I’ll be going for interviews in December, up in New England and I have no idea what to wear. To put this in context, the temperature in the city where I live is still in the high seventies, and ‘freezing cold winter weather’ to us would be sixty degrees fahrenheit, brrr.
I’ve never dressed colder weather before, and I have no idea how things work. (I see how this is going to a slight problem if I do end up going to BS, but let’s solve that when the time comes) Either way, would anyone want to help?
We had the same issue. Watch the weather several days before you are set to leave. DS wore a nice wool pea coat/suit type winter coat with his clothes (he wore suits to all interviews). He also wore dress shoes. (The walkways will be shoveled if it snows). I wore what I kept calling “respectable mom” clothes and dressed in layers with. Ice boots. Layers really are key. Plus, the cold there for some reason seems less so than it does at home. 30 degrees really wasn’t as freezing as it is in Tx…who knows why. Don’t forget gloves, a hat or winter headband (prevents hat hair). Basically it will depend on the weather while you’re there! Good luck!!!
Depending on where specifically you are going, take the weather.com, weather app, etc. predictions with a grain of salt. If precipitation is predicted, it can be worse than predicted, and it frequently snows when not predicted. Nearly every time I went to my son’s school in NW CT in the fall it rained at least a little, even when the forecast said 0% chance of rain, and they’ve had measurable snow that wasn’t forecast. Just be sensible, and @buuzn03 is right about gloves and head or ear coverings. Hopefully you’ll get lucky and be pleasantly surprised – the weather up here is all over the place; today it’s in the 50s in CT.
TBH…we just packed layers, so we had double the amount of clothes (I, myself had multiple shoe options…DS only brought the one pair for interviews)…our suitcases were overly full because we had all options. Thank goodness for Southwest no baggage fees!!!
Another interesting thing about New England is the colder it is outside, the warmer they keep the buildings. I second, third and fourth layers. Nothing worse than being all warm and cozy outside and then feeling nauseous inside because you are so overheated.
Bring a good jacket to wear and good footwear. Although this season is not as cold as it generally is during this time of the year, it is still pretty cold for someone coming from outside. Inside the buildings they keep it quite warm.
When I interviewed/toured I wore a suit and a ski jacket. The girls I saw tour were mostly wearing nice slacks, button down blouses, thick sweaters and flats with a coat. Very few actually wore dresses. Hope that helped.
@swimmer0521@sush2016@vwlizard@buuzn03@CTMom21 thanks for all your help! Any idea where I can buy winter clothes, like stores or companies? (I wear shorts all year long, pants in the winter if it’s really cold. Footwear for us is trainers all year long, so…)
@altablue you sound just like my DS. He already had to wear suits on Wednesdays for his LDS and for hockey games, so we had his suit from Dillard’s already. In preparation for BS (after M10), we actually found him golf pants from Dick’s because he refuses to wear jeans (at home he wore amphibious board shorts everyday). The golf pants were the same material as the board shorts. Then, I found stuff on clearance through Nordstrom rack online (fleece pullovers and a down coat). I think that’s also where we got his wool dress coat for interviews. With online shopping, it makes it easy. He’s only worn pants three times so far and every time it was running tights for XC practice when the temperature was below 30. So, I’m waiting for our pants purchases to come into use!! Oh. And while I was up there for parents weekend, I went to an Ugg outlet and found him winter boots on clearance. You won’t need to worry about any of that, thought until spring/summer which is when you’ll get the best prices on stuff!
@buuzn03 that’s hilarious, I hate jeans as well! I guess, just getting some good boots and a great, warm coat ought to last me through the winter when I visit, yeah?
Absolutely. Layers layers layers is the way to go. And I wouldn’t get too warm of boots, either…everyone is right…the buildings will be warm, very warm. So just get a sensible boot/shoe that will keep your feet dry and a decent coat for outside…you should be fine!
Lands End is easiest for pants because many you can order to your inseam so you won’t have to shorten them once you get them. My son hates the feel of jeans, but there are some Old Navy khakis that are very soft and stretchy (but he’s still in kids’ sizes, so not sure about the adult sizes). As for a winter coat, for your visits, you might want to get what they call “packable down”. It is very thin and lightweight and folds down to practically nothing. Great for “planes, trains and automobiles” and you can usually get it very reasonably priced. It’s very easy to pack and will get you through until you invest in a really good coat once you know where you’ll be going and be a good back up that takes up little space if you end up in New England and will be all you need if you end up in a slightly warmer climate.
For interviews you can get buy with basically one outfit (or maybe a few extra shirts if you’re doing a bunch of interviews in one trip). Once you know where you are going and what the dress code is, you’ll have a better idea of what you’ll need and how much. I think once you find pants in the right style(s) that fit well, it’s easiest to just buy a bunch of the same thing. For a coat-and-tie dress code, we have found that J Crew fits my son very well, and they have light weight khakis that fit well, as well as ties that are appropriate for teens (i.e., he doesn’t look like Gordon Gekko). I shop on-line at J Crew Factory for A LOT of his stuff. Old Navy had Bermuda shorts that fit well and were inexpensive. If you end up at a school with a more formal dress code, the boys seem to avoid wearing winter jackets as much as possible but wear 1/4 zip sweaters or fleeces under their blazers.
