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- Hacker News
- Cool project. And it goes to show how this education system is scammed out to the max, even cap and gown.by classified
- I just graduated this weekend and my school gave us our cap and gown for free. Seems fair with how much we're paying...by smlavine
- Oh to be young and have oodles of free time again
- Those ATtiny85 boards that plug directly into a USB port are great if you need 1 to 5 GPIOs and/or a HID interface. At 2 dollars apiece or so it's worth having a few around.by anilakar
- Living in the PE side of software, with its EBITDA and other metrics, poorly researched product initiatives, senseless firefighting, and toxic bro cultures, it's nice to be reminded some of the reasons I got into this. Thank you.
- > So you do need to shell out to rent them. And they don’t give you the option to buy the cap and gown outright.
You can't buy them from a 3rd party? Maybe a cheap Spirit Halloween costume? Maybe even make your own from cardboard and a black napkin or two?
by kmoser - Then you probably won't match the rest of the class.by thekevan
- Side note:
> What if, say, you say you’re fine without a cap and gown? Well, then you can’t walk in the ceremony. So you do need to shell out to rent them.
No, you don’t need to shell out. You get you diploma regardless of whether you participate in the ceremony or not.
I chose not to participate because I knew it would be long and boring, and I still got my diploma all the same.
by nkrisc - > Fun fact #1: you rent your cap and gown in the US. You have to return them. And they’re expensive, too! I paid $94 just for the privilege of renting mine
Ah, the final way that US universities transfer wealth from students to corporations... just before they start sending out begging letters for alumni donations to the poor, destitute university*
*: my university shuttered the CS graduate program the year I graduated, on the basis that "there are more jobs in communications", so I never donated a red cent
by swiftcoder - I am pretty sure I purchased my cap and gown instead of renting. But my college was a bit smaller.by LandenLove
- Yeah, there was no option to rent at my school. I purchased those things, not that I'll ever use them again.by bigstrat2003
- Wouldn't the purchase option be priced at a multiple to the rental?by airstrike
- At my school, I purchased my cap but rented the gown. The cap is in a box never to be looked at again. I can't imagine what I would do with the gown.by wolpoli
- If you go to a bigger school, they have multiple graduation ceremonies. Split the rental amongst anyone who does not share a time slot with you.
That’s what I did and people acted like this was a genius move. No, I am just broke.
by 0cf8612b2e1e - You can just not participate in the ceremony and then you don’t have to spend any extra money at all.by nkrisc
- I just did online school and didn't bother showing up to any kind of ceremony. I was 30 when I finally finished school, I didn't really feel the need to prove anything.by tombert
- I skipped the graduation ceremonies for my BA and my first master’s degree. For my second, apparently the cost of a cap, gown and hood was included in the tuition so I have academic regalia sitting in a box somewhere should I ever find myself in need of such, a scenario I cannot imagine ever coming to pass.by dhosek
- > Fun fact #1: you rent your cap and gown in the US. You have to return them. And they’re expensive, too! I paid $94 just for the privilege of renting mine, which is insane because they probably cost way less than that to manufacture.
Ah, yes, of course this is how it works in the US.
by rustybolt - That must be new; I walked in 2009 and we got to keep oursby nunez
- We are by all concievable measures living in the best timeline and under the best economic system. Just look at the graphs. Just consider what an American symbol the graduation cap is. We don’t really know why, but I think a likely reason is that making graduation caps under most economic systems is too labor intensive. Some families might not have even been able to send their children to universities since they couldn’t rent or buy graduation caps—and certainly not make them themselvse—and not doing so would be a complete humiliation for their family or clan or what they have in other countries.by keybored
- I'm surprised at the concept, somehow I thought the whole "graduation cap" thing was just in movies. Seems out of place in a country that's otherwise so individualistic.by skrebbel
- Yes, you have to pay a decent wage to the people helping you fit, cleaning, and storing the goods. Manufacture is done in a low cost country with cheap labour, so buying clothing seems cheap.
- I don’t doubt that some offer and charge for rentals. (I think mine only charged $130 ish for purchase though.)
However, I am shocked to hear that there is not even an option to purchase them at OP’s university. Many people like to keep them, especially the cap at least, as a souvenir, or their parents will keep it. Besides, couldn’t they make more money selling them?
- You generally rent caps and gowns in the UK too. Can you share where you are that you buy them?by philipwhiuk
- FWIW I'm in the US and I bought mine. Renting does seem to make more sense here as the gown has no utility outside of this one event.by nsvd2
- It depends entirely on school.
Mine wasn't like that (and still isn't). Multiple friends of mine are graduating from NYU this month, and their situation isn't like like that either.
Every school I've ever encountered gives an option to purchase (with some being way more affordable than others). E.g., NYU JD (law school) cap and gown is roughly $98 to purchase (not to rent) this year.
by filoleg - > It probably would’ve been easier if I didn’t use Rust and just used the Arduino libraries, or if I used a different board. But I was really married to this blog post title idea
Worth it, nicely done
by katzgrau