Diploma Orders

Baylor College of Medicine will issue a diploma or certificate to all residents/fellows who complete at least 12 months of training. Those residents/fellows who leave prior to the completion of 12 months should seek a letter from their program director documenting time completed.

Technically, diplomas are issued for accredited programs, and certificates are issued for non-accredited programs. Physically both documents are identical.

Departments are responsible for ordering diplomas; the Baylor GME Office pays the expense. Ordering diplomas and certificates may take six-eight weeks, so please plan accordingly. One copy will be provided free to each trainee. Residents/fellows may order additional copies at their own expense.

Once diploma orders are submitted and drafts have been approved by the program coordinators, if there are any errors on the printed diplomas, the department will have to pay $50 to GME for reprinting. If it's an error from the vendor, then no cost will be charged to the department.

The GME office will no longer mail diplomas to residents/fellows. The program coordinators are responsible for picking up the diplomas from the GME office and distributing to their residents/fellows.

The legal name of record, at the time the diploma/certificate is issued, will be the one printed on all official documents. If a resident/fellow has married or divorced, it is required that the name change be processed through the Baylor Human Resources Office and entered into the Baylor system before it will be printed on a diploma. If a name is changed after graduation, the “new” name will not be put on a reprinted diploma, as it was not the resident/fellow’s legal name of record at the time of his/her training.

The official Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education or Texas Medical Board name of the program will be the name printed on the diploma. In the event of reprint following graduation, all efforts will be made to ensure the same Baylor officials sign the new diploma/certificate. Sometimes this is not possible, and, in that event, current leadership will sign.

Diplomas/certificates will list the medical degree as issued and stated on the diploma granted by the medical school. Residents/fellows should remember that several terminal degrees are recognized by the Texas Medical Board as eligible to practice medicine in the state. Baylor GME programs are not degree-granting programs, as defined by the Texas Higher Education Board; therefore, the College cannot change degrees previously earned. For example, M.B.B.S. is a degree commonly conferred internationally. This would be the degree printed on the Baylor residency/fellowship diploma; it would not be changed to M.D.

Diploma size: 12"X14"

The only training sites that will be listed on diplomas/certificates are those listed on the Baylor College of Medicine affiliated hospitals website.

Baylor's president's and appropriate academic signatures will be automatically included on the printed diploma.

If you would like departmental signatures to be pre-printed on your diplomas, please complete the following form and return to the GME office ASAP.