UW Bothell’s Commencement is officially confirmed for Sunday, June 13, 2027, at Hec Edmundson Pavilion. Based on the University of Washington’s established annual pattern, UW Seattle is projected for Saturday, June 12, 2027, and UW Tacoma for Friday, June 11, 2027.
| Campus | Projected/Confirmed 2027 Date | Day | Venue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| UW Seattle | Saturday, June 12, 2027 | Saturday | Husky Stadium (Alaska Airlines Field) | Pattern-projected |
| UW Tacoma | Friday, June 11, 2027 | Friday | Tacoma Dome | Pattern-projected |
| UW Bothell | Sunday, June 13, 2027 | Sunday | Hec Edmundson Pavilion (Alaska Airlines Arena) | Officially confirmed by UW Bothell |
The University of Washington operates three legally unified but administratively separate campuses — Seattle, Tacoma, and Bothell — each holding its own Commencement ceremony during the same mid-June window. As of this writing, only one of the three 2027 dates has been formally announced.
UW Bothell has publicly saved the date for Sunday, June 13, 2027, marking its 36th annual Commencement Ceremony. Seattle and Tacoma have not yet published 2027 dates, but both follow a scheduling pattern consistent enough across the past decade-plus to project with high confidence, detailed below.
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UW Commencement 2027 Dates by Campus
Each of UW’s three campuses sets its Commencement date independently, though the three ceremonies consistently land on consecutive days — Friday (Tacoma), Saturday (Seattle), Sunday (Bothell) — in the same calendar week.
UW Seattle Commencement 2027 — Saturday, June 12, 2027 (Husky Stadium)
UW Seattle’s Commencement is projected for Saturday, June 12, 2027, at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium, though the University had not published an official date at the time of writing.
This projection is based on a pattern that has held for at least the past 12 years: UW Seattle Commencement consistently falls on the second Saturday of June.
The 2015 ceremony (the 140th) took place on Saturday, June 13; the 2026 ceremony (the 151st) took place on Saturday, June 13, presided over by UW President Robert J. Jones, with about 50,000 family members and friends attending. Applying the same “second Saturday” logic to the 2027 calendar places the date on June 12.
If the pattern holds, the 2027 Seattle ceremony would be the 152nd Annual Commencement, continuing the sequential numbering visible in recent years — 149th (2024), 150th (2025), 151st (2026).
UW Tacoma Commencement 2027 — Friday, June 11, 2027 (Tacoma Dome)
UW Tacoma’s Commencement is projected for Friday, June 11, 2027, at the Tacoma Dome, one day ahead of the projected Seattle ceremony. UW Tacoma held its 36th Commencement ceremony on Friday, June 12, 2026, at the Tacoma Dome, the day immediately preceding Seattle’s Saturday ceremony that year.
That Friday-before-Seattle spacing has repeated consistently across multiple years, which is why the projected 2027 Tacoma date sits at June 11 rather than June 12.
If the pattern holds, 2027 would mark UW Tacoma’s 37th annual Commencement ceremony.
UW Bothell Commencement 2027 — Sunday, June 13, 2027 (Hec Edmundson Pavilion)
UW Bothell’s Commencement is confirmed for Sunday, June 13, 2027, at Alaska Airlines Arena in Hec Edmundson Pavilion — the only one of the three 2027 dates the University has published directly. UW Bothell’s own Commencement page states: “SAVE THE DATE: Sunday, June 13th, 2027, UW Bothell’s 36th annual Commencement Ceremony,” noting further updates are still to come.
This is one day after the projected Seattle ceremony, matching the Friday–Saturday–Sunday sequence UW has followed across its three campuses in recent years.
UW Bothell Commencement 2027: The One Confirmed Date on This Page
Every other date on this page is a pattern-based projection; this one is not. UW Bothell announced its 2027 date directly on its own Commencement website, ahead of any equivalent announcement from Seattle or Tacoma.
