gig if you can get it), so here’s what I can tell you: Commencement is held at ~10 AMish in Kenan Stadium and is about 1.5-2 hours long. If it rains, it is held in the Dean Dome with each student being allotted two tickets. Also, each department has a ceremony for its own students, you’ll probably need to ask whoever is graduating when/where their departmental ceremony is. Make sure to get a hotel early, I know the Carolina Inn has been booked for weeks. Usually there’s a pretty well known speaker…my freshman year it was Desmond Tutu, for my own commencement it was Michael Bloomberg, and for this year it’s Atul Gawande (he’s actually a pretty big name in my field). There will be a long line for pictures at the Old Well, so you may want to try to go a few days before/after commencement to get your pictures if you can. Ummmm…what else would you want to know?

Oh yeah, parking is a pain the day of commencement. You may want to see about taking a bus (there are free shuttle busses to campus from various spots in Chapel Hill).