Undergraduate and Master's Degree Candidates

Academic regalia for all bachelor's and master's degree candidates is available for purchase through the Columbia University Bookstore. No pre-ordering is necessary; simply go to the bookstore in Lerner Hall anytime from March, 25, 2008 until the morning of Commencement to purchase a cap and gown. These gowns are not rentals, but souvenirs - yours to keep, without the trouble of pre-orders or returns.

Some schools pay for their students' academic regalia; if this is true of your school (your school will notifiy you), please remember to give your name to the regalia representative when you pick up your gown at the bookstore.

The purchase costs for academic attire can be found on the bookstore website.

Doctoral and LL.M Candidates, and Faculty

Academic regalia for doctoral and LLM candidates require special ordering through the Columbia University Bookstore. You may order your Doctoral and LLM regalia, for rental or purchase, from the bookstore website or your School's Commencement coordinator. Rental and purchase prices are available on the bookstore Web site.

Please place all orders for doctoral gowns by April 11, 2008. After this date a late fee of $20.00 will be assessed for expedited processing. Orders placed by April 11 will be available for pick up in the bookstore on May 1, 2008.

Please note that only faculty, doctoral, and LLM students wear hoods.

Grad Fair

On March 25 - 27, 2008 the Columbia University Bookstore in Lerner Hall (on the Morningside Campus) will host a Grad Fair during regular business hours. 

The Columbia University Medical Center Bookstore at Audubon will also host a Grad Fair on March 28, 2008 during regular bookstore hours.

At these fairs, you will be able to order academic regalia, graduation announcements, rings, and diploma frames. For more information, please visit the bookstore website or call the bookstore at 212-854-4132.

History of Academic Regalia

The academic costume worn now originated in the Middle Ages when a warm gown and hood were practical garb for scholars studying in unheated buildings. The distinctive gown set the student apart from his fellow citizens, hence the perennial controversy between "town and gown." Until after the American Civil War, Columbia students wore caps and gowns daily while in residence at the college.

In 1894, an American Intercollegiate Commission met at Columbia for the purpose of standardizing the style and color for robes and hoods. It was decided that all robes would be black; bachelors' gowns to be made of worsted wool with pointed sleeves; masters' gowns of silk with long closed sleeves; doctors' gowns faced with black velvet with three bars across the sleeves. Hoods were made of the same materials as the gowns, the length varying with the degree. Only the lining of the hood indicated the university--for Columbia, light blue with a white chevron. The border color indicated the academic discipline in which the degree was earned. In the late twentieth century, universities in America began to adopt more colorful robes. The Columbia gown is now slate blue.