BLACKSBURG -- Virginia Tech's Class of 2008 -- more than 3,700 strong -- gathered in Lane Stadium for its commencement ceremony yesterday to hear NBC News anchor Hoda Kotb's simple words of advice: "Do not panic."

"Your job is there, it's waiting for you," said Kotb, a 1986 Tech alumna who told the students that 27 news directors refused to hire her when she graduated. "You're job is out there waiting for you. You got to go get it. It is sitting there waiting for you. Go get that job."

More than 1,285 graduate students held their commencement ceremony earlier in the day at Cassell Coliseum. Altogether, roughly 5,000 undergraduates and graduates were honored in yesterday's ceremonies.

Kotb, the commencement speaker and co-anchor of the NBC "Today" show, regaled the students with the tale of her woeful search for a first job. And then she congratulated them for healing after the April 16, 2007, massacre of 32 students and teachers.

"We're not fetal position, hide under the covers, suck-our-thumb kind of people -- we're people who rise up," Kotb said. "They said it would be tough to heal after a tragedy, tough to rise up. But you did."

The students erupted in cheers and spontaneously chanted "Hokies! Hokies! Hokies!" as up to 20,000 parents, grandparents, family members and friends watched.

The ceremony honored 3,727 candidates for bachelor's degrees, along with 25 students who earned associate degrees. The graduate ceremony honored 1,009 master's degree candidates, 13 education-specialist degree candidates, 14 doctor of education candidates and 197 doctoral candidates. Another 53 students earned graduate certificates. The Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine was represented by 89 doctor of veterinary medicine candidates.

For students who graduated yesterday, the most popular major was biological sciences, in which more than 275 students took degrees. Psychology and mechanical engineering followed, and finance was the fourth most popular major.