To avoid assigning duplicate hood linings to colleges and universities that used the same school colors, the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume (IBAC) used different types of heraldic patterns to divide the two or more colors in an academic hood. In IBAC lists from 1927 and 1948, a number of hood lining patterns were described as “[color] above [color]” or “[color] over [color]”, which referred either to a hood lining divided per chevron, per reversed chevron, or per bar. Unfortunately, today it is not usually known which of these three patterns the Bureau intended to describe.

Because metallic fabrics were not used by academic costume manufacturer Cotrell & Leonard (the depository for the Intercollegiate Bureau of Academic Costume), the Bureau assigned color descriptions of “yellow”, “orange”, “gold”, and “old gold” in a roughly synonymous manner, as were “white”, “silver”, “gray”, and “silver gray”, depending upon the shades of the color samples of gold or silver fabric a college or university sent to the IBAC. For instance, the school colors of the Michigan College of Mines were silver and gold, but according to academic hood lists published Bureau in 1927, 1948, and 1972 the college was assigned a hood lined “gold above white”. The heraldic division between the colors was not defined.