apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Be proud of your diploma! Maybe you don't want it above the couch in the living room, but give it a place of honor. (Maybe above/near your desk at home?)

My husband and I met in grad school. Our diplomas are framed and on the wall of our bedroom amidst pictures from our wedding and pictures of our kids. They represent a big part of our "relationship story" and the basis of our professional lives, too, so it seems reasonable to display them along with other stuff about our lives.

I didn't want to spend a lot of money to frame my diploma, so I didn't. I bought a floating frame from Restoration Hardware for 20 bucks (which looks elegant and modern), and I display it, halfway hidden--I have a picture ledge above my desk, and it's up there, but slightly obscured by other framed pictures. I'm proud of it, but I don't need it BUH-BAM anyone. I think you'd treat it the same way you would with portraits of yourself.

displayed diplomas... yuck.

Diplomas if displayed at all really should be reserved for the parts of your apartment that are personal. Placing the diploma in a "public" space such as the living room makes a statement that you wish others to see it and by some measure you are showing off...

You went to college and struggled through keg-stands and the like for that diploma for yourself, not for your guests.

Perhaps you place the diploma on a wall that you pass every morning to remind yourself of your achievement...

Whatever you do, don't show it off...that's tacky.

I agree with Julian: your diploma goes in your files.

Line a glass vase with it and add a lamp fixture to the top and then use it on your desk. (Or, by some miracle, find a glass based lamp that's already the perfect size.)

Mine are in mailing tubes and in manila envelopes, tucked into the backs of closets. I think. Or maybe they're at my mother's house? I don't remember...

But I'm always impressed with people who have the chutzpah to hang them up (regular people, not doctors and lawyers demonstrating their credentials).

My wife and I hung ours in our office at home. At some point, I'll move mine to work, where it seems appropriate to display credentials.

Since you do feel like they deserve special treatment, I agree with the other suggestions to put them somewhere private, like your bedroom.

I've been to one person's house where they were displayed in the living room and I hate to say that it did illicit a private snicker (which wasn't very nice of me) but then she puts her degrees after her name on her personal return address labels too.

I happen to keep all of my degrees in a file along with things like my birth certificate and other "important papers" that I rarely need to access.

regards,
trillium

A diploma is recognition of a big part of your life. You should display it, and display it proudly. A diploma is much more than a piece of paper. It is a symbol of your years in pursuit of higher education so that you can afford to live a comfortable life, and hopefully, be happy in your labors.

It does NOT belong in your files. Nor should it be hidden. If people feel like you're showing off, tell them you've earned that right. The money spent going to college these days, as well as the path it has provided you, should not shy away your friends. If it does, then perhaps they weren't really friends at all...

I agree that your diploma is something you should be proud of. That being said I also agree that hanging it for all to see and make a point that they are aware of your brilliance is definitely tacky.

I have a red theme going on in my kitchen at home and because i graduated from Boston U my diploma is red, black and gold. There's a very discreet spot above my microwave where i've stashed my diploma. My parents are academic and think they belong in a study with other credentials. They were indeed horrified i hung mine in the kitchen but it fits perfectly and blends in with the colors so it doesn't stand out but i smile every time i catch a glimpse of it.

Hanging your Diploma's? That's definitley something only people in the US do. I never saw this in europe, but if I have to hang it somewhere it would be at a studyroom or something. Hanging it in your livingroom is not very stylish.

Maybe a good idea is a huge frame in which you work with a passe-par-tout with different frames cut out. Different sizes (like a4, and different photo sizes) cut out. Then you make it a 'memoryboard'

Julian says, "Placing the diploma in a "public" space such as the living room makes a statement that you wish others to see it and by some measure you are showing off..."

Heh. In the house we used to live in, my diploma and my husband's were hung high up on the wall in our microscopic living room, above the TV alcove. It was just about the only place in the house that wasn't kid-accessible or otherwise unsuitable for displaying them.

We live quite modestly and are pretty low-key people in general...it was funny sometimes to see new friends/neighbors/acquaintances register the his-n-hers doctorates. Who'da thunk it, of a couple of fat hippies like us?

In the new place they're in the bedroom, as I said above. And yes, Julian, they do remind me of my achievement. Education was my ticket out of rust belt hell. I remember every day to be grateful for the opportunity--and how much I have to pay back for the chances I was given.

Not everyone's college experiences was keg parties and Cliff Notes! I say, if you're proud of your degree, display it with pride.

Assuming that everyone else is as much of a slacker as you were? Now THAT's tacky!

"Line a glass vase with it and add a lamp fixture to the top" -- amy (rustyletter)

I had to laugh when I saw this post because the first thing I thought when I read the question was "make it into a lamp shade". Your idea is much better though (being that it wouldn't destroy the document) and I rather like it; perhaps I'll use it some day.

