Frequently Asked Questions

9:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday

881 Commonwealth Avenue, 2nd floor
Boston, MA 02215

Diploma & Graduation FAQS

Official transcripts can be ordered online from any location 24/7 by current students and alumni of the university.

Payment is accepted during the online ordering process. Official transcripts can be sent via secured PDF as an eTranscript or via paper in a signed and sealed envelope through standard USPS. Expedited shipping is available at an extra charge.

Please allow 2-3 business days for the processing of all transcript requests and 7-10 days for paper mail delivery.

If you are in the Boston area, please feel free to pick up an official transcript in person at the FirstPoint service counter on the 2nd floor of 881 Commonwealth Ave Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM.

If you are in the Boston area, please feel free to pick up an official transcript in person at the FirstPoint service counter on the 2nd floor of 881 Commonwealth Ave Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM. Please be sure to bring a photo ID and complete the Official Transcript Request form in the office when you arrive.

Please also note, that official transcripts can be ordered online from any location 24/7. All orders for transcripts can be sent via secure PDF as an eTranscript or as paper in a signed and sealed envelope through standard USPS.

Students can send family members or friends to pick up or request a transcript on their behalf. If you are sending someone else to pick up your transcript on your behalf, please provide him/her with a letter that clearly states your name and BU ID number, his/her name and what you are allowing him/her to do (Ex. I John Doe (U12345678) allow Jane Smith to pick up my official transcript.). Please ensure that the letter includes your handwritten signature. We do require your signature due to FERPA privacy regulations.

Official transcripts are available for same-day in person pick-up at the FirstPoint counter on the 2nd floor of 881 Commonwealth Ave. FirstPoint is open Monday-Friday, 9AM-5PM. Please be sure to have the person bring a photo ID and a hard copy of the letter to the FirstPoint counter.

Official transcripts can now be ordered online by current students and alumni of the university. As a part of the ordering process, you will see an option to upload an attachment. Please be sure to upload any necessary attachments (AMCAS, LSAC, cover sheets etc.) in that section to ensure that the attachment is sent with your official transcript to the recipient.

Attachments MUST be included during the online ordering process. Please do not place an order online and then fax or scan and email attachments to the Registrar’s Office.

All eTranscripts must be opened with Adobe Reader. You will first need to make sure that you have the most updated version of Adobe Reader. If you do not yet have this installed on your computer, you can use this link to install it free of charge.

If you continue to have trouble downloading the transcript after updating Adobe Reader, please use the FAQs on the Parchment Support page for specific instructions for your operating system and browser. Please note that Parchment recommends the use of Google Chrome or Firefox when downloading eTranscripts for PCs. The Parchment Support page also includes instructions for Mac users.

Official transcripts can now be issued both as an eTranscript (in a certified PDF document) and paper transcript. Both documents are official versions of your transcript and can be ordered online.

Please note, however, that while we do offer both electronic and paper delivery of official transcripts, we do recommend that you confirm with the recipient (university, testing center, application service etc.) what transcript type is accepted. Not all recipients will accept an eTranscript or paper transcript. Please be sure to follow the policies and procedures of the university or third party to which you are submitting your transcript.

Official paper transcripts are $10 each. Official eTranscripts are $8 each. Payment is accepted during the online ordering process. Official transcripts can be sent via secured PDF as an eTranscript or via paper in a signed and sealed envelope through standard USPS. Expedited shipping is available at an extra charge of $25 for domestic destinations and $40 for international destinations.

When placing an order for an official transcript on our online ordering system, you will have the option to send an eTranscript or paper transcript. eTranscripts are often sent within 24 hours for current students and within 48 hours for alumni. Paper transcripts are mailed in a signed and sealed envelope through standard US Postal Service. Please allow 2-3 business days for the processing of all transcript requests and 7-10 days for paper delivery. Expedited shipping is available at an extra charge of $25 for domestic destinations and $40 for international destinations.

Current students can view grades and a copy of their unofficial transcripts via the StudentLink. Once on the StudentLink, select the Academics tab, Transcript Preview and Ordering, login using your username and Kerberos password and then you will be able to see the transcript preview.

If you would like to view your grades by semester, select Academics, Grades and then select a semester to view. You will then be able to print your semester grades using the Printer Friendly option link at the end of your grade report.

While our office does have access to your transcript and grades, our system only calculates your overall, cumulative GPA. Your Cumulative GPA can be found at the end of your transcript. If you would like to calculate your GPA for a specific major or degree, we encourage you to use the GPA calculation instructions on our website.

Unfortunately, our office is not able to process requests for major GPAs as we do not evaluate transcripts and do not know which specific courses counted towards your major or degree requirements. If you require further information regarding specific course requirements or which courses went towards your major, please contact the advising or student services office at your specific school or college.