This is consistent with UW Bothell’s practice in prior years of publishing a “save the date” notice for the following June well before the current year’s ceremony has even occurred — the same page also confirms UW Bothell celebrated its 35th annual Commencement ceremony on June 14, 2026, at Alaska Airlines Arena at Hec Edmundson Pavilion.
What Is UW Commencement? Definitions and Distinctions
UW Commencement refers specifically to the university-wide degree ceremony held at each campus — it is not the only graduation event UW students attend. The term is frequently used interchangeably (and incorrectly) with three related but distinct events.
Commencement vs. Convocation vs. Departmental Ceremony
Commencement is the campus-wide ceremony (Husky Stadium, Tacoma Dome, or Hec Edmundson Pavilion) where degrees are formally conferred by the University president or chancellor.
Convocation, by contrast, is typically a welcome ceremony for incoming students, not a graduation event — the Office of Ceremonies notes that Convocation is where new students are welcomed into the University community, while Commencement is where their achievements, along with those of faculty and alumni, are shared with tens of thousands of guests.
A departmental or school ceremony is a smaller, discipline-specific event — UW hosts more than 100 school, college, departmental, and student-organization graduation celebrations in addition to the single campus-wide Commencement at each location.
These department ceremonies typically include individual name readings and hooding for graduate students, which the large stadium/arena ceremonies generally do not.
How UW Sets Its Commencement Dates: The Pattern Behind the Calendar
UW does not publish Commencement dates on a fixed multi-year calendar the way it does UW academic-term dates; each campus announces its date separately, usually via its own Commencement or Office of Ceremonies page. The table below shows how consistent the underlying pattern has been.
| Year | UW Seattle Date | Day | Ceremony Number | Degrees Conferred (Seattle) | Estimated Guests |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Saturday, June 8 | 2nd Saturday of June | 149th | Not published | ~40,000 |
| 2025 | Saturday, June 14 | 2nd Saturday of June | 150th | Not published | ~50,000 |
| 2026 | Saturday, June 13 | 2nd Saturday of June | 151st | ~14,932 | ~50,000 |
| 2027 (projected) | Saturday, June 12 | 2nd Saturday of June | 152nd (projected) | Not yet available | TBA |
The 2026 Seattle-campus figure of roughly 14,932 degrees conferred — including 9,066 bachelor’s, 4,372 master’s, 615 professional, 16 Educational Specialist, and 863 doctoral degrees — comes from preliminary data prepared by the Office of the University Registrar for the Board of Regents. This is a distinct figure from the number of graduates who physically walk in the ceremony; about 7,500 UW graduates of the Class of 2026 participated in the June 13 stadium ceremony itself, a smaller number than total degrees conferred, since not every graduate chooses to walk.
One exception worth noting: a June 12, 2022 ceremony, held on a Sunday rather than a Saturday, does not fit this pattern. That event was a special hybrid “Return to Husky” ceremony honoring the graduating classes of 2020 and 2021 together, held under continuing COVID-19 public-health protocols — a one-time makeup event, not a regular-cycle Commencement, and it should not be read as a break in the standard second-Saturday pattern.
Why UW Seattle and Tacoma’s 2027 Dates Are Not Yet Official
UW Seattle and Tacoma typically confirm each year’s Commencement date well in advance on their respective websites, but neither had a 2027-specific date published at the time of writing.
This is consistent with UW Bothell’s own history of announcing its “save the date” notice earlier than the other two campuses. Readers planning travel around the projected June 11–12, 2027 window should treat those two dates as highly probable rather than final, and confirm directly with the UW Seattle Office of Ceremonies or UW Tacoma Commencement page closer to spring 2027.
What We Know (and Don’t Yet Know) About UW Commencement 2027
Confirmed for 2027
- UW Bothell’s date: Sunday, June 13, 2027, at Hec Edmundson Pavilion, marking the 36th annual ceremony.
- The venue for each campus: Husky Stadium (Seattle), Tacoma Dome (Tacoma), and Hec Edmundson Pavilion/Alaska Airlines Arena (Bothell) are the established, unchanged locations; no venue change has been announced for any campus.
