Question: I am just wondering how I would say "I graduated from BLANK university" in French. Google translate says "je suis diplômé de..." but I think that translates to I have my diploma from. The word for graduate in French is graduel/graduelle. Why wouldn't we use that word or is Google translate incorrect?

Answer: 
The correct translation is “*Je suis diplômé de l'université …*”. Yes, that means the place you got your diploma from, but that's what “graduated from” means.

If you want to specify exactly what diploma you had, use a noun, like in English. If you want to specify the action, rather than the state, then you also need to use a noun in French: French doesn't have a verb that corresponds to “graduate” exactly.

Note that in France, we don't have the strongly marked concept of undergraduate vs graduate. We have a wide array of diplomas that require different lengths of post-secondary studies. So it's more common in French to specify which degree. Conversely, if you have a university diploma, then which diploma is important, but which university isn't, so typically, to explain your curriculum succinctly, you'd mention the diploma, but not the university.

It's different if you studied at a [grande école](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grande_%C3%A9cole). These have a fixed-length cursus and an old boys' network, so in that case you would mention the place but not the academic level.

> 
> I have a B.S. in mathematics from X University.  
> 
> *J'ai une licence de mathématiques délivrée par l'université X.*   (Or: *… de l'université X.*)
> 
> 
> I graduated at X University with a B.S. in mathematics in 2000.  
> 
> *J'ai obtenu une licence de mathématiques à l'université X en 2000.*
> 
> 
> I graduated from {famous university}.  
> 
> *J'ai fait {école réputée}*.
> 
> 
> I graduated from {famous university} in 2000.  
> 
> *Je suis sorti de {école réputée}* en 2000.
> 
> 
> 

The adjective *graduel* means “gradual”, as in something that happens step by step rather than all at once. No cognate of this adjective is used to refer to degrees in French.
The word for "graduate" in French is not "graduel" but "licencié" for a man and "licenciée" for a woman. 

> 
> (TLFi) B. ENSEIGN. SUPÉRIEUR. Celui, celle qui possède le diplôme de licence. Licencié d'une faculté; licencié en droit. -
> 
> 
> * Il faudra se représenter (...) la licenciée ès lettres, en tablier bleu de service.
> * En emploi adj. En juillet 1937, j'échouai à mon second examen de licence. (...) je ne fus complètement licencié qu'en 1939.
> 
> 
> 

Cependant, *il ne faudrait pas dire* « je suis licencié de/par l'université X », un français risque de comprendre « j'étais employé par l'université X, puis elle m'a fait partir », même si la formulation correcte serait « j'ai été licencié par l'université X ». Voir les commentaires pour d'autres détails (user **Gilles**).

Why words are not used the way that seems so natural to you is simply explained by the fact that what some "put" or "see" into a word or concept is never what others "put" or "see" into it, specially as they belong to the opposite sides of a language divide. In this particular case one might say that the English saw in the concept of university studies a ladder the steps of which are the marks of certain levels of achievement and the French, even if they do see that into it, had rather resort to something that caracterises that activity in an other vein, equally important in defining this activity, and that is the necessity of an authority that sanctions the achievements at the different levels, and attributes to the student certain corresponding privileges, certain rights, the first being the "licence", the right to apply for certain jobs and for higher education. 

For "I graduated from BLANK university" you would say "**J'ai obtenu une licence de l'université de BLANK**", "**Jai obtenu ma licence de l'université de BLANK**". The first possibilité could be used more often ([ngram](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=obtenu+ma+licence%2Cobtenu+une+licence&year_start=1500&year_end=2008&corpus=19&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cobtenu%20ma%20licence%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cobtenu%20une%20licence%3B%2Cc0)).