50 Fun Facts About Graduation

The words 'degree' and 'graduate' both come from which Latin word, meaning 'step'?

Ceremonies for graduating students date to the first European universities in the twelfth century.

The square academic cap gets its common nickname from its resemblance to a tool used by whom?

Masons hold mortar on a flat board; the cap probably began in Italy no later than 1520 and may descend from the clerical biretta.

In American commencements, undergraduates typically begin with the tassel on which side of the cap?

They swap it to the left, individually or all at once, when the degree is conferred.

In what year was the Intercollegiate Code of Academic Costume adopted in the US?

Gardner Cotrell Leonard, whose Albany firm made academic dress, advised the meeting.

How many velvet bands appear on the sleeves of an American doctoral gown?

Doctors may also swap the mortarboard for a four-, six- or eight-sided velvet tam.

How long is a doctor's hood under the American code?

Bachelors get 3 feet and masters 3.5; the satin lining shows the colours of the institution.

Under the American code, which tassel colour is reserved for those entitled to wear the doctoral gown?

Everyone else is meant to wear black or the colour of their subject.

Which colour does the American code assign to science?

Green is medicine, purple is law and white is arts and letters.

According to the history of academic dress, what was the original practical purpose of the gown?

Academic dress grew out of the clerical clothing common across medieval European universities.

Students at which future Ivy League school had to wear their 'college habits' at all times from 1755?

It was still the College of New Jersey; King's College, now Columbia, had a similar rule.

Who composed the Pomp and Circumstance marches, a staple of American graduations?

He took the title from Othello: 'Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war'.

At which university was Pomp and Circumstance first played at a graduation ceremony, in 1905?

Elgar was there to collect an honorary doctorate of music, and the slow trio section stuck.

The trio tune of Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 is better known in Britain by what name?

A. C. Benson added the words in 1902 and it is considered the unofficial anthem of the Conservative Party.

The word 'valedictorian' comes from a Latin phrase meaning what?

The salutatorian, ranked second, traditionally gives the opening address; in Australia the top student is the 'dux'.

In Australia, what Latin title is given to the highest-ranking student in a graduating class?

The word means 'leader'; the valedictorian term is mostly used in the US, Canada and the Philippines.

Which of these Latin honours ranks highest?

Meaning 'with extraordinary honours', it is a rare fourth tier above summa, used for a summa-level GPA earned on a harder curriculum.

What does 'magna cum laude' translate to?

Harvard College became the first US college to award final honours to its graduates in 1869.

Which was the first US college to award final honours to its graduates, in 1869?

The Latin honours system remains primarily American, with pockets in the Philippines, Indonesia and southern Africa.

What does the title of the traditional academic song 'Gaudeamus igitur' mean?

Its lyrics are thought to come from a 1287 manuscript, and it started life as a beer-drinking song.

Which composer quoted 'Gaudeamus igitur' in the finale of his Academic Festival Overture?

The song is also the official anthem of the International University Sports Federation.

Why is a graduation ceremony called a 'commencement' when it marks an ending?

Newly made bachelors and masters gained new privileges within the university.

Which famous economic programme was announced in a 1947 commencement address in Cambridge, Massachusetts?

Secretary of State George C. Marshall used the speech to propose rebuilding post-war Europe.

Where did Steve Jobs take 'Stay hungry. Stay foolish.', the closing line of his 2005 Stanford speech, from?

Stewart Brand's catalog signed off with the phrase in October 1974; Jobs called the publication 'Google in paperback form'.

David Foster Wallace's celebrated 2005 commencement speech 'This Is Water' was delivered where?

Wallace had graduated from Amherst; the Kenyon speech was published as a book after his death.

The 'Wear Sunscreen' speech often credited to Vonnegut was really a 1997 newspaper column by whom?

MIT's real 1997 speaker was Kofi Annan; Baz Luhrmann's spoken-word version hit number one in the UK and Ireland.

In which newspaper did the 'Wear Sunscreen' column first appear?

It ran on June 1, 1997, framed as a hypothetical commencement address.

What does 'honoris causa', attached to an honorary degree, mean?

Two of the earliest on record went to Lionel Woodville at Oxford in the late 15th century.

Which Muppet received an Honorary Doctorate of Amphibious Letters from Southampton College in 1996?

MIT, Cornell, Stanford and Rice, by contrast, refuse to award honorary degrees at all.

Which of these American universities does NOT award honorary degrees as a matter of policy?

Cornell, Stanford and Rice share the policy.

Which Founding Father called himself 'Doctor' after honorary doctorates from St Andrews and Oxford?

He never attended a university, but the title stuck for the rest of his life.

In which year did Yale award the first PhDs in the United States?

Three were given, in philosophy and psychology, physics and classics; the modern PhD came from Berlin's 1810 reforms.

At which university did Elena Cornaro Piscopia become the first woman PhD in 1678?

She spoke for an hour in Latin on Aristotle; the university then changed its statutes to bar women from graduating.

Which is recognised as the oldest such institution in continuous operation in the world?

Teaching began around 1088 and the students organised into guilds, the original 'universitas'.

Which Ohio college became the oldest coeducational US college by admitting four women in 1837?

Mary Jane Patterson graduated there with honours in 1862 as the first Black woman to earn a B.A.

The tradition of tossing caps in the air at graduation began in 1912 at which institution?

That year's midshipmen were commissioned straight away and no longer needed their old hats.

The tradition of the class ring originated with the class of 1835 at which school?

Etiquette guides say the insignia should face the wearer until graduation, then be turned outward.

Which college produced the first formal modern yearbook in 1806, using silhouettes?

Proto-yearbook scrapbooks had appeared in New England schools by the end of the 17th century.

In Finland, doctors in some faculties receive what unusual item along with their doctoral hat?

Finnish hat colours vary by field, whereas Swedish doctoral hats are always black.

Germany's school-leaving qualification, the Abitur, takes its name from a Latin word meaning what?

Prussia made it an official qualification in 1788.

Which French leader introduced the modern baccalauréat school-leaving examination in 1808?

Every candidate still sits the 'bac de philo' regardless of their field of study.

Roughly how many students sat China's gaokao university entrance exam in 2023?

Deng Xiaoping restored the exam in late 1977 after its suspension during the Cultural Revolution.

Which famous Harvard dropout returned in May 2017 to give the commencement speech and receive an honorary degree?

He had left in his second year to finish building Facebook.

The Swedish graduation cap tradition, dating to the mid-1700s, began among students at which university?

The cap is typically a white sailor hat with a dark band, a crown motif and a black peak, and it later spread across Europe.

What is it called when a student graduates without attending the ceremony?

Some graduates instead receive their diploma at smaller departmental ceremonies, or even by mail.

In which country do graduates of state universities traditionally shake the president's hand at the ceremony?

The head of state serves as chancellor and guest of honour, a role long associated with the late Robert Mugabe.

The mortarboard is thought to have developed from which hat worn by Roman Catholic clergy?

That hat may itself descend from the Roman pileus quadratus; the mortarboard likely originated in Italy no later than 1520.

By old convention, undergraduates at which university cut their cap tassels very short until they graduated?

After graduating they wore the tassel at normal length; the custom has since fallen out of use.

Elgar took the title 'Pomp and Circumstance' from which Shakespeare play?

The phrase comes from Act 3, Scene 3; the marches were written between 1901 and 1930.

Which Yale music professor invited Elgar to the 1905 commencement where the march was first played?

Elgar received an honorary doctorate and repaid the favour by dedicating his Introduction and Allegro to his host.

In Canada, the valedictorian title is often given on what basis rather than grades?

In the US the title usually goes to the student with the highest grade point average.