Personally, all of my awards and diplomas (etc ad nauseum) are tucked away in my filing cabinet. Maybe when I'm old and crazy I'll decoupage a wall with them in my study, who knows, but I agree that they should be displayed in personal places as opposed to the foyer and other "slap you in the face" spots. Displayed discretely in a busy room would be the next best thing, but in the end if you want everyone to see what you've done put it in an oversized frame with a neon flashing arrow pointing at it; total judgment call.

A compromise between displaying your diploma on your wall and interring it in a file cabinet is to buy an attractive portfolio book with clear plastic sleeves for diplomas, awards, newspaper clippings, etc, that you can show at job interviews or occasions when it is appropriate to sell yourself.

That said, I think there is nothing wrong with framing and displaying your diploma, but I agree that the best place is in an office or office area.

Not everyone who thinks a diploma is something to be displayed privately, if displayed at all, goofed off as an undergrad or grad student either. And being proud of your accomplishments has nothing to do with seeking to impress others. If you are putting them out in public to get a reaction from "new friends/neighbors/acquaintances", fine, it's your choice, but that isn't being proud of what you've accomplished, it's something else.

if i remember having read somewhere correctly, anh-minh's husband has a PhD in some type of biology. it seems that the picture above shows a PhD diploma...maybe his. as a burnt-out, frustrated, ready-to-throw-in-the-towel cell bio grad student myself, i can say with certainty that if the two of them want to display a sign of such an incredible accomplishment, they should. far be it from us to determine whether or not that's tacky.

as far as how i think it would look nice, i'd probably frame it (the frame above is nice because it's not traditional and stodgy) and place it on bookshelves like many others would choose to display vases or other curio-type items.

I'll stay out of the arguement from this point on, since I've already stated my position, but erin, hang in there. Every person with a life sciences PhD has been a burnt-out, frustrated, ready-to-throw-in-the-towel grad student at one point or another (or at several points). Can I give some unsolicited advice? Find a sympathetic post-doc shoulder to cry on and get encouragement from...they've been in your position more recently then a PI and can usually give you some helpful coping advice.

take care, I hope things get better for you,

trillium

I didn't see it mentioned, but nearly everyone in my office displays their diploma in their office. I think it's a much more appropriate place to put it. I really don't feel like displaying it in my home.

"Placing the diploma in a "public" space such as the living room makes a statement that you wish others to see it and by some measure you are showing off"

But the $4500 sofa that is under diploma is in no way meant to be a statement, or show off....

if you don't have a particularly personal attachment to your diploma, don't display it in your home at all. i didn't have a great time in college, didn't meet the love of my life, and work in a completely unrelated field. my diploma is in a manila envelope, filed away.

if you do have an attachment, display it in the same way you'd display any other piece of personal memorabilia.

my grandparents once visited New Guinea, where they bravely sampled some rather exotic local foods. the restaurant was in the habit of handing out ironic little certificates to that effect. they framed them and displayed them with pictures from their trip. the best diploma display would be more like that than like, "hey look at me! i'm smart and accomplished!"

I would personally feel a bit weird displaying my diploma, but I think that putting it among family photos and other memorabilia seems like a good option if you want it to be visible. That way, it is in the context of other life memories...as your husband walks by, he can reminisce about all those sleepless nights in the lab, and then think fondly back on the pet dog he had when he was a kid, etc.

As someone who also struggled her way through a Ph.D in biology and wanted to throw in the towel on a fairly regular basis--hang in there, Erin! There is light at the end of the tunnel! It may lead into another tunnel (yes, I am a post-doc now), but along the way there is so much beauty...and there is also the occasional, sudden flash of insight, when things fall together and just make sense. There's nothing like it!

Nobody I know displays their diplomas -- not at home and not at work.

At work, we don't have closed offices with locking doors, and so it just seems too risky to leave them handing there.

Plus, educational qualifications turned out to be such a divisive issue in a recent staffing action at work, that I would never dream of hanging up my 3 university degrees -- it would be very insensitive of me.

At home, we have more visually interesting things to hang on the walls of our office. My husband and I keep all of ours in our filing cabinet, ready to be photocopied for job applications. Don't get me wrong -- they were a hard-won sacrifice, and we are proud of our achievements, but we don't feel the need to remind ourselves that we earned them. (the staggering debt served that purpose!)

A non-public 'special treatment' might be to put it in a photo album... Maybe with pictures of college days, or soon-after-college days.

Archie, you said a mouthful.

Trillium writes, "Not everyone who thinks a diploma is something to be displayed privately, if displayed at all, goofed off as an undergrad or grad student either."

