Graduations Sashes - Colors and Meanings

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College students wear some type of graduation sash during their commencement ceremonies. These scarfs are pieces of colored cloth that carry ceremonial significance. A number of schools are now replacing the classic black gowns with colored ones, with the color holding a traditional significance. These shawls are worn over graduation gowns, often with a cap. Students receiving bachelors, masters, doctoral, and post-doctoral degrees commonly wear graduation shawls. These stoles, often wore in combination with a cap and chord, have a special meaning depending on the specific graduation. They are available for purchasing online and some websites even offer the option of customizing sashes with names or numbers representing the year of graduation, fraternity etc.graduation stoles


Greek Letter Fraternities

Graduates who are members of Greek sororities or fraternizes may wear graduation stoles with colors representing the colors of their society. Organizations follow defined color and style standards representing their values. The Delta Sigma Theta Kenta fraternity shawl for instance, is hand-woven and measure four inches longer than usual graduation sashes. The Delta Sigma Theta has a white and crimson stole with Greek letters embroidered in white.

Graduation Sashes for Academia Societies

Members of academic societies commonly wear graduation sashes over the other academic regalia. The color of the stole or the colors on it, represent the student's field of study. Different fields of study have different color affiliations. For instance, orange represents various fields of engineering, blue and violet represent architecture, crimson represents degrees in arts and sciences etc.

Awards and Honors

Sashes are popularly worn by recipients of honors and awards such as the academic distinction of Suma Cum Laude, Magna Cum Laude or Cum Laude status, or class valedictorian (high school level). The Academic Council on Education has formed a guide detailing the proper academic costumes to be worn. The guide says that students receiving Latin honors should wear gold cords. Graduates who are wearing stoles for such occasions can wear them in gold or blue colors, depending on the distinction being received.