Graduating with a PhD: Hanging my Diploma

[plasmon_shmasmon]

Hi All! Having successfully defended my dissertation this fall, I've graduated and will be receiving my PhD diploma in January.

How have you all displayed your diplomas (if at all)? If you work in a technical field, do you display it at work? Did you hang it in a home office? Is it safely in storage?

I'm considering getting a nice frame from the school and hanging it in my home office. At the time, it felt like my PhD was never going to end, and now that I've finished and moved on to the next thing, sometimes I can't believe that it actually did end. I'm looking forward to having that reminder.

 

[dlgoff]

I'm looking forward to having that reminder.

You're a lucky person getting the PhD. Display your diploma with pride.

 

[gleem]

Congrats, you earned it.

 

[George Jones]

Congratulations!

If that is what you want, display your diploma.

After getting my Ph.D. framed, I wrapped it and gave it to my mother as a Christmas present. My mother excelled at school, and skipped a grade in elementary school, but her mother forced her to quit school after grade eight. Having my Ph.D. diploma meant a lot to her, and she displayed it on a wall in her apartment. I got my diploma back when my mother died, but i did not display at home or at the universities in which I have taught.

Three years ago (and somewhat late in life) my wife and I purchased our first house, and she wanted to display her two Master's and my Ph.D together in the house. Somehow, after surviving several moves of thousands of kilometres, our diplomas were lost in a short 4 kilometre move, so we have not done this.

Display your diploma (while you can).

 

[ZapperZ]

Mine are in a folder, under a pile of papers, in a drawer.

Zz.

 

[Matterwave]

I put my PhD in a nice frame...now it's on top of a bookshelf at my mom's house along with all my other diplomas and her diplomas...currently running out of room because my mom likes to frame all the diplomas (even a C.Phil) lol. But you do you; you should display it however you like.

 

[plasmon_shmasmon]

Wow, thanks for your replies...they were surprisingly touching (e.g., @George Jones). That's why I like coming here!

I hadn't considered giving it to someone, that's pretty amazing. If I ever did that, it would have to be my wife. I started grad school a little later, the summer after we got married, and she has been my biggest supporter. Before my final year, we had a daughter, so my thesis writing was interspersed with diaper changing.

That kind of gesture reminds me of stories I've heard of Nobel Prize Winners giving their medals to advisors (I think Wolfgang Ketterle did this...not sure of other examples). A big gesture indeed.