Commencement 2025

Renting your regalia

Wearing full academic regalia at all events on Commencement Day (Thursday, May 29) is a long-standing tradition and a requirement of graduates participating in the day's ceremonies. You may either rent or purchase your required regalia from the Harvard Coop.

Once the ordering period begins in February, you'll hear from the HKS Commencement team with instructions on how to rent or buy your regalia. Updated information will be posted here, too.

Student Orations Competition

The Student Orations Competition is one of Harvard’s oldest Commencement traditions. During Morning Exercises on Commencement Day, three students chosen by a panel of judges each deliver a memorized address to some 32,000 audience members, including the governing boards, honorary degree recipients, faculty members, parents, alumni, and graduates.

Watch Vic Hogg MPP 2023 deliver the Graduate English Address at the 2023 Morning Exercises.

2025 Schedule

• Monday, March 3, 3 p.m., location to be confirmed | Information Session 
  • Learn about the competition and the application process
  • Watch the 2023 Orators' Workshop
• Friday, March 28, 11:59 p.m. | Speech submission deadline  
• Wednesday, April 16, time and location to be confirmed | Primary Auditions
• Wednesday, April 23, time and location to be confirmed | Final Auditions

Visit the Harvard Student Orations website for updates.

First Destination Survey

As HKS students know, data is important to clarify trends and impact.

In the coming weeks, the HKS Office of Career Advancement (HarvardKey required) will reach out to graduating students about the HKS First Destination Survey. Your responses will be an opportunity to give feedback to OCA, report on your post-graduation plans, and equip OCA with valuable information on how to serve you now and in the future. Reponses are shared in the annual employment snapshot.

Who to contact

HKS Commencement Team

Associate Director of Student Services Jane Finn-Foley serves as the HKS Commencement Coordinator and leads the Degree Programs and Student Affairs Commencement planning team. She is the school's primary contact for all things related to Commencement. 

Contact Jane with questions or if you need assistance.

Class Marshals

Being elected as Class Marshal is an honor bestowed upon two graduating members of each degree program.

As a group and with oversight from the Office of Student Services and the Commencement Coordinator, the 8 class marshals execute the Class of 2025 Awards Ceremony (including selecting, with input from their classmates, the Carballo Teaching Award and the Sue Williamson Spirit Award for Staff) and serve as a resource for their class regarding commencement and related activities.

The 2025 Class Marshals will be announced following the spring elections.

The HKS community is looking forward to celebrating the remarkable achievements of the HKS Class of 2025 in May. Whether you will be joining us in-person or remotely, we are thrilled you will be part of the celebration.  

The full HKS Commencement Week Schedule of Events is at the top of this page. However, specific details for guests on Commencement Day are listed below.
 

THURSDAY, MAY 29 | COMMENCEMENT DAY
 

• 6:45 a.m. | Gates to Harvard Yard open | Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University campus
   
• 9:45-11:45 a.m. | Morning Exercises | Tercentenary Theatre, Harvard University campus
  This is a ticketed University-wide event. Each graduating student receives two (2) guest tickets; however, a ticket does not guarantee a seat. All graduating students participate and sit with their schools.
  
  If you are attending Morning Exercises in person, learn about guidelines and ticket information, inclement and severe weather plans, and general information on parking, restrooms, and first aid. Backpacks and luggage are not permitted.  
  
  Morning Exercises will be livestreamed on the University's Commencement website. It will also be livestreamed on the HKS campus, in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum and dining area, where you have access to bathrooms and may purchase food and drinks at the HKS Café. This is a comfortable alternative to attending the festive but (very) crowded Morning Exercises where you are unlikely to see your graduate. In addition, you will be able to secure seats sooner under the ceremony tent in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park for the HKS Diploma Ceremony where graduates cross the stage to receive their diplomas.  
   
