Palomar College’s new graduation ticket policy is forcing students to choose which loved ones get to attend one of the most important days of their lives.
The 2026 commencement ceremony will be held in the school’s football stadium.
Participating students are required to RSVP and received only three guest tickets. Graduates who wanted additional tickets were placed on a waitlist and could receive up to six total tickets if space became available.
The 2025 commencement was the first time the event took place in the football stadium and no tickets were required for entry.
On April 21, a month before graduation, Palomar Student Life & Leadership emailed graduating students asking them to RSVP for guest tickets which included crrating an account on a website to access the tickets. This policy forces students to make difficult decisions about who to invite. It also allows only a month for their family and friends to figure out if they can attend.
The new ticket rule is unfair to students, especially those with large families who want their families to celebrate a milestone. There are people who are graduating college for the first time, or are receiving an associate degree.
Not every student plans to transfer and receive a bachelor’s, so for many, graduating from Palomar College is a big deal.
Some graduates want to invite their immediate family — parents, siblings, grandparents — while others may also want to invite their partners, close friends or extended family members who were by their side during their college journey. If there aren’t enough tickets, they now have to tell their loved ones to watch them graduate via livestream, which can have technical difficulties and feels far less personal.
Restricting students to three tickets leaves many families excluded from the celebration.
An email sent to graduating students on May 18, outlined the rules for commencemnent day which states that each guest must have a ticket with a QR code and every guest over 2 years old must have a ticket as well. There will be security on site to “help ensure a safe and smooth experience for everyone attending.”
If Palomar wanted the process to be more organized this year or were concerned about safety, they should have gone about it a different way.
For example, students could have RSVP’d for the number of guests they planned to bring, with each guest having a QR code that would be scanned for entry into the stadium. This would have given the college the opportunity of keeping things organized while allowing students to invite everyone they wanted to be a part of their celebration.
According to an article published by Palomar News, the football stadium can accommodate over 3,600 guests. It is hard to believe that capacity will be exceed, especially considering not every graduate participates.
As someone who is graduating from Palomar for the second time, I have seen how commencements were handled in previous years. When I graduated in 2023, the ceremony was held at the football field and included a class of around 500 students. Families filled the available seats, while others stood, yet the event was still successful despite the large crowd.
This year, I can only invite my parents and brother, but not my sister or my nieces and nephews because of the Palomar ticket policy. It leaves me in an awkward position having to tell my sister that I only have two more tickets available and she and the rest of my family will have to watch me through a livestream.
I’m certain I am not the only one facing this situation.
My family is understanding but not every family is which can put other students in uncomfortable situations.
Students are already stressed out over college acceptances, finals, graduation and now on top of that, they have to worry about who they can and can’t invite. The ticket policy does not take the students into consideration.
The focus of commencement should be on celebrating one’s achievements along with their loved ones rather than having to worry about who to invite and who you will have to tell no because there are no tickets available. This rule adds unnecessary stress and disappointment to what should be a meaningful day.
If there is a concern over too many graduates and attendees then Palomar should split the ceremony into discipline specific ceremonies instead of forcing students to choose who to invite.
Palomar College needs to reconsider the new policy and allow graduates to reserve as many tickets as they would like instead of enforcing a three ticket limit.
A commencement ceremony should bring families together, not divide them. Students have worked for years to earn this moment, and they deserve the opportunity to celebrate it with everyone who helped them get there. Not force their loved ones to watch from a screen.