A Complete Guide to Graduation Cord Colors & Their Meanings

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This article was co-authored by wikiHow writer Sophie Burkholder, BA. Sophie Burkholder graduated from Boston University in 2020 with a double major in Spanish and Modern Foreign Language Education. Sophie worked as a classroom teacher for three years and tried to inspire a love of learning and self-empowerment in her students. With the same purpose but a new audience, he now writes for the content team at wikiHow. She is passionate about giving readers the tools they need for any goal, big or small. There are 16 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of all facts cited and confirming the authority of its sources. Find out more…

The pomp, the circumstances and the colors of the graduation cable… can you say that? There are few days more special and celebrated than a high school or college graduation, so it’s only fitting that deserving graduates are honored with graduation cords that represent their various accomplishments. But what do these graduation strings mean and what does each individual color represent? Below, we’ll explain the most common meanings of each graduation ribbon color for high school and college seniors—however, keep in mind that every school is unique, so some of these meanings may differ between institutions.

1. Gold: High academic achievement with Latin honors (eg summa cum laude).
2. Silver: Significant community engagement or volunteer hours.
3. red: Success in journalism, humanities or arts.
4. blue: Success in education, philosophy or social sciences.
5. green: Achievements in science, especially environmental sciences.
6. White: Success in the arts, literature or humanities.
7. Pink: Success in music or performing arts.

1. 

   red Red cords can represent achievements in the arts or a specific academic subject designated by an individual institution. These subjects often include journalism, music, public health and conservation, among others. In these cases, a faculty member within that subject area may nominate a particularly successful student to receive a red graduation cord.

   • A red graduation ribbon may also indicate membership in the Spanish National Honor Society, ASGA (American Student Government Association), or other designated organization.[1]

2. green Green cords are sometimes associated with extracurricular activities and an individual student’s involvement in a particular club—especially if that club involves community service. Alternatively, a green ribbon may denote academic achievement in environmental or sustainability sciences.[2]

3. Blue Blue ribbons can have different meanings depending on the high school. Sometimes they denote membership in certain honor societies, while on other occasions they represent achievements in the social sciences. Royal blue is especially often used to represent leadership and community service or membership in an organization such as ASGA (American Student Government Association), Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA), or FFA (Future Farmers of America).[3]

   • On the other hand, sky blue lanyards can denote graduated Eagle Scouts.

4. Purple Purple strings usually represent achievements in the arts or humanities. It can also indicate career excellence in technical education, most commonly awarded in technical secondary schools and trade-oriented secondary schools.

5. Pink Pink strings usually recognize students with significant achievements in music and performing arts. In other cases, it may represent students who are members of the Science National Honor Society, or HOSA, which stands for “Future Health Professionals.”

6. White White certificates are usually awarded to students who have excelled in humanities fields such as English and history. They can also be worn by students who belong to the Music Honor Society or the French National Honor Society.[4]

7. Silver Silver ribbons are most often used to honor students for their achievements in community service. If a student has logged a significant number of volunteer or community service hours, for example, they can receive a silver wire.[5]

8. Gold Gold ribbons are usually used to denote high academic achievement. For high school students, a gold ribbon can mean being on the honor roll, graduating with honors, or being named valedictorian or valedictorian in the class. A gold ribbon may also indicate their involvement in certain honor societies, including the Spanish National Honor Society and the Beta Club.[6]

9. Multi-Colored Multicolored ribbons may represent membership in a multidisciplinary honor society or may signify that a student has excelled academically in a variety of subject areas. Some cultural or ethnic student groups may also give away multicolored lanyards – for example, members of the Black Student Union have been known to wear lanyards in kente colors (black, green, red and yellow).[7]

1. 

   red Red ribbons usually represent achievement in a particular field—at most universities, red ribbons represent the humanities, journalism, music, public health, or conservation. They may also indicate membership in a society such as ASGA (American Student Government Association), Gamma Sigma Alpha, or Alpha Beta Kappa.[8]

   • The maroon cord, in particular, usually shows recipients of degrees in forestry, theology, and human development.[9]
     Alternatively, it may identify membership in honor societies such as Alpha Sigma Lambda, Delta Epsilon Sigma, and Omega Chi Epsilon.

2. Orange Orange wires are usually awarded to exemplary students in the field of engineering. Members of Tau Beta Pi—the university’s honor society for engineers—may also wear the lanyard.[10]

3. green Green ribbons usually represent academic achievement in scientific fields or in the field of environmental studies. Emerald green is also used by many Greek organizations. Consequently, a graduation lanyard in this color can signify membership in Kappa Delta Pi, Sigma Lambda Alpha, or Phi Sigma.[11]

   • In some cases, the forest green ribbons may represent graduates in medicine, biology or general sciences.

4. Turquoise Turquoise cords are usually worn by public administration or performing arts graduates. However, these lanyards are also used by sororities such as Zeta Tau Alpha and Alpha Kappa Delta, so they can represent membership in those Greek organizations.[12]

5. Blue Blue strings usually indicate excellence in a particular discipline. Most often, universities present these awards to distinguished graduates of education or philosophy programs, although they can also be given to students who have been active leaders on campus or engaged in significant community service.

   • In particular, royal blue cords can also mean membership in organizations such as Phi Kappa Pi, Alpha Kappa Mu, Beta Gamma Sigma, ASGA (American Student Government Association), DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) and FFA (Future Farmers of America).[13]
   • Navy blue cords also denote philosophy graduates or members of the British Navy.
   • Sky blue cords usually identify students. Sky blue is also sometimes used by Greek organizations, such as Phi Beta Kappa and Gamma Phi Delta.[14]

6. Purple Purple ribbons often denote academic achievement in fields such as law, dentistry, urban planning, architecture and theology. In other cases, they may identify students as members of HOSA (Future Health Professionals) or Kappa Delta Pi.[15]

7. Pink Pink ribbons usually denote special achievements in music or other artistic fields. These strings can also be used to identify medical, mathematics and chemistry graduates.[16]
   In other cases, a pink ribbon might indicate membership in an academic honor society such as the Music Honor Society.

8. Black Black ribbons usually represent achievements in business or accounting. Graduates of business education can also wear them. Alternatively, black graduation ties may indicate membership in an academic honor society.[17]

9. White White ribbons can be used to mark achievements in a number of fields, including the arts, literature and humanities.[18]
   They may also be used to identify members of the Music Honor Society, the French National Honor Society, Alpha Kappa Mu, and Sigma Theta Tau.

10. Silver Silver strings are most often used to recognize students who have made a significant contribution to their community or who have completed a large number of hours of community service. On other occasions, silver cords denote students with degrees in oratory, veterinary medicine, and other medical sciences. Less commonly, it may be given to students in fields such as agriculture, business management and physics.[19]

11. Gold Gold ribbons usually indicate high academic achievement, such as graduating with Latin honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, or summa cum laude). Typically, these honors are given to those with particularly high GPAs (grade point averages). Gold ribbons are also sometimes used to denote affiliation with the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority.[20]

12. Double or multicolored Double cords or multi-colored cords can be used to represent membership in a particular organization or honor society. They can also be used to represent double achievement in different academic fields – a pink and purple double ribbon, for example, can represent achievement in theology and music.

    • Multi-colored cords may also be given by cultural or ethnic groups of students to identify members of the prom.[21]
    • Other double pairs of cables, such as dark blue and silver, usually indicate membership in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

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