• 11 a.m. | Guest seating opens for HKS Diploma Ceremony | John F. Kennedy Memorial Park
  All guests are required to go through a security bag check to enter the park. Pick up your grab-and-go meals in the reception tent from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
   
• Approximately 12:45 p.m. | HKS Diploma Ceremony | Ceremony Tent in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park
  Diplomas will be awarded to graduates individually on stage. Tickets are not required for this event. 
  
  For everyone's safety and security, guests are not permitted to leave their seats to take photos of graduates during the ceremony. Professional photographers from Grad Images will photograph each graduate as they receive their diplomas. Graduates will receive an email linking to their photos several weeks after the HKS Diploma Ceremony with the option for them to purchase.  
  
  Portable, accessible bathrooms are available in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park. Follow signage or ask HKS staff members in red shirts if you need assistance. You may also use bathrooms inside the HKS buildings; however, you must pass through security bag checks again to reenter the park.

Additional information

• Parking and Harvard shuttle services will be available on Commencement Day 
• Lactation rooms are available across the University campus. Select the light blue “Visitors Registration” button on this page to access a lactation room during Commencement Week.
• Prayer and meditation space is available on the HKS campus in the Littauer Building ground floor (L-G28). The meditation room with an attached ablution facility provides space for quiet reflection, meditation, and prayer throughout the day. HKS welcomes all practices and faiths in this space.  

Contact the HKS Commencement team for assistance. 

If you have questions on Commencement Day, visit our information tables in John F. Kennedy Memorial Park and the Wexner Building main lobby. HKS staff members in red shirts will also assist you.    

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programming and activities.

Graduating HKS students will be asked to submit a form in March 2025 to request accessible seating and other accommodations for their guests. The University will make every effort to secure services, but they are subject to availability.

Live captioning is provided at the Class of 2025 Awards Ceremony, Address to Graduates, and HKS Diploma Ceremony.

Please contact us if you are a guest of a graduating HKS student and have questions.

Air travel

This Commencement, HKS asks that you consider buying carbon offsets to mitigate the negative climate and health impacts of air travel if you are flying into Cambridge.

The School’s Sustainability Leadership Council has identified two platforms, Atmosfair and Wren, that provide a way to calculate your greenhouse gas emissions impact from air travel and purchase carbon offsets. There are many other ways to offset the climate impacts of your air travel. Harvard University does not endorse any provider of carbon offsets or other vendor.

HKS will purchase carbon offsets for the Class of 2025's Address to Graduates speaker. 

Food-related

Harvard uses more than 250 local farmers to supply food for our campuses’ events and community members throughout the year. We select our menus based on seasonal availability to make sure we are able to provide more climate-friendly foods for our community.

Harvard University Dining Services partners with the local nonprofit, Food For Free, to collect and donate leftover food to distribute to more than 100 food donation programs for the food-insecure. 

Plastic/water-related

HKS has been working to reduce plastic waste in our on-campus operations, limit the amount of plastic that arrives on campus, and collaborate with our vendors to change their purchasing practices to more climate and health-friendly products with less plastic.

HKS no longer serves individual plastic water bottles at Commencement. Instead, we offer a limited number of recyclable metal water bottles; please recycle them after you've finished enjoying your water. We also encourage you to bring your own reusable water bottles to use at the many water stations available. Compostable cups are also available at these water stations.

The forks, knives, spoons, plates, and napkins at this year’s Commencement are 100 percent compostable. Please use the green compostable bins to reduce our waste streams. 

Landscaping

Harvard’s campuses are part of a larger, interconnected ecosystem, and the actions we take have ripple effects on our natural environment.

Harvard helps to protect and enhance the ecosystems and green spaces that our University owns, manages, and impacts to enhance regional biodiversity and personal wellbeing. The majority of Harvard’s landscaped areas use an organic landscaping program free of pesticides. 

Paper

Harvard Commencement is reducing its paper use to save trees. We are printing fewer materials and moving more information online to reduce our paper footprint.