Diploma Request and Certified Copy Instructions

If you graduated within one year of the university’s most recent commencement ceremony and you never received your diploma, please contact the Office of Commencement and Special Events at commencement@osu.edu or 614-292-9051. If you graduated more than a year before the university’s most recent commencement ceremony, you will need to submit a Diploma Request Form to commencement@osu.edu.

Diplomas will be corrected for one semester following commencement. After that, diplomas must be corrected at the graduate’s expense. For more information, contact the Office of Commencement and Special Events at commencement@osu.edu or 614-292-9051. Additional details are available on the Office of Commencement’s website.

Due to privacy laws, only the degree recipient can request a new diploma. Exceptions are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us at commencement@osu.edu with questions.

If you are currently living in the United States, you must have your form notarized. If you are currently living overseas and do not have access to a notary, we will accept a copy of your government-issued photo ID (e.g., passport, driver’s license) instead.

Submit your form by sending a scanned copy via email to commencement@osu.edu. (Make sure to include a scanned copy of your ID if you are overseas and unable to access a notary.)

Once we have received your completed request form and payment, we will order your new diploma from our diploma printing vendor. We will contact you to let you know when we have placed your diploma in the mail, and we will email you the accompanying tracking number as well.

On average, it takes about two to four weeks from the time we place your order until you receive your diploma in the mail. If your request is urgent, we can send you a PDF copy of your diploma before we place it in the mail--please make this request in the body of your email when sending your form. However, you will need to request this as it is not standard procedure. Also, please note that we are experiencing delays in processing times due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

We sell the same red diploma covers that you would have received at commencement. They cost $3 each. If you recently graduated and did not receive a red diploma cover when your diploma was mailed to you, please contact the Office of Commencement and Special Events at commencement@osu.edu or 614-292-9051 to request a padded cover at no charge.

We do not offer framing services. However, diploma frames can be purchased at the official university bookstore, Barnes and Noble at The Ohio State University, or at other bookstores in the campus area. Diplomas are 8.5” by 11” and are oriented in a landscape printing position.

Some employers and higher education institutions may request a certified copy of your diploma for validation. On the back of a photocopy of your original diploma, we print a statement that acknowledges it to be an authentic copy of a degree from The Ohio State University. The statement is signed by an employee of the Office of Commencement and Special Events and notarized for authenticity.

To obtain a certified copy, the graduate must complete a notarized Diploma Request Form and email a scanned copy of it to commencement@osu.edu. Additionally, please send a clear, legible, photocopy of your diploma to commencement@osu.edu and we will certify and mail it per your instructions. 

Yes, we can certify your original diploma. However, please double check that you need a certified original and not a certified copy. We most frequently see requests for copies, not originals, to be certified.   

If you do not have your original diploma, you will have to submit a Diploma Request Form and order a new one through our office. We will make a copy of that diploma and certify it. Please note: you will be charged for both the replacement diploma and the certification.

When certain public documents are to be used outside of the United States, they may require an apostille or other authentications, which validate official signatures. An apostille is an additional certification for documents that are going to be used in countries that are members of the 1961 Hague Convention. If the country is not a part of the Hague Convention, your document will need a gold seal authentication instead.

Our office does not provide these additional authentications. After we certify a copy of your diploma, you will need to submit it to the Ohio Secretary of State. For more details, please read our quick overview on the Authentication of Academic Credentials.

Diplomas will be corrected for one semester following commencement. After that, diplomas must be corrected at the graduate’s expense. For more information, contact the Office of Commencement and Special Events at commencement@osu.edu or 614-292-9051. Additional details are available on the Office of Commencement’s website.

Please fill out a Former Student Request for Change of Record and a Diploma Request Form (which will need to be notarized). The Change of Record form lists the documentation you will need to provide, depending on why your name was changed. After filling out these forms and collecting the required documentation, please send all of your materials to us via email at commencement@osu.edu.

Once we receive your information, we will share it with the University Registrar’s office and process your diploma request.

You will need to follow up with the University Registrar’s office at registrar@osu.edu.