I had my picture taken with a diploma in the shape of a scroll, but when I actually got my diploma, it was in a vinyl folder, along with a certificate from the MLA for my area, and another certificate.
All TV shows etc show the diploma as a scroll, is this TV effing with our minds again, or did diploma’s really come as scrolls at one point?
Yes, the TV is lying to you.
Sheepskin (or the facsimilie thereof) is pricey. They don’t want to waste money on fancy paper. You want a scroll? Take the diploma from the vinyl folder and roll it up.
And you might want to check out the proper use of apostrophes while you’re at it.
Graduated from high school in 1984.
My high school diploma came in a leatherette case. The New York State Regents diploma was scrolled parchment.
My degree certificate was a sheet of yellow paper. If you pay £25 you can get a cursive font. They said I misused an apostrophe once and didn’t deserve a scroll. OK, sorry, that was mean. 
A serious answer here. I got my h.s. diploma in 1970 and my college diploma in 1974 and they were both in the “leatherette” case.
I think that in many cases (at least, in modern times), the “scrolls” are simply props. I know that in many of my friends’ recent college graduations, they were presented with a blank “scroll” during the actual ceremony; the actual diploma was sent separately.
Have actual diplomas been in scroll-form in any recent times?
While I’ve seen high school diplomas ranging from study sheets presented in folders to (I kid the not) wallet-sized plastic cards, every degree I’ve gotten since HS was either parchment or some reasonable facsimile, presented rolled in a cardboard tube. After all, you’re going to want to display them, framed, in your office (Well, at least doctors tend to–many patients like to see a diploma, even in this age of Photoshop)
The only possible example I know of is the University of Virginia, and I’m only guessing that because their diplomas - well, their JDs, I’m not sure about their bachelor’s diplomas - are enormous. Or at least they were into the 1990s.
A friend’s grandmother and great-aunt held doctorates in chemistry from the University of Vienna. They were awarded gorgeous, ornate scrolls, with enormous wax seals. But they got them back in the 1930s, when university graduates were still rare.
Rice University still uses real sheepskin diplomas, which are rolled up in scroll fashion when they are handed out. They are also VERY large.
UVa did indeed issue parchment diplomas for ages; my undergraduate advisor gained his MA there in the late 50s, and it was parchment, and the pertinent info in Latin.
I gained my MA in 1991 and my PhD in 1996 from UVa – no longer parchment, and in English, but a pretty heavy paper, and they are still 22 x 17 inches (portrait, not landscape.) This is not a standard size so you can walk into any old shop and get a ready made frame, but you’ll never guess – there is a shop right on the Corner, which runs along the edge of the campus, which specialises in framing UVa diplomas (well, frames in general.) I was told it costs about $150 to have them frame one ( :eek: ) which is no surprise, as ALL of the shops on the Corner are insanely expensive (was just in a teeny bopper dress shop there last week, and the on sale stuff averaged between $90 - $250.) I bought the pieces for my frame and did mine myself.
I’ll be back in C’ville tomorrow to use the uni library if anyone has even the slightest interest in more on-the-edge-of-your-seat info…(no, am not particularly loyal to UVa…I think school loyalty is something one has more for where one went as an undergraduate; I know mine is).
Oh – I didn’t attend either of my graduations, but I’m told that one receives a rolled up blank sheet of paper, and then one goes a few days later to Carruthers Hall where they have all the diplomas in enomous flat-stacked piles by degree – when you get yours, as it were, the nice ladies there take them from the pile, roll them up, and put it in a poster tube to protect it until you can have it framed.
:smack:
Sorry – in answer to OxyMoron’s question, all the diplomas at UVa are the same size, from Bachelor to Juris D.
Do vegans ever object to this?
Graduates who’ve studied spelling and apostrophe usage get genuine sheepskin scrolls; the rest get certificates in a cheap vinyl folder.
If someone objects, they have the option of having a parchment diploma (which I think is almost indistiguishable). I’ve not heard of many people who have done this, but I know it is an option that is available.
Graduated high school 1988–leatherette case for the diploma
Graduated Georgia Tech in 1993 (co-op, hence the extra year)–rolled up scroll tied with white and gold ribbons.
Graduated high school and college in California in the 70’s. High school diploma was a flat vinyl case - college diploma was a blank sheet of rolled paper. When you took your “proof of graduation” slip to the Main Admin. Office, they would give you your diploma, rolled in a tube. State schools tend to go for the cheapest option.
I’m very disappointed with my diploma too – it’s laser-printed on heavy yellowish paper, and looks more like it’s from a one-year career program at a community college than for an honors degree at an accredited university that likes to say it’s one of the best in the world. Most of the text is in a modern sans-serif font; my name and degree earned are in, I think, Monotype Corsiva. Notably, it’s oriented in portrait, though I’d always thought of diplomas as being landscape.
As far as I know, I didn’t have the option of buying an upgraded diploma. Frames of various types were offered on sale, ranging from a $50 aluminum frame to a $150 mahogany one. The diploma itself was handed to me in an envelope with a sheet of cardboard to reinforce it and a letter explaining what to do if there were any mistakes.
All this being said, I know there are still some places that give traditional diplomas. I know someone who graduated from Mount Allison (a small Atlantic Canadian university) around 2000 and got a diploma in Latin with the name of the diploma and recipient handwritten on. However, it’s probably not so much a matter of tradition as that the university is bilingual and Latin represents a middle ground.
The diploma that Swarthmore College gave me about a month ago was handed to me rolled up in a scroll. It was paper though (not sure what kind), not sheep. I think the vegans would have flipped (it seems like half the school is vegan) if the school had used skin.
My grandfather’s “Pharmaceutical Chemist” and MD degrees, awarded in 1909 and ~1914 respectively, are both large parchments that look as if they were scrolls when presented. As with OxyMoron’s forbears, these sheepskins–or, I expect, calfskins actually, seeing as he attended U.of KS and Creighton, are georgeously inscribed in graceful script; the MD diploma is entirely in Latin.
I graduated from Whatsamatta U, and all I got was a handshake. 