Graduating Students

Yale Commencement

This information is accurate for Yale College and Yale Graduate School students graduating December 2024 and after. Students who graduated in May 2024 can find more information on the May 2024 page.

After you graduate, your access to Yale accounts and information will change. Take the following steps to prepare for these changes and preserve your data.

The following changes will occur over the next year. You will be notified when specific due dates are approaching. Note that some Yale accounts will remain active indefinitely.

Month Action
October/November 2024 Set up alumni email account (5GB limit)
December 2024

Enable email auto-reply and auto-forwarding

Return media equipment and laptops

Library borrowing privileges removed

January 2025

Transfer ownership of club files and accounts

Adobe Creative Cloud access removed

IPTV access removed

Software Library access removed

February 2025 Yale Facebook access removed
April 2025

Box access removed; deadline for free personal account

VPN access removed

Access to online library resources removed

Set up access to alumni library resources

November 2024 Update address to receive W-2 form
January 2026

Email account deactivated and netID locked; deadline to migrate emails, calendar, files

Access to Workday removed

Yale Connect access removed

   

After you graduate, your access to Yale accounts and information will change. Take the following steps to prepare for these changes and preserve your data.

The following changes will occur over the next year. You will be notified when specific due dates are approaching. Note that some Yale accounts will remain active indefinitely.

Month Action
February/March 2025 Set up alumni email account (5GB limit)
May 2025

Enable email auto-reply and auto-forwarding

Return media equipment and laptops

Library borrowing privileges removed

June 2025

Transfer ownership of club files and accounts

Adobe Creative Cloud access removed

IPTV access removed

Software Library access removed

July 2025 Yale Facebook access removed
October 2025

Box access removed; deadline for free personal account

VPN access removed

Access to online library resources removed

Set up access to alumni library resources

November 2025 Update address to receive W-2 form
June 2026

Email account deactivated and netID locked; deadline to migrate emails, calendar, files

Access to Workday removed

Yale Connect access removed

   

Action Required

Take these steps to preserve your data and accounts. After the dates listed above, you will not be able to access these accounts.

Media Equipment and Loaner Laptops

If you are returning equipment to any of the following locations, you are required to return that equipment by the due date indicated on your reservation.

  • Bass Media Equipment Checkout (BMEC)
  • Yale School of Art Equipment Loan Office (ELO) 
  • Yale College Dean’s Office (YCDO)

If you are returning a loaner laptop provided by the Student Technology Collaborative (STC) during the duration of your repair, please follow the instructions provided by your technician and adhere to the due date given.

Please do not return this equipment via outdoor book drops. Students are responsible for ensuring that borrowed equipment is not lost or broken as long as it is in their care. Equipment that is returned after the due date on your reservation, damaged, or lost will incur a fine.

Books

Local students may return their books to the Sterling Library and Bass Library during their normal business hours. Students can also use the outdoor book drops, which are emptied Monday thru Friday.

Before graduating, take stock of any files and accounts you own on behalf of Yale clubs and organizations. Transfer ownership of these accounts to a continuing Yale student before your own accounts are deactivated. Please note that transferring ownership is different from simply sharing a document. 

Instructions For Transferring Account Ownership

EliApps (Google) accounts:

Office 365 (Microsoft) accounts:

More accounts:

Students graduating in May 2024 will lose access to their Box accounts on October 1, 2024.

Yale students are eligible to convert their 50GB Yale Box accounts into personal Box.com accounts to keep for life. You must convert your account by October 1, 2024. After that date, there is no way to transfer your account to a personal one. Please note that Secure Box accounts may not be transferred to a personal account.

If you are remaining at Yale as faculty, staff, or any non-student role, you must still migrate your account by October 1, 2024 to be eligible for a free 50GB personal account. After October 1, you will still have access to your Yale Box account via your new affiliation, but you will no longer be eligible for a free personal account.

Note: if you do not anticipate receiving any Yale tax forms for 2024, no action is required.

Ensure that your contact information is correct in Yale’s systems to receive your 2024 W-2 form. Update your correct email or address by November 30, 2024 for receipt of your W-2 form in January 2025.

