Frequently Asked Questions

As each IU campus manages its own student records, only degrees awarded in Bloomington will be included in this compendium. Currently, Bloomington degrees from 1830 - 1900 and from 1966 to near present day are accessible, and 1901 - 1965 will be available once they have been reviewed.

Indiana University has transcripts dating back to the 1880’s. The fire in 1883 destroyed much of the earliest records. Registrar personnel over the years have compiled several collections of degree information, including degree cards (1830-1925), Commencement programs (1893-1965), the Official List of Graduates (1830-1965), and the actual paper transcripts (1885-1965). In addition, data from 1966 to near present day exist in our student information system.

Other important sources are the Alumni Association, Indiana University Register of Graduates (1830-1916), and Indiana University, Its History from 1820, When Founded, to 1890, with Biographical Sketches of Its Presidents, Professors, and Graduates, and a List of Its Students from 1820 to 1887, written by Theophilus A. Wylie, cousin of IU’s first president Andrew Wylie.

We have created two search pages (for public searches and for authorized users) for degrees prior to 1966 and another pair of search pages for degrees from 1966 to near present day. This was done because the pre-1966 data and the post-1966 data are from different data sources having their own data elements. In addition, this separation prevents the smaller set of pre-1966 data from getting lost in the much larger set of post-1966 data.

If you’re a recent graduate and can’t find your degree record, it could be that it hasn’t been loaded into SIS yet. This process can take several weeks after graduation. Once loaded into SIS, it can take up to a month before it’s added to the Degree Compendium.

Another reason you can’t find your degree record might be due to the name you’re searching for. There are several different types of names at Indiana University. Primary name is your legal name. Preferred name is the name you wish to go by. Degree name is a more recent name type to get your name of choice on your diploma. These may not all be the same name, so try searching for any current or previous names you’ve been known as.

It could also be due to an elevated ‘c’, apostrophe, hyphen, period, ‘space’, or other symbol in your name. In particular, degrees prior to 2004 predate the current student information system, and might have slight variations as a result of the conversion to the new system. Often times, a ‘space’ would be substituted in for names where an apostrophe or elevated ‘c’ would have been. The search should be forgiving in most of these cases and return your degree record.

If you’re still having difficulty finding your degree record, head over to the Student Central names page where you’ll find more information about names at IU and directions for contacting Student Central if you need further help.

Given the incredible volume of graduates prior to 1965, the year we began keeping our student records online, not all degrees are available yet for this web search. Our team is diligently reviewing the computerization of the earlier, paper-based records to guarantee that the information we publish is accurate.

Check back periodically to see what new degree years are available.

In our research, we’ve discovered that some students have variations of the spelling of their name. Sometimes there is a note added to the record indicating that the student requested the change. Frequently we’ve gone to secondary sources, such as Findagrave.com, Ancestry.com, or FamilySearch.org to determine the accurate spelling.

We welcome updated information. Visit the Contact page to find out how.

Last names can be tricky, especially for women students. Some of the records were kept using the graduate’s birth name and some were updated to reflect a married name. We even found a set of women, in the early to mid-1900s, whose records were updated to reflect that they were married multiple times. (This is especially true after the two world wars.)

If you don’t get results using the married name, try again with her birth name.

Since this is public information, it is readily accessible to the public. However, given federal, state, and university regulations protecting student data, we have opted not to include other personal information on this general site.

One reason we created the compendium is to facilitate the research of schools and departments regarding their alumni. If you have a legitimate need for this kind of research, please submit an access request by emailing allgrads@iu.edu. Make sure you indicate how you will use this information (e.g., preparing for your department’s 100-year anniversary) and the timeframe of your research needs. We will be happy to consider your request and, if/once it meets approval, we’ll enable your use of the authorized search feature.

Our information reflects the university structure at the time the degree was awarded. In the beginning, there was only the single institution without a division into separate schools. Once more disciplines were introduced outside of the core subjects, schools such as the College of Arts and Sciences and the Business School were created to educate and graduate students in more specific areas/majors.

We’re glad you asked! Please see the Notes page for details about how it all came together including how it was funded, the sources for the data, and which offices played a role.