What is my graduation date? I submitted my Master's thesis last December (2020), and it just been accepted (so in 2021), and the university will probably take many (maybe even 6) months before they actually give me the diploma (bureaucracy).
On CVs and scholarship applications, what date should I be writing? I am somewhat wary of writing 2018-2021 as it makes it look like I took 3 years, yet I want to be rigourous. What is the accepted norm for what constitutes the &quot;end&quot; of the degree. This is especially true if I need to write months, as putting the final diploma date would add many months.
Also, in the meanwhile until the university formally gives me the diploma, can I still say I finished the Master's as all my courses are complete and thesis accepted?
For most institutions, the degree date is the day that the university actually hands out the degrees, not the date that you fulfill the requirements for the degree.
At all the universities that I am familiar with, this happens only at fixed times of year, and your degree will be on the first such date after you fulfill the requirements and submit the necessary paperwork. For example, my alma mater has three degree dates per year: people on the standard schedule graduate in June, and off-cycle graduation is offered in September and February.
I'm sure there are institutions that do not work this way, but in the US at least it seems to be fairly standard to have fixed degree dates.
In either case, you should be able to readily find this information on the webpage of your university's registrar's office or equivalent, like the pages I linked above.