University of Wisconsin–Madison

Sharing Your Graduation Plans

Graduation is a momentous milestone that celebrates your academic achievements. Throughout your time on campus, you’ll be asked to share when you intend to graduate. This will give your academic advisor(s) and other support staff insight into your plans to best support you throughout your academic career.

This page outlines the various ways you’ll update your graduation intentions.

On This Page

Intended Completion Term (ICT)

Every fall and spring term, you will be asked to review and update, if necessary, your Intended Completion Term (ICT). This will give your school/college your best estimate of when you plan to complete your degree requirements. Your ICT may change (perhaps multiple times) during your academic journey.

You will review your ICT as part of the Pre-Enrollment Checklist. You can also update your ICT in the Academic Records section of your Student Center at any time before you apply to graduate. Once you apply to graduate, you will not be able to update your ICT.

ICT Steps (Outside Pre-Enrollment Checklist)
Pre-Enrollment Checklist Guide

Apply to Graduate

When you’re within one calendar year of completing your degree requirements, you will need to apply to graduate. Applying for graduation lets your school/college know that you plan to complete your degree requirements in a specific term and allows them to begin evaluating your degree accomplishments in preparation for graduation.

Applying for Graduation Steps

When you apply for graduation, you also indicate if you plan to participate in a commencement ceremony. Graduation and commencement are two different things and, for some students, happen at different times.

  • Graduation means meeting all your degree requirements after your academic dean’s office has confirmed your progress toward degree and conferred a degree to you.
  • Commencement is the ceremony at the end of the fall and spring terms, celebrating graduating students.

In addition, you will be asked whether you would like your legal name or your name in use/preferred name on your diploma and in the commencement program. Refer to our Diplomas page for more information about what will appear on your diploma.

FERPA Waiver: If you have set a privacy restriction (sometimes referred to as a “FERPA hold”) on your education records restricting their release to third parties, you can override this to allow the commencement program and related communications to list your name.

Undergraduate Students

You must apply for graduation. Most students with at least 100 credits will get reminder emails with information about applying for graduation.

When you apply for graduation in the Academic Records section of your Student Center, you select the specific term (i.e. Spring 2026) in which you plan to complete your degree requirements. Student Center usually offers the next two to three terms as choices.

Applying for graduation doesn’t give you an immediate check that you have met your degree requirements; it notifies your school/college of your intention. Some schools/colleges may send email communications to students who have not completed requirements, but this practice varies across campus.

You will need to apply by degree conferral date for your graduation term. If you miss that date, contact your school/college’s dean’s office

Graduate Students

You should apply to graduate in Student Center to note your preferences for commencement. The Graduate School does not use the “intended degree completion term” in Student Center.

You can find official graduation instructions for completing your masters or doctoral degree on the Graduate School’s “Completing your master’s degree” and the “Guide to preparing your doctoral dissertation” webpages, including information about receiving a degree warrant.

Your graduate program coordinator can help you track your degree progress. Graduate School degree coordinators can be of help regarding official graduation and degree conferral.

First Destination Survey

If you are an undergraduate student, you will be asked to fill out the First Destination Survey to let UW–Madison know about your post-graduation plans.

Once you have applied to graduate, you will get regular reminders to complete the survey.

Refer to Career Services’ website for more information.

FAQs

Intended Completion Term

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ICT does not apply to certificates, additional majors, and other non-degree programs. This page will only display degree programs. View all your declared credentials in MyUW > Academic Navigator by expanding the “Degree & Major” and “Certificates” sections.

No. ICT does not apply to special students. If you’re reviewing ICT in the context of the Pre-Enrollment Checklist (PEC), you can just toggle the acknowledgment button to yes and proceed with the PEC.

Note: If you are a special student completing a Capstone Certificate and you need an update to your Estimated Graduation Term for reporting purposes, please email the Office of the Registrar at registrar@em.wisc.edu to notify us of your request.

Yes. If you plan to graduate in the next semester or two, the Application for Graduation allows you to select your commencement ceremony and confirm the name on your diploma (either primary/legal or name-in-use), so the ICT process does not replace Application for Graduation.

Once you apply to graduate, the selected term will still show up on the PEC for you to review, but you will not be able to update the ICT through the ICT update page. If your graduation plans change, you will update the Application for Graduation directly.

UW–Madison first started asking students to share their ICT during the Fall 2025 term. Before then, ICT was calculated “behind the scenes” for reporting purposes by a formula that estimated completion term. Students weren’t asked to provide input on that value until they submitted an Application for Graduation.

If you see an ICT value you’re not expecting, it was likely assigned/estimated by the formula. You can update that to reflect your plans any time in MyUW > Student Center > Academic Records > Intended Completion Term.

This uncommon error may occur during periods of high system volume when the form submission may take longer than expected. You can still proceed with completion of the Pre-Enrollment Checklist despite this message. Follow these steps:

  1. Click “Ok” on the error message.
  2. Even if your ICT hasn’t updated yet, click “Confirm” then “Next” to proceed with the Pre-Enrollment Checklist.
  3. If you want/need to update your ICT outside of the Pre-Enrollment Checklist, you can do so anytime in MyUW > Student Center > Academic Records > Intended Completion Term and following the directions above.

If you can’t update, there should be a list of common reasons you can’t perform an update listed in the “No Programs Eligible for Updating” section. They are listed here too. Please read all four to see which one applies to you. If you want to update your ICT and this information doesn’t help you determine why you can’t, please email registrar@em.wisc.edu from your wisc.edu email account to request a tailored explanation.

Common reasons you can’t update your ICT:

  • You are a Special/Non-Degree Seeking Student: ICT is not relevant to your enrollment at UW–Madison, so no action is required or allowed on this page.
  • You don’t see any degrees or majors listed: This means you don’t have any active programs. Please contact your academic advisor for interpretation of your student status.
  • You see degrees or majors listed but no term in the “Update To” Column: This means you’ve already submitted a formal Application for Graduation. If you need to update your ICT, please resubmit your Application for Graduation with an updated “Intended Degree Completion Term”.
  • You’re an undergraduate pursuing two distinct degrees at the same time: In this case, you will only need to provide/update ICT for your primary degree since both degrees must be completed concurrently.

If your ICT is later than the last term available, select the last term available and extend it out when asked to review/update ICT in future Pre-Enrollment Checklists. Only seven years of terms are displayed.

If you see only three terms, you are in the Application for Graduation, not ICT. Navigate to MyUW > Student Center > Academic Records > Intended Completion term to update your ICT for up to seven years from now. If you already applied to graduate and you can’t change your ICT, you must update your application to graduate term.

When completing the Pre-Enrollment Checklist, you must complete the ICT step. To update the ICT when in the PEC, the “I need to update my term” link should open a new window should open to the Student Center’s ICT form.

If nothing happens when you click “I need to update my term”, make sure your web browser’s pop-up blocker is disabled. Browser-specific instructions for pop-up settings can be found in this guide. If that doesn’t work, you can open a new window and follow the steps at the beginning of this guide. Then return to the PEC to continue.

Apply to Graduate

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If your graduation plans change, you will update the Application for Graduation directly.

No. Once you apply to graduate, you will no longer need to — or be able to — update your Intended Completion Term.