Did you complete all requirements for your degree or certificate? Great! Your
next step is to complete our Graduation Petition. Details are provided below.
Unit Requirements: The B.S. in Interaction Design requires a minimum on 120 CSU applicable
units, including lower and upper division general education. All Associate degrees require a minimum
of 60 degree-applicable units, including General Education, major requirements, and
electives. Associate Degrees for Transfer also require 60 CSU-applicable units in
addition to the General Education, major requirements, and electives. Certificates
of Achievement require a minimum of 12 major-applicable units.
Units in Residence at SMC: At least 12 units of coursework must be taken at Santa
Monica College.
GPA Requirements: A minimum GPA of 2.0 is required in degree-applicable coursework.
All courses in the major must be completed with a "C" or better.
Major requirement for all degrees and Certificates of Achievement may be found in
the Transfer/Counseling Center's Articulation website.
Coursework from regionally accredited colleges and universities is accepted by SMC
to fulfill degree and certificate requirements.
Advanced Placement and CLEP scores can be accepted for credit, with some limitations. Test scores must
be submitted directly from the testing center to SMC.
Official college transcripts and test scores sent directly by the institution are
required. SMC does not accept student-provided documents--even if in a sealed envelope.
Ensure you have submitted official transcripts and relevant test scores from all institutions
attended to the Admissions and Records Office. Note that all transcripts from other
schools must be mailed directly to SMC Admissions. Hand carried transcripts will not
be accepted.
Make an appointment with a counselor to see if you are eligible to graduate. You can
also run a Degree Audit check using the SMC educational planning tool called MyEdPlan.
Once you determine you are eligible, complete and submit your graduation petition
as noted below.
You may petition for any degree or certificate for which you qualify (no limit).
Complete and submit the graduation petition for your degree or major. All petitions
must be downloaded, completed and submitted to the admissions and records office via
email to transcriptevaluator@smc.edu
Log in with your SMC username and password. Your username is the first part of your
SMC email address--everything before the "@" symbol. Same username you use for Canvas.
SMC will automatically grant a Certificate of Achievement upon processing of any full
certification request.
The filing periods for graduation are as follows:
Winter start of Winter session thru January 31
Spring: Start of Spring semester thru April 19
Summer: Start of Summer session thru July 31
Fall: Start of Fall semester thru December 1
You will receive an email on the status of your petition within 6 weeks after submitting
it to the Admissions Office.
If found eligible, your petition will be re-evaluated once official grades are posted
at the end of the term. This process can take up to 5 weeks.
You will be provided with instructions on how to participate in our annual Commencement
Ceremony a few months ahead of the event. In order to participate in the ceremony,
you must submit the graduation petition by the petitioning deadline.
Graduation honors are awarded to students who have met all the graduation requirements,
who have never been suspended from Santa Monica College, who are not currently on
academic or progress probation, and who meet the following GPA qualifications for
all degree-applicable coursework.
Highest Honors: 4.0 GPA
High Honors: 3.70 to 3.99 GPA
Honors: 3.0 to 3.69 GPA
Graduation honors will be annotated on your SMC transcript and your diploma.
Transcripts: Once the Admissions & Records Office has verified you completed all degree/certificate
requirements, your official Santa Monica College transcripts will be annotated with
the degree/certificate and major you completed. This annotation will appear on all
transcripts we generate.
Diplomas: Will be mailed to you within 12-16 weeks after the appropriate filing period.
Only one diploma (per major) will be provided to you at no cost. If you graduated
with more than one major, you will receive a separate diploma for each major. It will
also state if you graduated with honors.
Students who were granted a degree from Summer and/or Fall preceding the graduation
ceremony.
Students who have petitioned for the Spring semester who are designated as eligible
or eligible pending.
Students who have petitioned for the Spring but are missing 2 courses (up to 8 units)
and are enrolled in them during the Summer session following the graduation ceremony,
may participate provided they petition to graduated by April 19. These students will
be designated as ineligible to but may participate.
Ineligible but may participate students will need to resubmit a new graduation petition
during the Summer term in order to be granted the degree and/or certificate