Sort out the tickets before anything else

UT Arlington graduates its students in a major-league ballpark, and it runs entry the way a ballpark does. That produces a rule most families will not expect, and it is worth settling before anyone travels.

Guests need their ticket on a phone. Every guest over the age of two needs one, and it has to be shown inside the MLB Ballpark app or on My Rangers Tickets. Globe Life Field does not accept a printout, and it does not accept a screenshot either. A grandparent who has been handed a sheet of paper, or who has a photo of a ticket, will be turned away at the gate.

The graduate needs the opposite. Graduates do not use a guest ticket at all. They get a GradPass from Tassel in commencement week, and that one must be printed on paper and brought along.

Here is how the tickets actually reach your family. The graduate reserves the number they want when they register in Tassel. The tickets then appear in the MLB Ballpark app (or on My Rangers Tickets in a phone browser), under the email address the graduate used to register. From there the graduate forwards each guest their own ticket by email or from their contacts. The simplest plan is for every adult guest to install the app before the day and confirm the ticket has arrived.

UTA’s reason for moving commencement to Globe Life Field was capacity: its FAQ says the ballpark lets the university serve more guests and put fewer limits on how many tickets each graduate is given. Seating is general admission, first come, first served.

A ceremony by college, on a weekday

UTA does not run one ceremony. It runs several on the same day, one time slot per group of colleges, and each lasts about two to two and a half hours. The university announces which college is in which slot in October for the December round. Until then, nobody can tell you whether your graduate walks in the morning or the evening.

The December ceremonies fall on a weekday, which is unusual. For a family travelling in, that means a midweek trip, and for a family driving across Dallas-Fort Worth it means weekday traffic on I-30. Plan the journey around rush hour if your slot is early evening.

Doors open to guests an hour before each ceremony. Graduates are asked to be there 90 minutes early.

What to bring into the ballpark

Globe Life Field applies its own bag rules on graduation day. Soft-sided bags up to 16 by 16 by 8 inches are fine. Backpacks are not, unless they are a single-compartment drawstring bag within that size, and the exceptions are medical bags and manufactured diaper bags. No coolers, no tripods, no drones, and no glitter, confetti or noisemakers. Smoking of any kind is banned inside the stadium.

For guests who need help, the stadium offers wheelchair escorts, parking shuttles and accessible seating; the instruction is to tell Globe Life Field staff on arrival.

Parking is free for graduates and guests. For anyone who cannot come, UTA streams each ceremony live at its scheduled time.

One ceremony for summer and December graduates

UTA experimented with a summer ceremony in recent years and has since dropped it. Commencement now happens only in December and May, and students who finish over the summer walk in the December ceremony.

The May date for the coming spring had not been published when we last checked; the dates table on this page updates when it is.

Where to sleep

This is one of the easiest graduation weekends to find a room for, for two reasons. The ceremonies fall on a weekday rather than a Saturday. And Globe Life Field sits in an entertainment district designed to house crowds.

Two large hotels stand between the ballpark and AT&T Stadium. Loews Arlington has 888 rooms and suites by its own count, and it connects to the Arlington Convention Center. Live! by Loews, next door, has 322 more. Either is a short walk from the ballpark gates. Neither publishes a graduation-week minimum stay or prepayment rule.

Beyond the district, the Metroplex opens up in every direction: Grand Prairie is a few minutes east, DFW Airport about twenty minutes north, and downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas each under half an hour away without traffic. For a family flying in and out around a single weekday ceremony, an airport hotel is a sensible choice.

We have not measured ceremony-week availability, and the tables say so. The one thing that could tighten Arlington is a big event at AT&T Stadium or the convention centre in the same week, so check both calendars once you know your date.