Class ring

There is a wide selection of emblems, pictures, and words that can be added to the sides of the rings and even inside the center gem.

[2] The other United States Service Academies and the Senior Military Colleges have also implemented their own versions of the tradition, most commonly featuring a Ring Ceremony involving a dance or figure, occurring during the cadet or midshipmen’s spring of their junior year, or fall of their senior year.

The "Complete Book of Etiquette" by Amy Vanderbilt indicates the following protocol for wearing of a class ring.

An additional justification for this practice is the rationale that the ring also symbolizes the graduate themself: during the wearer's time in school, they focus on self-development and goals specific to the insular academic environment; upon graduation, the wearer enters the wider world and puts what they have learned to work in shaping it.

[3] A notable exception to this protocol is the custom followed by older graduating classes of the United States Military Academy at West Point.