Graduation dress code.

[Undercoverbanana]

Is there such a thing?

I am seeing photos of friends’ daughters graduations and they are all look awful. Boobs out, bums out, visible underwear through thin, skin tight fabric. Inch thick make-up and thick slug eyebrows. Heels they can’t walk in. And the pouting!!!!!

It’s a graduation ceremony. You need to get a job on the back of this and pay off all that debt.

Is it the Kardashian effect? They all look like strippers.

But I know they are lovely, attractive, intelligent young women who do not want to be strippers and yet we can see the pattern on your thong. Is this a fashion that will just go away? I do hope so.

And the nails. Oh please make it go away.

DS wore a suit. No-one saw his nipples or his underwear and he wasn’t lost under a gallon of warpaint.

SunburstsOrMarbleHalls
It's the praelector that gets fined not the graduands.
They get fined in port, I believe - or rather, the College['s wine cellar] does.

Hollycatberry - they specify that granduands wear black hair ribbons, too... but this is a place where the week begins on Thursday; an awful lot still happens in Latin; & the university is able to appoint police officers if the mood takes them, but if a student wants to keep a car in the city they need an exceptional reason & to apply to the Proctor For Motor Vehicles (who also handles applications from students wishing to keep their speedboats on the Cam)

MonumentVal - I think we were allowed to wear nude tights. Skirts had to be below the knee rather than LONG-long (as it were). It's amazing how quick the Senate House staff were on their whizz round to tidy us all up.

At both my graduation ceremonies - 2 different ancient universities - there were strict rules that said we had to wear subfusc and/or national dress. Knee length black skirts, white blouses, black shoes. We were inspected to check everything was 'comme il faut'.

But I now live in another university city and they look like they're going clubbing straight after.

And then in the ceremony we got hit over the head with a pair of trousers.

It's traditional.

Well Polliadh either went to St Andrew's or somewhere else has Ceremonial Trousers...

Somewhere else has ceremonial trousers! Maybe in reality all the ancients have got bits of trousers?

Good grief. UCL gives a [headless] corpse a vote in meetings; Sidney Sussex have someone else's head hidden away for safekeeping (TBF in my paternal grandmother's house "The C-Word" WAS Cromwell, so probably wise even now); & now it seems Ceremonial Trousers are en vogue.

Jesus Mary & Joseph universities are weird.

We had a dress code but it wasn't super strictly enforced so you still got the females in the over short dresses, constantly tugging the hem down, tottering in their heels, and caked in makeup.

I've been to two graduations - undergrad and post grad - and on both occasions then men looked smart as a whole while the female population is ruined by those who think their on a night out and dress like tarts.

I noticed the opposite at my DS1's graduation from Oxford a few years back. All the times we had visited him while he was there the female students were dressed in tight short dresses, heroin chic style makeup, generally a rather tarty look. On graduation day they were wearing the regulation garb, long flowing hair, make up with a healthy glow, looking like a group of young milkmaids! I hate these slug eyebrows they all have and just know that in a few years time when the fashion has gone they will hate the photos showing them.

OP. I happen to agree with everything you say. But you know, this is Mumsnet where you aren’t allowed to criticise the way women look or dress ............... unless they happen to be either Kate or Meghan in which case you can go in with no holds barred and be as critical and/or insulting as you like.

When I went to ds's, I didn't see anyone dressed like you describe. I have also seen lots of pics of friends dc over the last 4 or 5 years and haven't seen anyone dressed like that either, so I'd say there is a dress code, and, IME, people adhere to it. There were too many who hadn't thought out the shoes, and the fact they would be tottering walking up steps, across a stage and down steps the other side with hundreds of pairs of eyes upon them.
I disagree with the "It's 2018, women can wear whatever they want" posts. People need to learn there is a time and a place for most outfits. Weddings, christenings, job interviews, Summer balls, funerals, and graduations are some of lots of places where there is an expected standard of dress. Nightclubbing has a different dress code. Skiing has a different dress code. Camping has another. Going to watch a football / rugby match has another. Going to the gym has another. People need to learn what to wear, when.

You realise most people never fully pay off their student loans, right?

You get a certain amount deducted when earning over £25k a year. I'll be lucky if I earn that in 10 years.

I have a question. MsFrizzle say most people never pay off their student loan. I am not sure if that is correct but if it is something is very clearly wrong. Why do a degree if you are not hoping to earn £25k. My DS has recently graduated from a RG university. He would be very disappointed if he didn't have that salary in a few years. He is quite happy to work in London.

Have we really dumbed down degrees so that they are becoming meaningless and don't lead to a well paid career. Why not start work immediately after school or do an apprenticeship/college course rather than a full degree. When my DS went into Clearing with an ABB grade one of the London uni's approached him stating that he could join them with two EE's!

Also, in regards to the derogatory comments about strippers, there's absolutely nothing wrong with someone actively choosing that line of work and it's a very hard job to do well, not for the faint hearted as an "easy money" sort of thing

So do drug dealers and hit men, still wouldn’t aspire to it though 🤷🏻‍♀️

@sunglasses123

Have we really dumbed down degrees so that they are becoming meaningless?

Yes. Not in all cases but with the obsession of getting bums on seats as opposed to anything else, that is the way it has gone IME. Or more the entry requirements are too low. Some of your ex polys- as I say - not all - are an example of this.

I do think that the whole of the university sector needs to be reviewed by maybe a cross party group.

Huge VC salaries, shiny new buildings, glossy brochures etc was what I saw at DS's. Certainly the RG my son attended was very snazzy and he absolutely did the right thing in studying for a degree (I didn't go, in my day only 5% of people went) but it seems that the big employers are now recognising that there are degrees and degrees.

Lets make a vocational course equally as acceptable to apply for. Why does everyone feel the need to have a degree especially with all that debt and if you never even start to pay it back then surely it would have been better to start work immediately. I know some degrees are work experience as well i.e nursing and that's a great idea but I feel the universities are now awash with money. No VC needs £450k plus plus plus.

I guess they didn't know what to spend the funding on so decided to spend it on themselves!

A lot of British girls are doing themselves a disservice by dressing like this - if you want to be taken seriously you better not have your underwear on show, have nails that impair your movements, and have heels that you can’t walk in (if you can walk in super high heels, great. If you can’t, don’t wear them). Unfortunately a lot of young women do come to work dressed like strippers, and then complain if they are not taken seriously (same for young men arriving in a tank top - happens a lot less often though).
Nobody takes somebody serious who can’t dress in an appropriate way and wears clothes that impair work (yes, falling over because your heels are too high and being off sick because of it IS unprofessional)

The dress code at graduations seems to vary hugely with each university. I’ve attended 4 graduations in the past few years and some expected formal dress from the graduands and others specified smart/casual.