All course descriptions as of the 2010/2011 academic year can be found online. Requests for course descriptions prior to 2010, must be submitted directly to our office. There is no charge for course descriptions.

While our office is able to provide you with course descriptions, we do not maintain records of course syllabi (documents that include an overall description of the course, course objectives/goals, assignments, lab components and weekly schedule of material). If you are in need of the syllabus for a specific course, please contact the school or college that offered the course or the instructor directly. You can find instructor contact information using the BU Directory.

If you find that a course description will be sufficient, please visit our website for further instructions on how to request them.

Each school and college is responsible for maintaining Dean’s List for their students. If you met the requirements for Dean’s List for your school or college while studying abroad, please contact the Student Services or Advising office at your school or college directly and an administrator there will be able to verify that you have met the requirements. That administrator will then work with our office to ensure that your student record and transcript appropriately lists Dean’s List for that given semester. The Office of the University Registrar is not able to add a student to Dean’s List without approval directly from an administrator at the school or college.

Parchment is an online ordering service that the Office of the University Registrar has contracted with to process our online transcript ordering. Current students will automatically be directed to the Parchment system after logging in to the StudentLink to begin the transcript ordering process. Alumni and students without StudentLink access will be directed to the Parchment online ordering homepage to create an account directly on the Parchment system to place a transcript order.

All current students should be accessing the transcript ordering service directly through the StudentLink using your BU login name and Kerberos password. If you need assistance with your Kerberos password, please contact BU IT Help at ithelp@bu.edu or 617-353-4357.

Students and alumni that have created accounts directly on the Parchment site should use the ‘Forgot your password?’ link on the Parchment login page. After selecting that link you will then be able to enter the email address you used to create the account and generate an email message containing a new password.

In order for these courses to be properly evaluated, we will need:

• An official college transcript
• Complete syllabi for each course taken
• A signed Dual Enrollment Form

PLEASE NOTE:  If the college courses counted towards your high school degree, they cannot count for college credit at Boston University

Unfortunately no. A transfer credit evaluation is done after a student is offered admission to the University, so we will not be able to evaluate or guarantee any of your courses for transfer ahead of time. BU generally awards credit for liberal arts courses completed with a grade of C or better at a regionally accredited institution. The best way to plan out your courses for transfer or predict what courses will transfer to BU is to compare the course descriptions from your current program to those offered by BU. Boston University degree requirements and course descriptions can be found on our Academics Website. I also encourage you to utilize our Course Equivalency Library for information on what courses from varying institutions have already been approved or not by BU. Professional courses may transfer at the discretion of the admitting school or college. Please be aware you will not receive transfer credit for physical education, health or ROTC courses, or activities such as internships, independent study, orientation, choir, band or student service. Please note that BU can accept up to 60 credits from a two-year institution and up to 80 credits from a four-year institution.

The credit evaluation department does not determine your class standing. After you are admitted, your class year will be determined by the BU school or college in which you enroll.

ATTENTION: to appeal coursework completed OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES prior to matriculation, DO NOT use this form. Please contact the Office of International Undergraduate Admissions directly.
881 Commonwealth Ave, 6th floor, Boston MA 02215
Email: intadvis@bu.edu. Website: http://www.bu.edu/admissions

For each course you wish to appeal, you must fill out the first section of the fillable PDF Transfer Credit Appeal Form.  The form and corresponding course syllabus must both be submitted, to the appropriate department in order for the appeal to be considered.  You may also append any additional documents you think will help the department reevaluate your course.

Appeals WITHOUT signatures in the second section of the form should NOT be submitted to the registrar. 

Step 2 of the Appeal Form needs be completed by appropriate BU School or College’s department for departmental assignment of a BU equivalent. The review process may take a number of days, so plan accordingly. Please note transfer courses are not officially approved until this form is signed by department head and returned to the Office of the University Registrar. It is the responsibility of the student to return this form to the Office of the University Registrar

Contact information for CAS departments can be found here.  For non-CAS courses, you may find the school/colleges website here.

EXAMPLE:  If you are appealing a biology course, the form and syllabus must be submitted to the CAS Biology department.

After submitting the materials to each department, the student is responsible for retrieving the forms after it is signed and returning the forms to the Office of the University Registrar (881 Commonwealth Avenue, 2^nd Floor) in order for the equivalency to be updated on your file.

Please upload your syllabi as PDFs to the MyBU Portal on the “Application Status” page, and include your name and date of birth at the top of each page. When choosing how to upload your documents, select “Admissions” documents, and then choose “Syllabi” from the document type drop-down menu.

International coursework should also be submitted through the MyBU Portal however those evaluations will be processed by the International Admissions department.

Your admission decision will not be influenced in any way by the syllabi you submit. An associate’s degree doesn’t take the place of course syllabi. You still need to submit every syllabus for evaluation. A course description is not the same as a syllabus. A syllabus is an official outline and summary of topics covered in a course, usually including the instructor’s name, class location, course outline, content, expectations, and other important information.

