Getting dressed for graduation may seem easy, but there are centuries of tradition and significance stitched into the garb you put on for the big day. Each academic pursuit has its own color and you can tell a Master from a PhD by the shape of their sleeves .

Here are some fashionista do’s & don’ts for graduation day:

• The gown should fall midway between the knee and ankle.
• The cap should be worn so that the Mortarboard is level. It should not be tilted to the back or side of the head. The crown should be approximately one inch above the eyebrow.
• Men should remove their caps during the school song and the National Anthem.
• Tassels are usually worn on the right side and shifted to the left when undergraduates receive their diplomas.
• Graduate students wear tassels on the left for the entire ceremony and carry the hood over their arm prior to the conferral of degrees, then hood one another when asked to do so by their dean.

Wear your degree on your sleeve:

• The gown for the bachelor’s degree has pointed sleeves
• The gown for the master’s degree has an oblong sleeve, open at the wrist, like the others. The sleeve base hangs down in the traditional manner. The rear part of its oblong shape is square cut, and the front part has an arc cut away
• The gown for the doctor’s degree has bell-shaped sleeves.
• Gowns for the bachelor’s or master’s degrees are untrimmed
• The doctor’s degree gown is faced down the front with black velvet; three bars of velvet are used across the sleeves. These facings and crossbars may be of velvet of the color distinctive of the disciplines to which the degree pertains, thus agreeing in color with the binding or edging of the hood appropriate to the particular doctor’s degree in every instance.

For more fun facts and the history of academic regalia, check out these sites:

http://www.acenet.edu/news-room/Pages/Academic-Costume-Code.aspx
https://oakhalli.com/Graduation-Cap-and-Gown-Etiquette.html

Thanks to WUSTL Archives for the photo of graduation circa 1910.