<p>alh - LOL - That is TOOOOOOO funny! :D</p>
<p>Well, there you go. Professors have never been my sartorial go-to’s in any case; most are too rumpled looking for my tastes, LOL.</p>
<p>Exactly! Some professors (though not all!) are sloppy and it has become a stereotype, like the Ms. Jersey Shore stereotype, and the Cat Lady stereotype. When someone sees their own attire as “the norm” and everyone else as “outside the norm” - that is a problem in my humble opinion.</p>
<p>Hundred of posts ago Bay said, of course people judge you - what about religion? I thought that was a really excellent comparison. YES we all judge. We can’t not do it even if we try. In my opinion, we can choose to be personally offended by the religion of others or the dress of others or we can choose not to be offended. We can choose to believe their religion or dress really has nothing to do with us at all. We can choose to believe that when someone gets dressed in the morning, even if it looks to us that their dress is rude and offensive, there really was no such intent on their part…</p>
<p>And we can be sure that at least on some campuses it will be okay to wear sweats because the profs won’t notice. again - check out campus culture OP.</p>
<p>Hey - has the OP ever been back?</p>
<p>edit - the two Very Different cat lady stereotypes :):)</p>
<p>It never dawned on me that anyone would think the professors would care what kids wear to class. I assumed kids decided to dress nicely for themselves or each other - not the professors. I can’t imagine that they care.</p>
<p>On the first few pages there was a question as to whether professors cared and whether sweats could negatively impact a student. And then I think Shrinkrap raised the point that if professors do care, it is probably too late to dress nicer when asking for letters of recommendation. </p>
<p>I actually wonder whether some departments may care more what students wear than others. And whether a student could be disadvantaged if a professor isn’t sure the student knows what to wear in circumstances outside of campus?</p>
<p>I missed that discussion. There could certainly be circumstances in which a professor cares - a presentation of some sort by the student. I’m sure I’d “judge” a student who showed up to give an individual or group presentation not dressed accordingly. Generally, however, I don’t think they notice.</p>
<p>I don’t think those kids care about what the professors think, they care more about their fellow students.</p>
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<p>I’d say that depends on the campus culture and then individual professor. At my LAC, none of the Profs would have cared as they understood the campus culture’s dress norms and with very few exceptions strongly agree with them. Even the one Prof I had whose dressage would past muster on Fifth Avenue had no issues because she actually is of the “live and let live” attitude regarding personal dressing standards. As for departments…business probably comes to mind for the colleges that have them. </p>
<p>Even on more mainstream campuses, most Profs care much more about how well one performed in class academically, behavior/attitudes in class/office hours, intellectual capability, and how well the student communicates verbally and in writing. </p>
<p>The few who are obsessed with being dressy to “standards” and judging others, word seem to spread among undergrads so they know whether this type of Prof is to be favored among dressy types or avoided for those who aren’t or otherwise have issues with this type of judgmental attitude. Among the reasons for the last…the feeling that such attitudes, especially when it is used to negatively assess a student is an attitude that’s a relic of the 1950’s/early '60s and should stay there. </p>
<p>Also, most such dressy type Profs and students tend to avoid schools with campus cultures like Oberlin, Antioch or Reed in favor of more preppy schools like Colgate, Hamilton, and Amherst/Williams.</p>
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<p>Hmmm, perhaps look at some university’s web site and check the photos of students and faculty on the business school web site versus those on the web sites of other departments and divisions?</p>
<p>When I think about how I dressed for class in the '70s, I wonder what the professors thought. I would have never considered wearing sweat pants, but there were plenty of tube tops, halter tops and jeans so low on the hips that the zippers were at most 1 1/2 inches long. I only weighed about 98 pounds so not much to see as far as I was concerned. In law school, I rode my bike several miles to class most days so that limited my wardrobe.</p>
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<p>cobrat, you might want to look up that definition. ;)</p>
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<p>In the '70s I over-dressed for class because over-dressing has always made me very very happy. However, when professors invited the class over for a party, I always purposefully dressed down to fit in. Very faded hip-hugger bell bottom jeans, frye boots or clogs, knit top tucked in, tooled leather belt, south-west silver & turquoise jewelry or love beads. These days I wouldn’t. I don’t care if the hostess is in sweats. I’m wearing whatever I want.</p>
<p>one of my sorority sisters married one of our professors. Between her sophomore and junior year. That was really a different time.</p>
<p>patsmom,</p>
<p>That’s what I get for opting out of having coffee after a late night. :(</p>
<p>" Originally Posted by alh
I actually wonder whether some departments may care more what students wear than others."</p>
<p>Yes, as a music major, for voice lessons and any masterclass she had to wear a dress and shoes with heels. Basically a day time performance look.</p>
<p>I used to have a philosophy prof at a community college who dressed to the nines everyday, even when the city was covered in snow & transportation was limited. The school was on top of a hill (& I had to negotiate a series of hills by bus to get there- which took hours, one winter) but I suspect he lived in the neighborhood.</p>
<p>This was in the mid 80s, and I wore what was popular at the time.
doc martens, bike shorts, jean jacket & skirt.
Bill Nighy has a similar sartorial sense.( to my prof- not me!)
[Bill</a> Nighy says that clothes makes the man, even in the land of exotic marigold hotels](<a href=“http://rogermooresmovienation.blogspot.com/2012/06/bill-nighy-says-that-clothes-makes-man.html]Bill”>http://rogermooresmovienation.blogspot.com/2012/06/bill-nighy-says-that-clothes-makes-man.html)</p>
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<p>This is exactly how I feel about others’ clothing. When I see someone dressed in sloppy attire, I assume that they gave absolutely no thought to me at all. When I see them wearing “rude and offensive” clothing, like T-shirts with epithets on them, I also assume they never considered me at all.</p>
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I think the naked cowboy usually hangs out in Times Square. </p>
<p>Note: Excuse any uinintentional double entendre.</p>
<p>Bahahaha nice, bover.</p>
<p>Bay: My argument is that they don’t intend anything by their dress. They are shocked to learn you find their clothes rude and offensive. They may be dressing well within the norms that they know. Perhaps they think if they dress up more than that, their own social group will find them hoity-toity and snooty. Your “rude and offensive” is just not a universal cultural norm. Maybe your dress offends some of those pajama wearing slobs on the street? If it did, would you change it? </p>
<p>Dressing purposefully to offend and/or make a political statement is different topic. imho</p>
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<p>Two of my sorority sisters married professors. They waited until they graduated but they dated during senior year. I also had a lot of turquoise jewelry and a couple of wide tooled leather belts. I still wear my clogs from the 70’s.</p>