Why do you have to wear a degree gown and a doctoral cap to graduate from college?

The tradition of graduating in degree dress goes back at least as far as the 12th century, when the first universities were established in Europe. Back then, most students were mostly clergy or aspired to be clergy, so overdressing was not frowned upon. At first it was felt that scholars and clergymen should dress similarly, and to the general public they were all dressed in plain, colorful uniforms.

Not only that, but the clothes were actually worn for practical purposes. When the university was first built, they didn't have a building dedicated to classes, so classes were held in a nearby church. Their simple robes and coats were meant to keep them warm in the windy medieval church, and their hoods kept them out of the wind and rain when they were teaching outdoors.

At the Council of Oxford in 1222, Stephen Langton proposed that all clergy should wear the cappa clausa, a long shawl worn over the cassock. It was soon adopted by the new universities, while the general clergy gradually stopped wearing it, and it became the hallmark of the degree dress. By 1321, the University of Coimbra required solid-colored robes for all undergraduates. By the Tudors, Oxford and Cambridge had more or less adopted the basic style as the standard for degree dress.

Later, heavy coats were gradually discarded for comfort, while the robes were kept anyway. The color was kept solid, basically black.

It wasn't until the late 19th century that specific colors began to be used to represent different academic fields, and the standards for the colors were changed and altered by different universities over the centuries.

That's where the degree dress came from, so where did the doctoral cap, or mortarboard (which originally meant a tray of gray), come from?

One of the mortarboard designations comes from the fact that a doctor's cap is like a board used by masons to hold mortar. The hat is a square, flat board resting on a brimless cap with a spike tied in the center. Some historians believe that the doctor's hat evolved from the four-cornered hat (a type of hat that used to be worn by Roman Catholic clergy, students, and professors). The four-cornered cat hat may have evolved from the leather hats worn by the general population. It was first required by the church to be worn at the religious council of Bergamo in 1311, and has been popular among the clergy ever since.

By the 15th century, the doctoral cap became part of the standard degree dress in many places. Unlike today's doctoral hats, which have nothing but a barred spike, early hats would have had elaborate embroidery and jewelry on them.

Not only that, but in the early days, at some universities, only those who had earned a "master's" or "doctoral" degree had the right to wear it.