Not Yet Announced for 2027
- UW Seattle and UW Tacoma exact dates — pattern-projected as outlined above, pending official confirmation.
- The 2027 Commencement speaker. UW’s 2026 speaker announcement was made in mid-May 2026 for a mid-June ceremony — Nobel Prize winner and UW alumna Mary E. Brunkow was announced as the featured speaker on May 12, 2026, roughly one month before the ceremony. A 2027 speaker announcement should be expected on a similar timeline, likely spring 2027.
- Exact procession and ceremony start times for each campus.
- 2027 ticket allotments and the guest-ticket cap. These are set annually and were not yet published for 2027.
UW Commencement 2026 Recap: What 2027 Graduates Can Expect
The 2026 ceremony offers the clearest available preview of how UW Commencement 2027 will likely be structured, since UW’s Office of Ceremonies has followed a consistent format year over year.
The 151st Commencement, held Saturday, June 13, 2026, at Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium, drew an estimated 50,000 family members and friends, with families from 42 countries across every continent except Antarctica joining virtually.
Featured speaker Mary E. Brunkow, a 1983 UW molecular and cellular biology graduate who shared the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, also received the Alumna Summa Laude Dignata Award, the University’s highest honor for a graduate, at the same ceremony.
The following table summarizes verified 2026 degree data across all three campuses, which is not published together anywhere on UW’s own site and is useful context for families expecting similar proportions in 2027.
| Degree Level | UW Seattle (2026) | UW Tacoma (2026) | UW Bothell (2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bachelor’s | 9,066 | 1,321 | 1,619 |
| Master’s | 4,372 | 304 | 267 |
| Professional | 615 | — | — |
| Educational Specialist | 16 | 10 | — |
| Doctoral | 863 | 9 | — |
| Total conferred | ~14,932 | ~1,644 | ~1,886 |
Figures are drawn from preliminary Office of the University Registrar data presented to the Board of Regents in June 2026.
Ticket Policy and GradTix (Based on 2026 Process)
UW Commencement tickets are complimentary but required for entry, distributed through an online system called GradTix rather than sold as paid admission.
Guest general-admission tickets ordered on the Commencement Registration/Order Form are accessed at commencement.gradtix.com using a UW Net ID and password, and can be added — up to a published maximum per graduate — directly through the “Add tickets” button once logged in.
Each ticket carries a unique, single-use code that is scanned at stadium entry; a ticket with an already-scanned code will not be honored a second time. Disability, wheelchair, limited-mobility, and American Sign Language seating is requested separately through Office of Ceremonies staff rather than through GradTix.
This process has been stable across recent ceremony years and should reasonably be expected to carry into 2027, though exact ticket caps are announced annually and were not yet published for 2027 at the time of writing.
Bag Policy and Stadium Security
Husky Stadium enforces a clear-bag-style security policy on Commencement Day. Graduates are instructed to bring nothing that cannot fit into a pocket and are asked not to bring bags or purses, since there is no secure storage location on-site; any bag that is brought must follow the arena’s clear-bag policy, and backpacks are not permitted. Translation services are offered in nine different languages at Husky Stadium, available at Assisted Listening and Translation tables on the concourse level.
Parking and Light Rail Access
UW’s own guidance for Commencement Day favors transit over driving. The University recommends using the Link Light Rail system for less stressful travel, given the extra time required to park, walk from the Outdoor Practice Field, and reach a seat inside the stadium.
Graduates are typically expected in their seats by roughly 1:25 p.m. for a 1:30 p.m. procession start, based on the 2026 schedule; arriving later results in being held at the field entrance until the faculty and leadership procession concludes.
Not the University You’re Looking For?
