# "Graduate" or "Graduate From" **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2010, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graduate-or-graduate-from/554996 "2010-09-25T13:44:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![multimediac17](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/839c29/32.png) [@multimediac17](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/multimediac17)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graduate-or-graduate-from/554996/21 "2010-09-28T18:20:50Z")
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#): > > > [@Cunctator](#): > > > > I’ve never heard it used except in relation to university graduations. In my experience high school students simply “finish” school. > > Another Aussie chiming in. I’m showing my age, but I matriculated from high school and graduated from university. Given that maticulating is not something one does any more I’m not sure what it is called, but it would still sound strange to me to use “graduation” for anything less than a university degree. > > It would not surprise me at all if schools now used the word “graduation” however. Nothing wrong with change of course, but it’s not what we used when I left school. I graduated/finished/left high school in 2007, so it may well be something that has come into use over the last few years. I also “graduated” primary school in 2002, but that was of course less formal - still, I remember clearly that the word was used. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graduate-or-graduate-from/554996/22 "2010-09-28T18:49:50Z")
It seems to me that everyone uses just “graduated” these days rather than “graduated from” so I am surprised (but happy!) to see the latter winning in the poll. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graduate-or-graduate-from/554996/23 "2010-09-28T19:06:20Z")
I’ve come across “graduation” used in the context of high schools in New South Wales, Australia. The thing is that high-school graduation ceremonies tend to be held for year-12 students in September, before they sit for the Higher School Certificate examinations in October-November, and there might be another end-of-school ceremony in December on or about the last day of the school year, when the old year-12 students are technically no longer students of the school, and the old year-11 students are now counted as year-12 students. For some reason, year 11 only lasts 3 terms of the 4-term year in NSW. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/graduate-or-graduate-from/554996.md?page=1)