Fall commencement ceremonies are for Fall semester graduates only. They will have an opportunity to have their names called as they cross the stage and have their photos taken with Wake Tech President Dr. Scott Ralls.
Each ceremony will be available to view via livestream on the Wake Tech website for families and friends unable to attend the event in person. Ceremony start times will be announced by November 1.
All graduation communications will be sent to the graduate's Wake Tech email account.
The regalia ordering deadline for the Fall 2024 ceremony was October 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Students who missed the deadline may participate in the Spring 2025 commencement ceremony, provided they meet the posted deadlines.
Regalia, consisting of a cap, gown and tassel, is required for any graduate who would like to participate in the commencement ceremony. Regalia must be ordered directly from Herff Jones, and orders that don't contain a full regalia set do not fulfill the requirements to attend the graduation ceremony. The price for full regalia is $53.98, plus tax and shipping.
Submitting your graduation application in Self-Service and ordering your graduation regalia directly from Herff Jones by the October 7 deadline reserves your seat for the ceremony.
Graduates are required to use their Wake Tech email address when ordering regalia.
When submitting the graduation application in Self-Service, graduates should verify the name shown, as this is the way the name will be listed in the Marching Order portal and printed in the graduation program. Name changes that have not been processed by the October 7 deadline will not show in Marching Order.
Graduates who purchased regalia in a semester other than the current semester need to email [email protected] by October 7 to confirm their attendance.
Regalia is not available for students who miss the deadline, and used or borrowed regalia is not permitted.
Regalia will be mailed to the address provided by the graduate at the time the order is placed.
NOTE: All questions related to regalia orders should be directed to Barry Waseleski with Herff Jones at [email protected]. The Registrar's Office is unable to provide updates or tracking information on regalia orders.
A confirmation email will be sent electronically after a regalia order is placed. Any graduate who does not receive a confirmation email should contact Barry Waseleski to ensure his or her order was successfully completed. Herff Jones is unable to accept requests for late orders.
Graduates with disabilities who need assistance or accommodations to attend commencement must contact Wake Tech Disability Support Services. Email [email protected] or call 919-866-5670 (voice) or 919-324-3833 (Sorenson Video Phone) by November 1 to ensure accommodations are in place.
Accommodations for guests with disabilities are available on a limited first-come, first-served basis. Guests with mobility issues will be able to have their tickets scanned at the graduate entrance in the front of the gymnasium. All other guests must enter through the guest entrance in the back of the gymnasium.
Wake Tech has partnered with Marching Order to provide students and their guests with a seamless graduation experience. The Marching Order portal allows graduates to verify name and degree information, access guest tickets and GradPasses and record the pronunciation of their names to ensure they are pronounced correctly as the graduates cross the stage.
The Marching Order portal will open at 5 p.m. October 23 for students who met the October 7 regalia ordering deadline. Graduates should check their Wake Tech email accounts for an email from Marching Order on October 23 that provides information on registering their accounts. Graduates who do not receive an email from Marching Order by 5 p.m. October 23 should email [email protected] on October 24.
The deadline for students to upload their name pronunciation recording is November 6 at 11:59 p.m. Late name-recording submissions cannot be accepted for any reason.
Graduates attending commencement are strongly encouraged to submit a name recording through Marching Order, as names will be recorded by an outside vendor to be read aloud at the ceremony. All graduate names will be recorded by Marching Order, regardless of whether a graduate uploads a recording.
Graduates will be able to access their graduation tickets and GradPass in the Marching Order portal until the day of the ceremony. Each graduation ticket has a unique barcode, so graduates should not forward the same ticket to multiple guests – each guest must have his or her own individual ticket.
Guests who are unable to retrieve their tickets through email should be given printed copies of their tickets by the graduate. Graduates should not send any tickets to the graduation inbox, as the Registrar's Office does not handle ticket distribution.
Tickets are required for the ceremony. Ticket allotments will be announced by November 1. There are no options for graduates to purchase or request additional tickets. Graduates will be able to retrieve guest tickets in their Marching Order portal once it opens.
Tickets will be scanned as guests enter the graduation event. Tickets can be scanned only once and cannot be duplicated. The graduation event will be livestreamed for individuals who do not have a ticket. Guests who arrive after the ceremony starts may be denied entry.
The deadline to participate in the Fall 2024 ceremony was October 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Students who are completing their degree or diploma requirements at the end of the Fall semester are invited to attend the Fall commencement ceremonies.
In order to reserve a seat at the ceremony, graduates weare required to submit their graduation application in Self-Service and order regalia through Herff Jones by October 7.
