The IIT and Ivy League graduate son in my house doesn’t say much about his great achievements, but me the mother has to do it….:)
My father sent us to the best schools and colleges all through our life. He had a transferable job and we kept moving between cities every four years, but he still found the best schools and colleges for us. Fast forward many years and we as parents now try to find the best schools and colleges for our children as well. Of course, finding the best place is not very easy now. Multiple factors are involved like competition, fees, travelling to the place, the crowd in the place and more.
In spite of that, the son got into the best of the best engineering colleges in India for his B.Tech (IIT, Roorkee) which has the cheapest education too and the best of the best colleges in the US for his Master’s degree (Columbia University – Ivy League college) I blogged his entire B.Tech IIT-Roorkee journey year by year, along with his placement journey(and published it as a book as well) The Columbia journey is of course a short one and lasted only for one and half years (which the son thought was too short! :)) and I didn’t have to write much.
This post gives a brief overview of the son’s Master’s degree journey and the differences between the Commencement and Graduate ceremonies. It also explains the graduate day experience in greater detail with pictures.
Master’s program at Columbia University:
The son completed his Master’s degree in Data Science from Columbia University in December 2025 with a beautiful CGPA of 4.10/4.0(yes, Columbia has such CGPAs where the numerator is greater than the denominator!) He must have come second in his cohort because the highest CGPA seemed to be 4.22/4.0. I did not expect him to say the coursework was challenging during the entire course and he did not say it as well! 🙂 By now, we know academics will hardly be his battleground (he has other things to be worried about ;))
The MSDS program in Columbia University is a non-thesis program and runs for three semesters. Columbia University is an Ivy League college and hence the fees for three semesters runs deep. You do need to find assistantships and loans to stay afloat. Some do get research assistantships which might help you pay off the full tuition. It was an exciting experience rubbing shoulders with International brains and he flew with beautiful academic colors.
The coursework and the degree ended in December 2025 and he joined a good company a few months later.
A very pleasant point to note is that since he is academically inclined and very good at it, some of his Professors did ask him to consider doing a PhD and were ready to give him references. He has politely deferred those plans and kept them away for a while…:)
Columbia Commencement and Graduate ceremonies 2026!
Graduations and Commencement ceremonies are a big thing in the US. Commencement ceremonies are when the ceremony is held on a large scale with degrees being conferred to all those who are graduating (from all schools) but they are not individually called on stage.
The graduate ceremony is more initmate and is for the particular school only. Each student “walked” on stage and was felicitated by the Dean of their school.
We received the dates for Columbia’s commencement and graduate ceremonies in late 2025. Since there were students from numerous countries, adequate time was given to parents/siblings and guests to make travel arrangements appropriately. We of course, were on the fence about who was going to go and when we were going till the last minute (typical us – we plan everything at the last minute! :)) Columbia held its graduation day for the engineering and Data Science students on May 18th,2026 and Commencement ceremony on May 20th, 2026.
Graduate Class Day – 18th May 2026!
The graduate Class Day for the Fu Foundation school of engineering school which included the MSDS program which the son was a part of was held on May 18th, 2026 at 5:15 pm. Numerous mails were already sent by Columbia about the things that could be carried inside the program and the things that could not be taken inside. Each graduand was given four guest tickets and it was more than enough for us.
We had arrived just in time from India before the graduation and we were all super excited.
The air was festive and everything was perfectly in place. Many graduands and their mothers wore sarees. It showed the ethnic student diversity in the University. In a Graduate Class day, each student is called individually on stage and they are felicitated. It was great to see the son in his academic regalia (blue Columbia cap, blue Columbia gown and a broad smile) The amount of respect that he got when he wore his blue graduation cap and gown cannot be measured. Uber drivers congratulated him and the general public waved at him.
Each school has its own mascot and the mascot for the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is a “red hammer”! 🙂
Soon, it was time for the program to begin. The seats for the parents were on a first come first served basis and we were there on time.
The Dean of the school gave the welcome address and graduate awards were presented.
After the initial formalities, just as we were sitting and waiting, the clock edged towards 5:15 p.m., the giant big screen TV showed the church bells ringing and a gentle music playing. And before we realized it, the graduates did the graduate “walk” behind us! We were actually pleasantly surprised to see them walking from behind us.
Everything was methodically executed and he was called correctly on stage for a brief felicitation with the Dean of his school. Seeing him walk across the stage and shine through International brains gave us goose bumps!
The son being congratulated!
The program started promptly at 5:15 p.m. and ended well before time at 7:15 p.m. Security was tight and we were not allowed to access any other parts of the campus. We saw the “Alma Mater” and the “Butler library” from a distance. The aura and grandness of the campus was surreal and I could not certainly believe that we were really visiting Columbia University! 🙂
The day ended punctually after all the graduands were felicitated and the Dean of the Fu Foundation School of Engineering gave his closing speech.
If you would like to see the entire ceremony. here it is:
Do come back for the next post ‘IIT to Ivy – Columbia Commencement Ceremony 2026!”