Only official test scores sent directly to Boston University from the College Board, International Baccalaureate Organization, or the examination board will be accepted. For more information and an overview of how many credits you may be awarded, see our Advanced Credit page.

Please note that International Baccalaureate and other international advanced credit exams will be evaluated by BU International Admissions. Advanced Placement is evaluated by the BU Registrar.

http://www.bu.edu/admissions/files/2018/06/Advanced-Credit-Guide.pdf

As soon as you receive your spring grades transfer students should submit their updated transcript to Boston University Admissions. Courses that you were enrolled in during your admission decision will not be added to your record until we receive the official transcript. In order for a transcript to be considered official it must be sent directly from your previous institution.  Students/parents cannot submit official college transcripts.

Transcripts may be:

Emailed to: schforms@bu.edu

Mailed to:  Boston University Admissions, 881 Commonwealth Avenue 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02215

Your admission decision will not be influenced in any way by the syllabi you submit, nor will it affect your grade point average (GPA). Once you enroll, you’ll start at BU with a new undergraduate GPA.

Each school and college within Boston University has their own requirements for registration, thus some programs may not require students to obtain an academic advising code prior to registration. We recommend that you speak with your school or college directly to confirm their registration procedures.

If an academic advising code is required on the StudentLink when registering online, you will need to obtain this code directly from your academic advisor from your school or college. If you do not have a specific advisor or do not know who your advisor is, please contact the Advising Office or Student Services Office at your school or college directly for assistance.

If you are an incoming freshmen or transfer student, you will be given an advising code when you register for classes during your orientation session.

Each school or college assigns advisors to students. You can view your advisor through the StudentLink by selecting ‘Academics’ and then ‘Academic Advising’. You will then be able to see your assigned advisors.

If you do not see an advisor listed on the StudentLink, you will want to contact your individual school or college’s Advising Office or Student Services Office for further information.

To audit a class, you need to download the Add / Drop Form, and fill out the bottom group of boxes that say “GR TO AU” which means grade to audit. You then need to have it signed by the instructor of the course and return it to our office.

Please note, if you audit a course, this course will count against your credit total for a given semester. Please note that if you register for more than 18 credits in a given semester, you may be charged an overload fee equivalent to the part-time per-credit rate for that course. Thus, if you’re a full-time undergraduate student enrolled in 18 credits and choose to audit an extra one-credit PDP course, this will increase your total credit load to 19 total credits for the semester and may cause you to accrue additional charges. We recommend that undergraduate students contact their school or college administrative offices regarding their overload policies.

If you would like to update your enrollment status from full-time to part-time, or vice-versa, please contact your school or college directly. The administrator from your school or college will have access to your record and can then determine whether or not a change in your enrollment status is permitted based on your program’s requirements.

Please note, changing your enrollment status can have an effect on your tuition amount, eligibility for financial aid, University housing, student employment, loan repayments and possibly FitRec access. Also, for international students, we advise you to contact the International Students & Scholars Office (ISSO) directly before inquiring about such enrollment status changes as it may impact your visa status.

BU employees looking to take classes for the first time will be enrolled as non-degree students with Metropolitan College. You will need to follow Metropolitan College’s guide for new student registration to setup your student account. As a Metropolitan College non-degree student, you are eligible to enroll in a variety of Metropolitan College course offerings. You are still eligible to enroll in courses offered outside of Metropolitan College, i.e. a course offered by the College of Fine Arts, but you will need to obtain further approval, which is listed on the new student registration page.

Once you have registered for a course, you will then be able to apply for Tuition Remission through BUworks Central. All questions regarding the employee benefits and policies of Tuition Remission should be directed towards Human Resources.

Massachusetts law requires that all full-time and many part-time students be immunized against a number of diseases in order to attend a university in the Commonwealth. If students have not met the immunization requirements set forth by Student Health Services, a hold will be placed on the student record, which will prevent students from registering for classes.

First Year Student Immunization Information

Graduate and Transfer Student Immunization Information

If you have an immunization hold on your record, you must work with Student Health Services directly to meet your immunization requirements. The immunization hold will not be lifted under any circumstances to allow for course registration.

The immunization hold will not be lifted under any circumstances to allow for course registration or adjustments (adding/dropping).

If you have an immunization hold on your record, you must work with Student Health Services directly to meet your immunization requirements. The immunization hold will not be lifted under any circumstances to allow for course registration.

The immunization hold will not be lifted under any circumstances to allow for course registration or adjustments (adding/dropping).

A Requirement of Registration is that students must settle their financial obligation to the University each semester.

To resolve a financial hold on your student account, you will need to settle your account through Student Accounting Services.