The regalia ordering deadline was October 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Graduates are required to have regalia (cap and gown) if they wish to attend the ceremony.
Orders will be mailed directly from Herff Jones to the address the listed when the order was completed.
All graduation regalia is handled exclusively through Herff Jones. The Registrar's Office is unable to provide information on regalia orders. All questions related to regalia orders that were placed by the posted deadline should be directed to the Barry Waseleski with Herff Jones at [email protected]. No late requests will be approved.
The deadline to order regalia for the Fall 2024 commencement was October 7 at 11:59 p.m.
Regalia must be ordered directly through Herff Jones by the deadline in order for the graduate to have a seat reserved at the ceremony.
Students who missed the Fall 2024 deadline may participate in the Spring 2025 commencement ceremony, provided they meet the posted deadlines.
Herff Jones is unable to accept late order requests.
Orders placed with Herff Jones will be mailed to the address provided by the student at the time of the order. Orders will be mailed to students within two weeks of placing the order. Please refer to your order confirmation for more information.
All graduation regalia is handled exclusively through Herff Jones. The Registrar's Office is unable to provide information on regalia orders. All questions related to regalia orders that were placed by the posted deadline should be directed to Barry Waseleski with Herff Jones at [email protected].
No. A space will be reserved at the ceremony only for graduates who purchased their regalia directly from the graduation vendor, Herff Jones, by the October 7 deadline.
We may be able to help! Email [email protected] by 5 p.m. September 30 to discuss your options. Requests for regalia assistance received after September 30 will be denied.
If you purchased your regalia in a previous term – for example, a student who purchased regalia in Spring 2024 but didn't graduate or chose not to attend the ceremony and now wants to walk – you need to email [email protected] by October 7 to let us know about your situation.
Students who fall under this unique situation will not be on any communication lists, nor will they have a space reserved at the ceremony unless staff are notified by October 7.
When completing the regalia order through Herff Jones, graduates are required to use their Wake Tech email address. All graduation notifications will be sent to the student's Wake Tech email address.
If you are a parent ordering on behalf of a graduate, be sure to use the student's name and Wake Tech email address when completing the order.
Failure to use a Wake Tech email address may result in the graduate not receiving important graduation communications and updates.
No. Students are required to use their Wake Tech email address on the regalia ordering form. Graduation updates are sent only to the student's Wake Tech email address. Failure to use the student's Wake Tech email address may result in the student not receiving important graduation information.
Parents purchasing regalia on behalf of a student should use that student's Wake Tech email address.
Once an order is submitted, no changes can be made to the email until after the regalia ordering deadline, so it is imperative that the correct email is listed when the order is placed.
All successfully placed orders for full graduation regalia – cap, gown and tassel – will receive a confirmation email after the order is placed. Any graduate who does not receive a confirmation email should immediately email Barry Waseleski with Herff Jones at [email protected].
Graduates who do not meet the regalia ordering deadline may attend the next graduation event.
All graduation regalia is handled exclusively through Herff Jones. The Registrar's Office is unable to provide information on regalia orders.
Unfortunately, regalia is not available for graduates who miss the deadline. However, graduates who miss the Fall 2024 regalia ordering deadline will be granted a one-time exception to attend the Spring 2025 commencement ceremony in May 2025.
Because students in this situation may not be registered as a student in the Spring semester, they may not receive graduation notifications about that ceremony. It is the student's responsibility to purchase regalia for the Spring 2025 commencement by the March 3, 2025, deadline. Failure to purchase regalia by that deadline will result in the student not being able to attend the event.
The Spring 2025 regalia ordering portal will open in January.
No. Space will be reserved at the Fall ceremony only for graduates who purchased a full regalia set – cap, gown and tassel – directly from the graduation vendor, Herff Jones, by the October 7 deadline.
Regalia purchased from or borrowed from another student or former student is not allowed for any reason. Students in need of financial assistance to purchase regalia can email [email protected] by 5 p.m. September 30 to discuss their options.
The Registrar's Office does not distribute or handle honor cords, stoles or sashes. Graduates who are members of honor societies must reach out to the appropriate office:
The only stoles that Wake Tech will recognize for commencement are those that have been approved for the various honor societies on campus. Wake Tech cannot approve requests for students wishing to wear stoles that are not a part of an approved honor society.
Final grades do not impact whether a student can attend commencement, as all grades are posted the week following the ceremony. Students completing their last remaining course requirements in December must attend the Fall event in December, and students completing their last remaining course requirements in May or during any of the Summer sessions must attend the Spring event in May.
