British schools and American schools use different color schemes
and gown styles. In general, American gowns are designed according to the
Intercollegiate Costume Code, which was established in the mid-1800s.
The school colors are inside the hood; the hood's trim indicates the
degree. Look below for a list of the colors that correspond to each
degree. (Note that the color usually signifies the degree, not
your field or major. So if you got a B.A. in music, the trim would be
white, not pink.)
Associate's gowns are often gray, and Bachelor's gowns are generally
black and have straight sleeves. The Master's gown looks much like the
Bachelor's, but it has long pointed sleeves. The Master's hood is longer
than the Bachelor's, which is in turn longer than the Associate's. Size does
matter.
Doctoral gowns are trimmed with three fuzzy stripes on the arms and two long fuzzy
stripes going down the center. Sometimes these stripes are black; other
times, they represent the degree colors. Some institutions have unique doctoral gowns (probably because they want to stand out and
look special). Here are all the unique gowns of which I'm aware:
Boston College: Maroon robe with black trim.
Brown: Brown robe with black trim.
Columbia: Gray robe; trim signifies field of study.
Cornell: Red robe with black trim.
Duke: Royal blue robe with black trim.
Harvard: Crimson robe with black trim.
Johns Hopkins: Dull gold robe
with black trim.
MIT: Gray robe with red trim.
New York University: Purple robe with black trim.
Northwestern: Purple robe with
black trim.
Princeton: Black robe with orange trim.
Rutgers: Red robe with black trim.
University of Chicago: Maroon robe with black trim.
University of Pennsylvania: Red robe; sleeves are
red at the top, but blue at the bottom.
Yale: Royal blue robe with black trim.
Here are the colors that correspond to each degree.
I've organized them by color shade with browns and metallics at the
end.
White: Arts and Letters (BA, MA)
Pink: Music (MM, DM); Social Work (MSW)
Salmon: Public Health (MPH)
Crimson: Communication
Scarlet: Divinity, Theology (BD, MDiv, DD, MTh, etc.)
Apricot: Nursing (BSN, MSN)
Orange: Engineering (BSE, MSE, etc.)
Lemon: Library Science (MLS)
Yellow: Science (BS, MS, ScD)
Maize: Agriculture
Green: Medicine (MD, DO)
Olive: Pharmacy, other health degrees (MHS, PharmD)
Light Blue: Counseling, Education (EdD)
Blue: Philosophy (MPhil, PhD,DPhil)
Blue-Violet: Architecture
Lavender: Dentistry (DDS, DMD)
Purple: Law (JD, SJD, LLM)
Russet (reddish-brown): Forestry (MF), Conservation
Brown: Fine Arts (BFA, MFA)
Gray: Veterinary Medicine (DVM)
Copper: Accounting, Business (MBA), Commerce, Economics
Silver: Chiropractic, Speech, Oratory
Gold: Psychology (PsyD)
Again, if you have additions, please /msg me. Thanks!