You will lose access to Workday 18 months after your employment record has been terminated. 

Recommended Action

If you have opted to receive your W-2 tax form electronically, update your email address in Workday to be notified when your W-2 form becomes available.

If you have opted to receive your W-2 form through the mail, please make sure your address is correct in both Yale Hub and Workday. This is the address to which your W-2 will be sent.

Your Yale NetID and email account will be deactivated 1 year after your graduation, but you should begin preserving your account data long before then. You have several options to download your data or migrate it to a different email account.  Once deactivated, you will no longer have access to the email, files and calendars stored in your account.

Once you have migrated your data, we strongly recommend that you open it in its new location to confirm the process has been successful. Please note that for large accounts, the download and migration process can take up to one week to complete.

When you no longer have an affiliation with Yale, your account will be locked (when the grace period ends) and will retain a license for 30 days. Once that 30 days is up, if the account remains without a license, all Microsoft 365 data will be permanently deleted. Please note that the data will be unrecoverable. 

Once you have followed the instructions below, we strongly recommend that you open your email, Drive files, and other important information in their new location to confirm the process has been successful. Please note that for large accounts, the download and migration process can take up to one week to complete.

Instructions for Students with EliApps Accounts (Google)

Instructions for Students with Office 365 Accounts (Microsoft)

Action Recommended

These steps will help make your transition away from Yale accounts easier, but they are not required.

The Yale Alumni Association provides every alumni a free Google email account through the YaleMail service. These accounts offer alumni a life-long @aya.yale.edu email address.

Recommended Action

Set up your YaleMail Alumni Email Account: Graduates will receive an email from the Yale Alumni Association before graduation with information on how to set up a YaleMail account. You can find more information on setting up your YaleMail account on the YaleMail Help page.

Migrate your student email account and files: You will lose access to your student email account 12 months after graduation. You may migrate your email, calendar, and files to any personal account of your choice. Learn more about backing up and migrating your email here.

Your Yale email account will be deactivated one year after graduation. However, you should turn on auto-reply and auto-forwarding to begin on your graduation day to ease the transition away from your Yale email address. Please note that both autoreplies and auto-forwarding will stop working when your account is deactivated approximately 1 year after graduation. 

Autoreply

Autoreply automatically sends a message to anyone who sends you an email. This feature can be used to inform people of your new email address. You can also customize this feature to avoid auto-replying to marketing and spam emails.

EliApps (Google) instructions | Microsoft O365 instructions

Email Forwarding

Email Forwarding automatically redirects all messages sent to your Yale account to another account. This can be used to make sure you don’t miss mail sent to your Yale account for the next year.

EliApps (Google) instructions | Microsoft O365 instructions

You will lose access to your Yale Adobe Creative Cloud account after you graduate. To retain your files hosted in the Adobe Creative Cloud, it is vital that you migrate your data to a personal account before you lose access. Once you have migrated your files and data to a personal account, you can choose to purchase a discounted individual Creative Cloud license.

Migrate Creative Cloud Files & Assets

To maintain access to your Creative Cloud files, assets, and web portfolios, you’ll need to migrate your Yale Creative Cloud account to a personal account. You must first create a free personal Adobe Creative Cloud Free account and then download your files from your Yale account. Then, upload your downloaded files from your Yale account to your new personal account. Please note that a free account has a storage capacity of 5GB, so ensure that the data you upload does not exceed this.

Once your files and data are migrated, you may choose to upgrade your account to obtain full access to Adobe’s offering. For instructions on migrating your account, visit graduation.adobe.com.

Discounted Offer for Graduating Students

Students are eligible for a 40% discount on Creative Cloud individual licenses ($29.99/month) for the first year after graduation. This license grants access to all the apps available in Yale’s Creative Cloud accounts. Visit this link to use your 40% discount.

Note that you will need to migrate your Yale Creative Cloud to a free membership account first, then return to this graduation promo page to upgrade your free account to the discounted Creative Cloud All Apps license.

You will retain access to most Yale library resources via VPN for six months after graduationAfter six months, Yale alumni lose access to VPN, but are eligible for continued access to many library resources, including JSTOR.

Recommended Action

View available alumni library resources and set up access here.