My university graduates in green - I hated it. To me colors have always been high schooly and black is for universities. I take some consolation in the fact that they switched to a darker green the year I graduated. It was much nicer than the brighter green they used previously. From what I can remember from pictures, George Mason students have always graduated in green.

In two years I will finally get to graduate in black, but I think I'm most excited for that light blue hood with the red and black lining!

I am so with you!!! U of I used to use black--my cousin graduated in 2005 and she's wearing a black cap and gown in pictures I have seen. Somewhere between then and 2010, when I graduated, they switched to blue. The gowns are nicer so I guess it's fine, but I would have preferred black.

This thread is the first time I ever heard of renting graduation gowns. I wish those were options at the schools my brother and I attended. The only gown my parents didn't have to pay out of pocket for was my high school gown, that was included in our tuition.

When I got my Ph.D., I bought my cap, gown, and hood. It cost about $400 for the ensemble, 14 years ago. It has my initials embroidered in the gown. It was an investment, because I do wear it for convocation and graduation every year. Some of my fellow professors have school colors...our Dean graduated from Ohio State, and her gown is whatever that red color is from "that school." I've also seen purple for a Northwestern Ph.D. professor, with ermine-type collar/trim. That's the fanciest gown I've ever seen...and he wore it with jeans and beat up tennis shoes!

Here's a bit of hood trivia that I learned from an older professor: in earlier times, professors at European universities taught in their academic regalia. When the professor recessed down the aisle following class, students paid the professor by putting money in the pocket at the back of the hood. Academic hoods for professors are still made this way, with a pocket at the bottom. The interior colors indicate the school colors of the university where the doctorate was received, and the velvet signifies the subject area of the degree (light blue = education, kelly green = medicine, etc.)

Yeah, when I'm at graduations I spend time trying to figure out where the professors got their degrees. Sometimes I realize I'm wrong because I'll think, for instance, "OK, that's Jacksonville State--nope, they don't offer that doctorate, let's see..." It's fun and kills a lot of time.

I bought my regalia when I got my Ph.D. too; that paid for itself rapidly. I wonder which colors are put in the hoods of those stupid online universities from which a lot of educators are now buying their degrees?

I vaguely remember by youngest aunt wearing a white cap and gown when she graduated from HS in the 60's. The young men wore medium blue, the same color I wore when i graduated from the same HS years later. College was black.

My daughter had a dark green cap and gown for her HS graduation. My son graduated from a different HS and they wore black. Both kids wore black at college-they rented their cap/gown from the campus bookstore.

Daughter did not walk when she finished her masters, but she did buy the hood and the gown(Black) because she knew, as a HS teacher, she would need to wear it for graduations. Son has not completed his masters yet, so don't know what color FSU is wearing now-I assume black like when I was there.

Good question about the online colleges. I imagine that they have colors.

They probably have green dollar signs instead of colors.

I went to an all-girls Catholic school. Everyone wore white gowns that were rented - no decorating or individualization allowed. Returning them was part of the requirement to get your real diploma (the diploma case we received at graduation was empty, ensuring proper behavior at graduation.) We were required to wear a dress underneath and hosiery. The dress code enforced til the very end!

NHS members got gold tassels and cords which we got to keep. Everyone got to keep her tassel.

If we had not moved from Tulsa my kids would most likely have continued to attend the school they were attending when we moved. The female graduates wear white floor length dresses(debutante style) and the male graduates wear black tuxedos. They all look amazing.

Or HS had girls in white, boys in dark green. On top of that, the gowns were so cheap that the girls were required to wear a white dress or white skirt/blouse underneath.

This wasn't a total loss - I took my white dress with me to college and wore it for ritual for another four years.

I graduated college early, and walked only in my departmental ceremony wearing a gray wool dress. black stockings and heels. Which I wore the hell out of to job interviews for the next few years.

In both my hs and college graduations, everyone wore a black robe. I've only been to 2 graduations where boys and girls wear different colors. For example, at my cousin's graduation, the boys wore white and the girls wore baby blue, the school's 2 colors. But I don't think it's super common in this area.

This is the very first time I've ever heard of this happening but I just so happened to come across it after seeing this thread: http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/hig...192900808.html

All of the other stories included in this article are just as ridiculous. A feather hanging from your grad cap gets you a $1,000 fine?! Please.

Girls at my high school graduated in white, boys in blue. Definitely had to wear a white or nude dress underneath otherwise it would NOT look good.

And then I'm REALLY not looking forward to graduating in bright green in two years. I agree that black should be for college, with maybe a touch of the school colors. Or if it has to be in a school color, pick the one that's more normal. If you had the choice between red and green, why on earth would you pick the bright green!??

I totally agree but tried to refrain from derailing the thread with my rant! lol

One of the many great things about graduating from one of the Ancient Universities of Scotland: nae motarboards of any kind. Instead of caps, you get wacked on the head by the principal of the university with a cushion ("Te creatoreum Magistrum Litteras" I think that's what it was...basically "I create you Master of Letters, Doctor of Philosophy, etc) then some guy hooks you over the head with your hood, then you receive your parchment, shake the guy's hand, snap a picture, and on ye go. Fun fact: the colors of our hoods derived from the flowers of Scotland...with Doctors of Philosophy getting the purple of the thistle. As postgraduates, our hoods are MASSIVE, and our sleeves have a cutout to them. Scottish universities (and british universities in general) wear their gowns open. Typically, british graduates don't go in for any of the additional bling that Americans do, with honor chords and such.

Looks like this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...Picture001.jpg
https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.n...375_4877_n.jpg

As an undergraduate: robes were black, as is the tradition, with open sleeves (bell sleeves). Not traditionally, we wore hoods, with trim indicating our degree (BA, BS, BFA, BSN, etc) and interior silk with the tan and cardinal of our university.

Looks like this:
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y42...ningset027.jpg

My public high school did the "white for girls, alternate color for the guys" thing, and it was tragic.

To the best of my knowledge, the reasons for the black gown and hoods was to recall the monastic origins of the education system.