^ My friends at the Ivies who wore the area/country-themed stoles were from Mexico, another Latin American country, and Israel. A few of my friends at U of M who wore them for graduation (master’s… wore them in place of the master’s stoles) were from Africa, the Middle East, and one Asian country.
These were all either international students, immigrants, or the child of immigrants.
From what I’m aware of, there isn’t a rule book on being a multi-racial/ethnic/nationality person so I would guess they would do they want to.
I’ve seen stoles that denote sorority membership. I’m with bookreader, that just seems like a money maker. I too like the cleaner look.
As an honors grad I seem to remember only that my tassel was gold and that was the only differentiator. I could be misremembering though.
The use of the cords seems to vary by region and school. At one of our kid’s southern LAC, those who studied abroad could wear the colors of the country’s flag in a long sash down one shoulder, plus the cords from honor societies, PBK pins, dept. medals, etc. It makes for a colorful graduation and it is hard to remember what every cord is for afterwards. Schools vary a lot in what honor societies are options for students. I have not seen this as much at graduations in the northeast.
^^ My son and daughter graduated from a uni in the northeast and that is where I saw the enormous range of tassels/stoles.
D just graduated HS last week from a local private girls school. Not “exclusive” school, but a private choice in our area. They wore stoles and she had a couple of cords - the max I think. They probably included the cost in our “senior fees” that were due the first of the year. I actually thought the stoles looked nice! Not too obnoxious.
I’ve been to four college graduations now and my last one at my youngest son’s had the least amount of robe decoration. Every student wore a black gown and honors students got a gold sash. If you did a study abroad, you also got a special medallion that fit onto the gowns zipper. I noticed some students with cords, which my son later told me were education students in an education honor society, but the school was trying to phase that out. I like the flash of color on the honor sashes like this photo: http://www.theneighbornewspapers.com/promandgraduation/article0004.html and think that the plain graduation gown is kind of boring: http://www.bookstore.hawaii.edu/lcc/MerchDetail.aspx?MerchID=449174&num=0&start=&end=&type=1&CategoryName=CAPS%20&%20GOWNS&CatID=6505&Name=CAPS%20&%20GOWNS I would prefer this for all students: http://www.gradgowns.us/Caps_and_Gowns-College_Students.html with just the sash for kids that made honors.
I wore two sets of cords: one for honors and one for being selected for departmental distinction (each department chooses a few grads that have contributed heavily to the department or that they think will be successful in the field. It’s a professor-nominated thing and you often don’t even know you’ve been chosen until you go to pick up cords from the bookstore with your cap and gown.)
I also wore a stole for my time as an RA…everyone who worked for Residence Life in some way got one. We had a few for Greek life, but other than that I think they generally kept the cords and stoles to honors or some other kind of involvement. The decorating of grad caps was HUGE at my undergrad though, so I think that’s where most people got their individuality.
My grad school was more uniform; not many cords or stoles that I saw. Although I was sitting with the graduate students, who generally get less “stuff” outside of the actual hood.
It does seem to have gotten a bit out of hand and will prob get worse before colleges start to reel it back in. I am okay with stoles for honors, distinction and school clubs/orginizations. Special stoles for travel abroad seems odd. And I must say that I am against wearing a stole representing your heritage as I cannot make the connection between it and graduating from college.
It seems to present a cluttered appearance, but I guess I am just a traditional old lady!
I agree with you. I first saw the stoles with sorority letters on a photo of a friend’s daughter. Great that she’s proud of being a Theta, but you can wear a necklace or pin for that - I like the uniformity of the graduation gowns. Why mess it up with extraneous stuff?
Speaking of which we received a mailing from son’s school regarding all kinds of crap you could buy for graduation. Now I get loading the family up on t-shirts and mugs, but a Movado watch for $5k? If I’m buying a Movado watch, I’m not messing it up with a college logo on it. Or a grandfather clock with the logo. Please.
I agree with the Nationality cords being a bit confusing, especially if you add in all the other possibilities that have been mentioned here. The study abroad medallion that they had at my son’s college was not really noticeable and I think just attached to the gowns zipper. It was maybe as big as a quarter. Looked like this: https://sonomastateinternational.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/tag/co-op/
My friend told me that at her son’s college, NC State, the Valedictorian didn’t want to spend the extra few bucks for his honors cords (sash?) so did without. I’m not even sure there was a charge for my son’s cap and gown at his small private college. At the reception tent afterwards they had bins for people to recycle them and many grads threw theirs in. I understand they were made from recycled products themselves.
DS was elected to PBK this year. At the induction ceremony the electees were presented with a cord to be worn at the grad ceremony the next day.
He didn’t want to wear it because he thought it would be bragging. I told him that he should wear it because he EARNED that cord with all his hard work. I also said that the faculty who nominated him for PBK might feel bad or disrespected if he didn’t wear it.
I was PBK but don’t remember that being noted at graduation by anything visible.
Off topic, but walkinhome’s post #30 reminded me of this story. At S1’s graduation they all exited the arena by he same door and then they split into 2 groups to exit the building. There was a sign on the way to the door my son would be using and it said " drop hat and gown here and receive $20 cash refund when you exit building". As you can imagine…there were many angry parents who were unable to take a family photo of their child in his/her gown…
Those graduating with Latin Honors were given stoles at my son’s university graduation. No one was allowed to wear any other stoles or anything other than decorating the top of their caps. I felt badly for the grads sitting behind the cap with flashing red lights. But the worst, by far: One young woman had constructed a 3D rocket ship on her cap to signify her major in Aero Engineering. But, unfortunately, from our vantage point high up in the arena, it was the spitting image of, well, um, the male anatomy. The 2 cotton ball “smoke puffs” at the base of the rocket didn’t help matters.
I thought that sort of head was usually reserved for the future lawyers or I-bankers.
Ha, I just attended my D’s grad yesterday and changed my mind on the stoles! It was kind of fun to see all the different ones represented, including the kente cloths and ones showing that the girl was president of her dorm or some such. My d had one (that I hadn’t known about) simply showing her major (economics).
When D3 graduated, many of the students who had studied abroad wore stoles representing the country where each had studied.
I like the stoles. At my D’s graduation the ones I noticed were the stoles representing study abroad locations. People didn’t wear several, I only remember their wearing one. They added color and gave the grads an opportunity to celebrate something that was very important to them, just as stoles representing major, fraternity/sorority, etc do.
@pizzagirl - Congrats to you and your daughter!