The Registrar's Office does not remove any student from the participation list once they are uploaded into the Marching Order portal.
All credentials are posted to the student's account within 10 business days of the last day of the semester. Students who complete their credential during Fall semester may not see the information posted until the third week of January, due to winter break office closures.
Students can verify the posting of their credential by logging into Self-Service and viewing their "unofficial transcript." If it's been more than than 10 business days since the last day of the semester and a student's credential isn't posted, the student should contact his or her student records representative. Students can look up their representative on the Registration & Records contact page.
Degrees and diplomas are not handed out at the ceremony. Wake Tech, in partnership with Parchment, will provide a digital degree or diploma to the graduate's Wake Tech student email address according to the following schedule:
Degree and diploma students will receive an email from Parchment and Wake Tech with all pertinent information on how to access their permanent digital degree or diploma. Here is how the header on that email will look:
Degree and diploma students will have the opportunity to verify their mailing addresses in the first 72 hours of the email being sent. Each graduate's mailing address in Self-Service will be provided to Parchment. If a graduate needs to update his or her address within the Parchment portal, updates must be made within that 72-hour window. Updating a mailing address in the Parchment portal does not change it with Wake Tech. To have a permanent address change on a Wake Tech student account, update it in Self-Service.
Parchment also will provide degrees and diplomas via the U.S. Postal Service to the mailing address on the graduate's account according to the following schedule:
Students are always encouraged to review their current address by logging in to Self-Service and selecting the "User Profile" name under their username in the upper right corner and make any necessary changes before the end of the semester in which student is completing.
Wake Tech, in partnership with Parchment, will provide a digital certificate to the graduate's Wake Tech student email address according to the following schedule:
Students will receive an email from Parchment and Wake Tech with all pertinent information on how to access their permanent digital certificate. Here is how the header on that email will look:
Diploma cases are graduation photo props provided only to in-person commencement ceremony participants and are not available after live graduation events. Graduates who do not attend the in-person commencement ceremony are encouraged to visit the Wake Tech Bookstore to view the variety of frames available to protect and preserve their credential.
The Wake Tech Bookstore does not sell diploma cases. Only diploma frames can be purchased at the bookstore.
No. The only names that will be read at the graduation ceremony are of graduates who purchased their regalia by the October 7 deadline and attend the in-person event.
Yes. All graduates must use Marching Order for their name verification and name pronunciation recording and to retrieve their GradPass and guest tickets.
Tickets are required for the ceremony. Each graduate will be allotted a predetermined number of tickets, which can be retrieved in the Marching Order portal.
The electronic tickets will be scanned as guests enter the event. Tickets can be scanned only once and cannot be duplicated. Guests will not be granted entry without a ticket. The event will livestreamed for guests who cannot attend in person.
No. Each student will be limited to the number of tickets in his or her allotment.
Graduates who wish to invite instructors or any other Wake Tech employee to their ceremony must provide each individual with a ticket from their allotment.
Doors will open one hour prior to the start of each graduation event. In an effort to maintain the dignity of the ceremony for all participants, guests may be denied entry once the ceremony starts. Guests are encouraged to plan accordingly due to possible parking and traffic delays.
Commencement programs are provided on a first-come, first-served basis to individuals who attend the in-person ceremony. Programs are typically not available afterward.
Yes. Graduates are permitted to decorate their caps as long as their decorations do not obstruct the view of other graduates standing or sitting behind them.
Degrees and diplomas are not handed out at the ceremony. Wake Tech, in partnership with Parchment, will provide a digital degree or diploma to the graduate's Wake Tech student email address according to the following schedule:
Degree and diploma students will receive an email from Parchment and Wake Tech with all pertinent information on how to access their permanent digital degree or diploma. Here is how the header on that email will look:
Degree and diploma students will have the opportunity to verify their mailing addresses in the first 72 hours of the email being sent. Each graduate's mailing address in Self-Service will be provided to Parchment. If a graduate needs to update his or her address within the Parchment portal, updates must be made within that 72-hour window. Updating a mailing address in the Parchment portal does not change it with Wake Tech. To have a permanent address change on a Wake Tech student account, update it in Self-Service.
Parchment also will provide degrees and diplomas via the U.S. Postal Service to the mailing address on the graduate's account according to the following schedule:
Students are always encouraged to review their current address by logging in to Self-Service and selecting the "User Profile" name under their username in the upper right corner and make any necessary changes before the end of the semester in which student is completing.