I graduated yesterday! 
After 5 years at Sciences Po, I attended the official graduation ceremony, received my Master's Degree (Cum Laude), and said goodbye to my university and my friends.
The ceremony wasn't nearly as epic what you get in the US (we didn't even get graduation gowns! 
), but it was pretty nice. We had a few good speeches, and we all got to be filmed on stage for a couple seconds. My parents were there, obviously, and after the ceremony I got to hang out with my friends from the Polisci program. Pretty great afternoon and night all around!
I've always been curious as to why European graduation ceremonies are so...underwhelming.
Someone I went to high school with got an MBA from some university in France and posted pictures of the ceremony on Facebook - they were basically just wearing business casual clothes and having their diplomas handed to them in what looked like a small courtyard (the diplomas weren't even in folios or frames - just pieces of paper). A co-worker who went to college in Scotland has her diploma in her office and it looks like she could have just printed it out herself on an inkjet printer. No engraved vellum for them, apparently.
What gives, Europe?
