Hey there!
I have recently submitted my college applications and am beginning to receive emails from alumni regarding interviews. Yesterday, I received emails from Stanford and Brown, but I also applied to Columbia, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Dartmouth, Yale, Santa Clara, and University of Washington.
I really need help with choosing an outfit to wear to interviews. Most of these are taking place at cafes. I am a seventeen year old girl and I would consider my style to be preppy and girly. It may also be good to consider that I live in Seattle, so the weather isn’t exactly warm.
Thanks for your help!
Collar blouse + sweater is a good bet!
I showed up to my Brown interview in a Smashing Pumpkins T-shirt and day-old skinny jeans.
Oh, wait, I got rejected there. Yeah, I have no idea.
I would assume dressed nicely, but not overdressed
Dress modesty, but not too fancy or casual. I wouldn’t wear leggings as pants to this or jeans, unless they are very nice. Wear a nice sweater or a blouse. If you decide to wear a skirt, make it as close to the knee as possible.
how’d you apply to all those schools? a lot of those are ED so you can only apply to one ED?
Some people are on top of the ball and already submitted RD applications.
Dress for the venue. For a cafe meeting, you can go more casual (but not Saturday-casual). For a business office, err more on the side of business casual. (Advanced players will call ahead to a receptionist or office manager to ask how formally the office dresses.)
Regardless of venue, keep logos, graphics and ostentation to a minimum. Make yourself, not your outfit, the most memorable presence in the room.
I’d say some Justin B style drop-crotch sweat pants, a pimp cup, some thunderbird /in/ the pimp cup-- but no, in all seriousness: dress painfully conservative, also, not too fancy if you’re applying for financial aid or wrote a ‘background’ essay for the common application; If you wrote an essay about how your family struggles financially, or what it was like growing up on the hard streets of Seattle, probably not best to dress like you own the joint you’re interviewing in.
At CWRU they say: Wear comfortable, but tasteful clothes. You don’t need a three-piece suit to make a positive impression, but faded jeans and dirty sneakers may make a negative one.
At the Penn info session the adcom said that for interview, dress as if you are going to meet your great aunt for the first time. I took that to mean dress conservatively and neatly with an aim of getting a “what a nice young lady/lad” reaction.
I do alumni interviewing for 2 Ivy League schools. I recommend that you dress for the possibility that your interviewer may be a conservative 65 year-old man who can and will comment in his report on what you wear if he thinks it’s inappropriate. Sigh… Your goal is either that the interviewer won’t even remember what you wore, or that the interviewer thought you looked very nice and quite appropriate.
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Dress modestly - if all your skirts and dresses are short, wear pants. Fingertip length is still too short. A fuller skirt will cover your knees when you sit. A fitted skirt won’t. Don’t wear tight pants. No spaghetti straps. No cleavage. Not even a hint. Nothing tight. Nothing “body con”!
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Dress appropriately - no jeans. No high heels. No major wrinkles. Look like you made an effort. Nothing baggy and sweatshirt-like. Don’t wear leggings under your skirt - or without a skirt! No shorts, not even dressy ones.
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Don’t overdress - there is absolutely no need to wear a suit, although I’ve seen it. If you wear a dress, don’t wear a semi-formal style. Think “dress-up dress-down” types of styles. A blazer style jacket can work if it’s not part of a suit. Cardigans are great if not too baggy.
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Stay true to yourself - find an outfit that you would actually wear in another context. Your clothes can and should express who you are. You should feel comfortable and confident, not awkward or frumpy.
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Examples I have seen that worked well: a) khaki pencil pants and a pink collared button down; b) above-the-knee, but not too short blouson dress or sundress with a cardigan; c) skirt, blouse (can be a sleeveless tank), and cardigan or blazer/jacket; d) school uniform (although my own D’s school skirt would be way too short!).
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If you need to buy something, good places to look for outfits: Not sure where you live, and I know styles vary, but you can find appropriate clothes at Target, Nordstrom BP, Express, Macys. Remember to take all the tags off! (really, I’ve seen this…)
You can do an internet search for teen interview attire or teen business casual etc. and get some images for inspiration if you like. Just keep the above guidelines in mind.
@elsacc “Don’t wear leggings under your skirt”-- This is the first time I’ve heard that. Why would this be a problem? Especially in the fall?
@AnnieBeats Everything that I suggested is based on a conservative approach intended not to “offend”. I would say that tights or pants are a better choice if one is cold. Or tasteful boots that hide the bottom of the leggings. I have heard people object to the look of leggings under a skirt or dress. If the norm in your community is that all girls wear leggings under skirts all the time, such that a 65 year-old would not think that looked weird, then it’s fine. If not, maybe tights are better.
I personally don’t really care what applicants wear to an interview as long as they look like they respect me and the process enough to look appropriate. For me, this would include nice jeans and even skinny jeans, leggings under a skirt, etc. But I really have heard quite a few comments from older, or even middle-aged, interviewers who don’t seem to feel the way I do. The safest approach is not to wear something that older or more conservative people would find “odd” or inappropriate.
This is all super nitpicky, but in my experience, some students do need very specific guidance. Others can trust their own taste and judgment more. I just really hate when I hear alumni interviewers making negative comments about what students wore to the interview, and I would like to help applicants avoid that.
I’ve only seen leggings with a dress/skirt at my office job once, and it seemed very inappropriate. To me, tights without feet (leggings) just look weird in an office. The suggestion for age-appropriate business casual, while avoiding anything that might seem weird to a middle-aged person, sounds right on.
I am in management and I can tell you legging don’t impress job interview panels and a am sure it is not a plus for admissions.
Usually business formal is good, so suit and trousers/skirt with nice shirt is a definite go.
This is a great tip I want to offer to female applicants who are having trouble with interview outfits!
A blazer is a GREAT + safe option!
To my Johns Hopkins interview—and the alumnus was a 58 yr old doctor—I wore a blazer over a blouse that was tucked into dressy shorts. We were going to be sitting outside, so I could NOT wear pants in the Florida heat! 
The outfit actually looked super cute at the same time as looking professional and mature. I actually really loved it, looking back!