Student: medium skin tone

A student or a fresh graduate, shown in cap and gown. The emoji shows a person wearing a flat square cap with a tassel and a dark gown. Its official name is simply "student", but because that outfit is worn at graduation ceremonies, many people read it as "graduate" too. On its own it covers the whole stretch from the first day of term to the diploma: someone starting university, someone deep in exams, someone who has just finished. The picture you see is the gender-neutral form; the same character exists as a man 👨‍🎓 and a woman 👩‍🎓, and all of them come in five skin tones.

The outfit is academic dress, a tradition that grew out of medieval European universities; the version in the emoji is the one made familiar by British and American ceremonies. The square cap is a mortarboard, so called because it looks like the flat board a bricklayer holds mortar on. The gown is usually black, though its cut, hood and trim vary from one university to the next. Many places have their own graduation customs instead, from white student caps in Sweden, Finland and Denmark to laurel wreaths in Italy, but the mortarboard has become the best-known international shorthand for "graduation", which is why this emoji is so widely understood.

What does it mean when someone sends you 🧑‍🎓?

Either "I graduated" or "I'm a student now"; check what's next to it. Beside 🎉, 🎊 or 🥳 it is a graduation announcement, and the right reply is congratulations. Beside 📚, ☕ or 😩 it means studying, usually with exams close. In a profile bio it just states that the person is a student. From a parent or grandparent, often with a photo, it is usually pride in a child who has just finished school or college. It is a warm, plain emoji with no widely known double meaning.