Of course not. But Julian seems to base his sense that displaying a diploma is "tacky" on his impression that going to college is, what? A few years to mark time and party, til you get your slip of paper? Maybe for him, but not for me, nor for many other people.

I say: you hang a particular piece of art on your walls because YOU like it, not because someone else likes it. You make your choices how to decorate based on how YOU want to live, not how other people think you should live (as we see in the dramatic responses to the color contest entries!) It makes sense that people can have widely divergent feelings about diplomas and what they represent, and whether to display or not is the prerogative of the the degreeholder--regardless of what other folks think.

Is that a U-Dub Diploma? GO HUSKIES!!!

I can see light at the end of the tunnel, but my diplomas aren't framed, and I didn't have my copies of my thesis or dissertation bound.

I'm proud of what I've accomplished, but I think that life as a grad student is so consuming that I don't want a physical reminder on my wall or bookshelf at home right now. Maybe when I have a little more distance....

Actually, Lisa's answer #1 is the simple solution if you like displaying reminders of personal events. The center of the grouping is a great place for a visually dramatic image of a landscape or ancestor or non-obvious reminder of some important moment (the close-up of a leaf sort of thing) if the shrine look seems too downscale.

I've hung my diploma for my highest degree at work when it was relevant to my credibility in the job; I leave it in the closet otherwise. Perhaps I'd have a different life if I honored it more.

In your office (or home office) seems the most logical place, since presumably that's where they're most relevant. My office is sort of a catchall place anyway for art/pictures that don't really go anywhere else - including my diplomas. I'm a lawyer; everyone at my work has theirs up.

Also, the ones on my wall wouldn't fit in a photo album or scrapbook, unless that was one heck of a big scrapbook! The New York State Bar admissions certificate in particular is giganto.

I always got a kick out of the fact that my Mom hung her diplomas in the half bath next to her kitchen. Gives you something to look at while you sit on the toilet...

Since I have acquired diplomas from four (count 'em!) institutions, I am rather tempted to create a display out of all of them, but then I see them as souvenirs of all the places I've lived over the last decade and a humourous record of my inability to stay in one place rather than a statement of "look how smart I am."

But then, living in Europe, I've found that they are necessary as documents so I've held off framing them, etc. because I'm never sure when some German doesn't want a copy of all of them (I have to beg off on the high school diploma because I think I burned it).

Interesting debate! I have my great-grandfather's high school graduation program preserved as a special item; my grandmother gave it to me because he and I graduated high school a century apart. Yet I so loathed my undergraduate AND law school experiences that I've seriously considered using them as matching dartboards! (Fear not, U-Michigan and Michigan State fans, they're buried in some filing cabinets.)

I do like that lamp idea, though. Sort of fits with a wry enlightenment theme.

My husband and I hung ours in our home office when we had one. Now that we live in New York without a home office and only 300 square feet, I have the same problem as the original poster. Where to put them?

I think putting them in the living room is just fine. Diplomas aren't nearly as obnoxious as a huge flat screen TV, signed sports jersey or guitar, or any multitude of things "regular folk" display in their living rooms.

Living rooms are for LIVING, remember? It's your home, not a hotel. You should furnish and style it how you like, without worry about which guests your diplomas will offend.

That said, our diplomas will likely go in the hall along with family photos or perhaps on a bookshelf peeking out behind the books.

I find it interesting that most of the people responding who say they don't or that you shouldn't display your diploma don't fail to let you know how many they have. ;-)

My wife and I have our diplomas displayed in the hallway.

After this discussion I'm thinking of framing my high school diploma just because so many people find it tacky to do so.

My boyfriend had a collection of random diplomas (don't ask me where he got it - i don't know) so we took the whole lot (including ours) to kinkos and minimized, then framed and hung them in a cluster in the bathroom.

Weird, yes. But we didn't feel like filing it away nor did we feel like prominently displaying it either. Works for us!

Many, if not most of us met our closest friends in college or at work. That said, assuming these people all have either the same diploma as you, or a similar one, who's it going to offend? My mother, who did not attend college, asked me the other day why I didn't have mine on display. Chances are, people visiting will have their own diplomas. If they don't, and you feel that hanging yours will offend them, why are they your friends?

That said, mine is in a filing cabinet because it doesn't look good with my Ikea.

College life wasn't the best for me. I went to school that I hate to this day because of the BLANK BLANK BLANK people that went there. I think mine is somewhere in the closet hidden beneath stacks of old clothes in a mail tube. I don't like the idea of having the thing displayed on the wall reminding me everyday of where I went to school. I am thinking of selling it on ebay starting at 10 cents. Anyone want to buy an advanced degree in physics from Clemson University?