<p>Undoubtedly like a lot of you, I am going to be having some collegiate interviews soon. Sites like Collegeboard have recommendations for acing them: dress professionally, but like yourself. Act professionally, but like yourself. Be cool, but like yourself.</p>
<p>Naturally, this gives me no help whatsoever.</p>
<p>I don't normally dress profesionally. I am one of those quasi-punks with weird fashion sense, and am excessively introverted and a total spaz. As for being cool? I am about as cool as the planet of Mercury. Nevertheless, I have a way with words and can be presentable. However, as per the interviews, I have a wide list of colleges from all sorts of different hierarchies of prestige and liberalism, so there is something on my mind: is purple hair unprofessional?</p>
<p>For some colleges, such as VCU and Hampshire, I think it will be warmly regarded. Some of them, perhaps not. What are your thoughts? Should I go against the opinion of the Collegeboard and change myself for these schools to look more professional, even though it honestly isn't me, or should I keep the hair and prove to admissions officers that personality is not about aesthetics?</p>
<p>Which risk, keeping the hair? Because I have wanted purple hair since I was about ten and finally had the chance to do it, it would be such a shame to have to dye it back to brown. Bright violet is more me. Dunno, it's tough to decide.</p>
<p>Don't sacrifice the hair. It'll probably be an ice-breaker or a conversation topic in your interview. If you dress appropriately and demonstrate professional manners they'll care about that way more than what color your hair is.</p>
<p>It depends on a lot of things. If your interviewer is a recent college grad they will have a different reaction from an 80 year old interviewer. Also, it depends on how well it works. On the Columbia boards here one alumni interviewer said if your hair is different and looks cool (afro, mohawk,) then it can be a plus, but if it looks bad, it can be a minus. It's safer to dye it back, but where's the fun in that. Either way you might not get interviews for every college you apply to so don't worry about it.</p>
<p>My hair doesn't look bad, though. At risk of sounding narcissistic, the purple actually looks better than dark brown. (Although I assure you, no mohawk here. The parentals are disenchanted with the idea.) So, it would seem, the best idea is not to worry and just keep it as is.</p>
<p>Keep the hair. It's OK to be an individual, and schools know that. (Many of them PREFER strong individuals over McKids.) You don't have to wear a little dress-for-success suit, but do dress appropriately: a skirt or nice taylored pair of pants with a professional-looking blouse. That shows you understand social niceties. </p>
<p>(BTW, my D went to her college interview with green streaks in her hair. And yes, she got in.)</p>
<p>I'm an amateur student of semiotics, and assume that everyone sends out signals with their hair and clothing, whether they're conscious of it or not. </p>
<p>I came of age at a time when the length of a male's hair was the one the clearest signifiers of where you stood in the great cultural divide. Richard Nixon almost didn't appoint William Rehquist to the Supreme Court because he didn't trust him to the the length of Rehnquists's sideburns. There was a brief period when hippies didn't trust guys with insufficiently long hair, because it was a sign that their rejection of "the man" was too recent.</p>
<p>If I were interviewing you for college, I'd think to myself, "No shrinking violet, this one," and I'd ask you to talk about your hair, what it means to you, and what you're trying to convey about yourself. So, if you do decide to appear at your interviews with violet tresses, be prepared to talk about it, charmingly.</p>
<p>I agree--Keep the hair! When my daughter and I visited Oberlin a few years ago, we encountered a flock of happy, laughing students, several of them with strange and wonderful hair. Purple, orange, green, spiked, shaved, mohawked. You name it. There they were--smart, interesting kids, on an elite campus, making their own personal statements in their own personal ways. I know that a school like Hampshire would embrace a bright, purple-haired girl from Middle Earth! Good luck. :)</p>