<p>For campus interviews, I suspect they’ve seen everything in terms of tatoos and piercings. If they reject you because you look more out there than the student body, perhaps that’s just as well. For alumni interviews I’d be more conservative, on the theory that they may not be as in touch with current looks. I’ve finally gotten used to eyebrow piercings, but for a long time they made my stomach churn. And I can guarantee that a tongue stud would probably influence me negatively. (Luckily I don’t do alumni interviews!)</p>
<p>Anyway, wear what you want on a tour, but leave the rattiest t-shirts and jeans behind. If you have an on campus interview, I’d lean tow., but I don’t think it’s critical.</p>
<p>There’s hardly any situation in which a polo shirt and khakis will be overdressing. It’s probably dressy enough for any college interview, including at the interviewer’s law firm office.</p>
<p>khaki pants and a collared shirt for dudes is a safe bet, but we all know that most of the kids wear jeans. There are jeans and then there are jeans. Try your best to encourage your kids not to opt for the slob jeans.</p>
<p>They need to be comfortable. Frankly dressing a grunge/emo/east coast hipster kid up in a polo shirt and khakis would probably make that person as uncomfortable as trying to put my kid in skinny jeans and black and sticking Vans on his feet. He would be horrendously uncomfortable and whine that I was messing with his mojo and most likely end up fidgeting in his seat. One is not right or better than another, the kids are what they are. Just make sure they wash behind the ears, clean their fingernails, smell good and their t-shirt doesn’t say anything horribly offensive. I’ve got one I can’t get out of athletic gear and generally smells like a gym if not coated in Axe, one that I can’t expand his wardrobe past black, needs a haircut, has scruffy facial hair and looks like a homeless person at times and one that looks like I spoon-fed him the preppy handbook since birth and reeks of Polo green and they could no more dress in each others clothes than go buck naked…so I know.</p>
<p>Right, but there is a I-care-about-how-I-put-myself-together look and a I-don’t-care look. The bohemian / purple haired girl I mentioned was absolutely charming. Her outfit expressed her creativity and her personality, and showed she cared about how she presented herself, even though it wasn’t conventional.</p>
<p>Oh absolutely Pizza, we’ll even take our homeless looking one into restaurants occasionally when he’s home from college as long as he smells OK and his fingernails are clean… LOL…plus his Polo green wearing brother will give him plenty of crap if he stinks or his t-shirt has a hole or food smears. I did give him the once over inspection before we did the college circuit several years ago lest anyone think I’m a mother-failure although if I recall he spilled cola on his pants before we got to the first admissions office.</p>