“UW Commencement” search queries frequently pick up unrelated results because “UW,” “Washington,” and “commencement” overlap with several other institutions. The table below separates the University of Washington from its most commonly confused namesakes.
| Institution | Location | Common Confusion Point | Not the Same As UW |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Washington (UW) | Seattle, Tacoma, Bothell, WA | Subject of this page | — |
| Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) | St. Louis, Missouri | Shares “Washington University” naming; sometimes shortened to “Wash U” | Private research university with no organizational tie to UW |
| University of Wisconsin System (UW–Madison, UW–Milwaukee, UW–Whitewater, etc.) | Wisconsin | Shares the “UW” abbreviation exactly | Entirely separate public university system in a different state |
| Washington State University (WSU) | Pullman, Washington | Shares “Washington” in the name and the same state | Separate public land-grant institution; longtime athletic rival of UW |
| Western Washington University (WWU) | Bellingham, Washington | Shares “Washington” naming and the “Huskies”-adjacent regional identity | Separate public university, unaffiliated with UW |
A related but distinct source of confusion: some Seattle-area high schools have, in past years, also held their own graduation ceremonies at Husky Stadium. A search for “graduation at Husky Stadium” without a school name attached does not necessarily indicate the University of Washington’s Commencement; readers should confirm the specific institution before relying on any date found under a generic “Husky Stadium graduation” search.
Departmental and School Ceremonies at UW Commencement 2027
In addition to the three campus-wide ceremonies, individual UW schools, colleges, and departments hold their own graduation celebrations during Commencement week — UW hosts more than 100 such school, college, departmental, and student-organization events, including for programs such as the Foster School of Business, the College of Engineering, the School of Law, the School of Medicine, and the College of Arts & Sciences.
These are scheduled independently by each unit and are typically published on UW’s central School & Department Ceremonies listing beginning in March of the graduation year. As of this writing, 2027 departmental schedules had not yet been published; students should expect their own program to announce ceremony details separately from the campus-wide Commencement date.
Planning Ahead for UW Commencement 2027
Families and international guests planning around UW Commencement 2027 should treat the projected June 11–13, 2027 window as a reliable planning target for flights and lodging, while confirming exact dates once UW Seattle and UW Tacoma publish them.
This is particularly relevant for out-of-state and international travelers, who historically make up a small but consistent share of Commencement search traffic; prior-year data has shown a modest but real international audience booking travel to UW Commencement events well ahead of the ceremony date, reinforcing the value of locking in the pattern-projected week even before every detail is finalized.
Guests concerned about hotel availability should also account for other major June events in Seattle, since large citywide events in the same month can affect lodging prices and availability around Commencement weekend.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is UW Commencement 2027? UW Bothell’s Commencement is confirmed for Sunday, June 13, 2027. UW Seattle (projected Saturday, June 12, 2027) and UW Tacoma (projected Friday, June 11, 2027) have not yet published official dates, based on the University’s established annual pattern.
Is UW Tacoma or UW Bothell’s 2027 date officially confirmed? Only UW Bothell’s date is officially confirmed, published directly on UW Bothell’s Commencement website as Sunday, June 13, 2027. UW Tacoma’s projected Friday, June 11, 2027 date is based on its historical one-day-before-Seattle pattern, not yet an official announcement.
Who will speak at UW Commencement 2027? Not yet announced. UW’s 2026 speaker, Nobel laureate and UW alumna Mary E. Brunkow, was announced in mid-May 2026, roughly one month before that year’s ceremony — a similar spring 2027 announcement timeline is reasonable to expect, though not guaranteed.
Is the University of Washington the same as Washington State University or Washington University in St. Louis? No. The University of Washington (UW) is a separate institution from both Washington State University (a public university in Pullman, Washington) and Washington University in St. Louis (a private university in Missouri). All three are commonly confused due to overlapping name elements.
Official Sources for UW Commencement 2027 Updates
For the most current and binding information as 2027 dates, speaker announcements, and ticket policies are finalized, consult the University of Washington’s official Commencement channels directly: the UW Seattle Office of Ceremonies (washington.edu/graduation), UW Tacoma Commencement (tacoma.uw.edu/commencement), and UW Bothell Commencement (uwb.edu/commencement). This page will reflect projected dates until each campus publishes its own official 2027 confirmation.