Students will not be able to register for courses or make adjustments to their schedule if there is a financial hold on their account.

If you are an incoming freshman, you will register for classes during your selected orientation session. During orientation, you will meet with an advisor from your school or college to assist you with the course selection. You can find more information on this process and the events offered during orientation through the Orientation Office.

You can find Registration Dates and Times for the upcoming semesters on our website

“No Active Semester” means you do not have a record created for the semester you are seeking to register for. In order to create a semester record, you will need to contact the Registrar’s office at 617-353-3612 or at registrar@bu.edu.

If you are returning to Boston University from a leave of absence, you will need to contact your school/college student services office to be reinstated and have a semester record created.

You will need to speak directly with your school/college student services office directly in order to change your class standing. They will review your academic record and the number of completed credits before making any changes.

For Domestic Students, please fill out the Name Change Form.  You may fax or scan and email this form to (617)358-2171 or registrar@bu.edu, along with appropriate documentation (such as a driver’s license, marriage certificate, or legal name change form.)

For International Students, please contact the International Students and Scholars Office for assistance.  They can be reached at (617)353-3565 or isso@bu.edu.

Boston University’s ShareLink provides secure access to parents, employers, and other interested third parties interested in viewing your academic or financial records. The student must use the StudentLink to sponsor a login account for each person who will have access. The student also specifies the information available to each party and controls the duration of access.

Please select “Address and Phone numbers” under the Personal tab of the Student Link. From there, you will see a list of known address(es) and phone numbers that you may update.  It is important that you select the ‘Update’ option once you have adjusted your contact information. Even if the information that’s provided on the page is correct, you must select the ‘Update’ option.

If you are a BU employee, update or confirm your BU Alert phone number through BUworks Central.

The Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Law requires all out-of-state students bringing vehicles into the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to file a non-resident driver statement with the local police department in the city in which the University is located. Even if an out-of-state student is not bringing a car to Massachusetts, they must sign an acknowledgement that they have been informed of the law through the StudentLink.

FERPA, or the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974, is a federal law, which dictates that a student’s educational records may not be disclosed, without the expressed consent of the owner of said record (the owner, being the student).

Certificate of Graduation requests can easily be obtained by coming to our office, emailing or faxing us a written request. Please review the Certificate of Graduation page for the information that is required to make a request.

Certificate of Graduation forms are only available to students that have officially graduated from Boston University.

If you are anticipating on graduating during an upcoming convocation, a Certificate of Graduation form will not be made available until after the actual convocation date. For example, if you’re expecting to graduate in May, the Certificate of Graduate form will not be available until the Monday after the All University Commencement. Also, please note, your transcript will not include your degree as being “awarded” until after the convocation date as well.

The National Student Clearinghouse is a verification service for third-party verification agencies.  Third-party verification agencies are defined as any individual, who is not the student and not an agent of Boston University.

On the National Student Clearinghouse site, a third-party verification agency may request a verification of a student’s attendance and/or any degree(s) received, barring any holds on the student’s account, such as a privacy restriction, or a financial hold.

As a more efficient way to fulfill your degree verification request, Boston University has enlisted the services of The National Student Clearinghouse. By accessing www.degreeverify.org, you can verify graduations and current enrollment of Boston University students for a small fee.

In the event that Clearinghouse cannot locate the records for an individual, please contact National Student Clearinghouse Customer Service directly at 703-742-4200 for further information.

If you have already registered for classes at orientation, the quickest and easiest way to obtain a Proof of Enrollment is to stop by our office with photo identification.

If you are unable to stop by our office, you may write a letter with your name, BU id number, the destination of the document (mailing address, fax number, or email address), and your signature.  You may fax this letter to our office at (617)358-1689 or scan it and email it to Registrar@bu.edu.  Please allow 1-2 business days for processing.

If you have not yet registered for classes at orientation, unfortunately, the Proof of Enrollment is unavailable.  A student must be registered for classes before a Proof of Enrollment can be generated.  After you have completed your registration, you may stop by our office while you are here at orientation, or you may submit a written request to our office, as explained above.

Yes, we can complete a verification form sent to us by the student for a lender.

You can either come in person to our office, fax (617-353-1869), email a scanned copy of the form to registrar@bu.edu or mail the form to us.

Office of the University Registrar
Boston University
881 Commonwealth Ave
Boston, MA 02215

Please allow 1-2 business days for processing.

Please note, we will fill out your form with the enrollment information that is currently listed in our system. If you need to have your projected graduation year adjusted, which may be related to why your lender placed your loan into a repayment phase, you will need to speak with your school/college student services office directly to have the projected graduation year changed.

The Office of the University Registrar does not have access to your disciplinary records, so we cannot complete these types of forms.

The Judicial Affairs Office is the appropriate office that can assist you with handling the completion of these forms. More information on their process can be found on their website.