NYU graduation Countdown

About NYU's commencement

NYU's all-university ceremony packs Yankee Stadium, with graduates in NYU's signature violet. Each year the date shifts slightly, so this countdown rolls forward to the next one automatically.

Planning around graduation

Commencement weekends book up fast, hotels, restaurants and flights around New York City fill months ahead. Share this countdown with family so everyone can plan the trip, and bookmark this page for your graduate's big day.

How a construction project sent NYU to the Bronx

For generations NYU graduated its classes in Washington Square Park, right at the heart of campus. In 2008 the park was torn up for renovation, so the university borrowed the biggest venue it could find: Yankee Stadium. That May, some 6,000 graduates and 20,000 guests filled 'The House That Ruth Built' for the only commencement ever held there, in the old stadium's final season. The move stuck — NYU followed the Yankees into the new stadium in 2009 and has draped it in violet nearly every May since.

Getting a seat — or a stream

Graduates sit in assigned sections on the stadium field while family and friends watch from general-admission seating in the upper levels, with guest tickets arranged through the graduate ahead of time — check NYU's commencement tickets page each spring for that year's allocation. Can't make it to the Bronx? The full ceremony is livestreamed on NYU's website and YouTube channel; more than 60,000 people tuned in online for the 2022 ceremony alone. Gates open well before the processional, and stadium bag rules apply, so arrive early and pack light.

Quick facts

• Founded in 1831
• All-University Commencement at Yankee Stadium
• Graduates wear NYU violet
• Held in mid-May
• First held at Yankee Stadium in 2008, when Washington Square Park was under renovation
• Taylor Swift received an honorary doctorate and gave the 2022 address to about 19,000 graduates