to not want to hire a gown and a silly hat to wear for my graduation this summer?

[vinisque]

Just that really. I am in the final year of my fine art degree and have been discussing the snobby tradition of graduates wearing the cap and gown with my fellow students. We were talking about making our own graduation clothing when our tutor told us that we are not allowed to wear our own, we have to hire the university cap and gown. If this is true I will be so annoyed I don't think I will bother going to my own graduation ceremony. Am I being unreasonable?

Most universities have a hardship fund if you really can't afford it.

I personally love a bit of pageantry. The art students at the Uni I work for wear the best shoes ever for graduation, it's like a sort of competition.

You only have to wear it for an hour. It's no biggie. You don't have to go if you don't want to.

No No mellow that isn't what I'm saying at all. If you'd read my post you'd have said I thought they were all absurd and a waste of time.

I am just saying that it seems incongruous. You'd I have thought amongst the brave new world of modernist campuses, they'd have divised a more contemporary graduation ceremony rather than cod medieval.

Now would you like some salt and vinegar for the chip on your shoulder?

i didn't go to mine

just went for the photos with the hat and gown the photographer had holing that plastic tube thing so it looks like a rolled up degree

I think it'll turn into one of those situations where you'll look back and regret not doing it.

And you'll miss the pissed up fun of running up and down the student village billowing your cloak behind you like a superhero, going to the petrol station in it for fags, and wearing it as a dressing gown the next morning.

It was great being with everyone for one last time in a shared experience. I've never been in the same room again with all my classmates.

Really enjoyed it for my first degree, and had fun with friends, lovely memories by way of photos etc with them and family.
When I did my Masters, I had two dc's under five and just couldn't be bothered with the organisation and childcare arrangements, so went out for a super meal including dc's with family instead.
Dh has resolutely not bothered to go to the ceremonies to receive his first degree, masters and PhD. Probably the self-employed mentality of taking a day out which is worth x amount in earnings to him so I sort of understand it. I'd have loved to see him getting his doctorate though, and have a pic of him dressed in the gear!

'The achievement is in getting the degree, I don't see that the ceremony adds anything.'

This.

Although had Patrick Stewart been involved I might have changed my mind

Mind you I managed to go to the sort of university where there was all sorts of Tradition, and resolutely ignored balls, boat races and suchlike. (I did have a bloody good time, though, Objecting To Things and smoking dope along with a fair amount of work.)

My DD is going to Uni this year. If/when she graduates she'd better bloody well go to the ceremony because I'll be working very very hard over the next 3 years to pay for it. And I want to take pride and satisfaction in that.

I graduated in absentia mainly for financial reasons, but also I married between last exam and graduation and the then-husband couldn't get more time off to attend. That was in 1997, and my mother still hasn't forgiven me, she wanted to attend the ceremony despite it being 4 hours long and in a language she doesn't understand!

YABU

I went and it was quite a special day. Don't go if you don't want to.
As to snobby - not sure why you'd say that. For me and my friends - from a wide range of backgrounds - it was a day which made it very clear that we had each earned the right to wear academic dress.

A soldier gets his stripes, a pilot gets his wings, a child may wear a school or brownie uniform, a footballer gets to wear the team strip or a captain's armband. And mostly people are proud to have earned the right to do so. If you are not, and it doesn't mean anything to you, fair enough, - no-one is making you do it.

If you don't want to wear it and don't agree with it then don't go. Nothing wrong with that as many people don't go

bookroomred there is no mortar board worn at Cambridge graduations (I was quite disappointed).OP if you don't respect the institution, why bother with the degree?

I would love to wear a cap and gown to my own graduation ceremony, unfortunately I am nowhere near clever enough to do a degree.YABU

I didn't got to the graduation for my first degree as I don't like formal ceremonies either and didn't want to pay for the gown hire etc. I don't regret not going, and I'm doing a second degree now and won't go to graduation for that either. I wouldn't make a fuss about it though as it is a bit pointless.

It's (generally) an obligate part of the ceremony to wear the gown and cap, and is symbolic of your rights to wear the 'uniform'. I went to my undergrad ceremony, but haven't bothered with the ones for my Masters degrees. YANBU to not want to bother with the ceremony, but if you want to go to the party you have to go with the dress code.

As you get higher and higher degrees, you get the academic gang colours creeping in, which conform to rather medieval ideas of taste and sumptuary, particularly the doctorate robes. Remember, because the outfits have that history, the specific quality, volume, folds and cuts of the material all have meanings and rank associated with them (or did, 500 years ago). Of my degrees, the setup for my undergrad is the most tasteful - black with a blue and white silk hood. The other two were a voluminous light blue robe with a black hood lined with yellow silk, or a fancier black robe with a full maroon & gold taffeta hood of my other MA. A friend who went on to get a doctorate gets a delightful scarlet and gold taffeta confection, with pale blue trim. Quite why a university founded in 1971 conforms to medieval sumptuary laws is a bit outside of my speciality, but if you're going to install some traditional pageantry, you may as well go whole-hog.

OP. Road cone? Attention seek all you want but not at someone else's big day. Stay away if your intention is to try to grab the limelight from all those who it means something to.

Nasty, entitled, pretentious arty types.

jessiemcjessie, you are allowed to wear a mortar board at Cambridge graduations. It is just that hardly anyone does and you need to take it off when you are in the Senate House.

Anyway, at Cambridge, we are positively modern. While the women must wear:

Dress Option Two

A black, very dark grey or very dark blue skirt suit or trouser suit, or a dark skirt without a jacket, or a dark, long-sleeved dress. These must be dark enough not to contrast obviously with a black gown.
A plain, long-sleeved, white shirt or blouse (unless a long-sleeved dress is worn).
Formal black shoes. Sandals are not permitted.
Unpatterned black, nearly-black, or natural coloured hosiery.
A white bow-tie and bands may be worn (optional) but only with a properly collared white shirt.

You'll note that we are allowed natural coloured hosiery. At Oxford, it is only black tights allowed!

Cambridge Academical Dress

Oxford

It's probably been said already but look at it like this...

You may well not have another chance at this experience. Why not just throw yourself into it? You never know, it might be ok or even fun. It'll be no good looking back in 20 years time and wishing you'd bothered.