# Apply for Graduation — REQUIRED (ungraded) **Due: Week 4 — Friday, September 18 — verified at your conference** --- ## Do this now Go to **collin.edu**, log into CougarWeb, and file your graduation application for Fall 2026. Bring the confirmation to your Week 4 conference — the confirmation screen, the email, or a screenshot. "I'll do it tonight" is not a confirmation. ## Why this is a hard requirement **You do not graduate automatically.** Completing the coursework is not the same as being awarded the credential. Every year, students finish every requirement of a degree, walk away, and discover months later that no one ever issued it, because nobody applied. It is a form. It takes fifteen minutes. It is worth more to your life than any single piece in your portfolio. ## This is not graded, and that's deliberate There are no points attached, because points can be traded away. A student who's willing to lose five points will lose five points and not graduate. Instead: **your Week 4 attendance credit stays incomplete until I see the confirmation.** It clears the moment you show me. ## While you're in there Three things worth checking in the same sitting: 1. **Run a degree audit.** Confirm nothing is outstanding — a missing core course, a substitution that was never processed, a transfer credit that never posted. September is a fixable problem; December is not. 2. **Check your name.** The name on your application is the name printed on the diploma. Check the spelling. 3. **If you're considering transferring to a four-year program**, look at the articulation agreement now, while you're still enrolled and can still ask questions. Advising is far easier to reach in September than in December. ## If you find a problem Tell me at your conference and go to Advising the same week. Almost everything found in September is solvable. The same problem found in November usually costs a semester.