<p>I've read many parent reviews of college visits and they always seem to negatively mention that the students dress nicely and are "well off." What's wrong with being well off and dressing nicely when the students don't flaunt it?</p>
<p>I don't recall parents mentioning how nicely the students were dressed. I do remember a number of us mentioning students wearing sandals while there was still snow on the ground.</p>
<p>I, too, am not exactly sure what remarks to which you are referring.</p>
<p>I will say, however, that comments on the dress aren't necessarily negative. They may just be observations of one of the hundreds of items they are looking at when trying to determine whether a school is a good fit for their student.</p>
<p>Believe me, most potential students are sizing up the current students, too.</p>
<p>I have 2 friends whose daughters attend 2 strong academic schools that also have high numbers of students from wealthy families. At first, they were someone taken aback at the expense of the clothes, vacations, weekend activities, etc. Both are secure individuals and shrugged it off. They both know people who transferred out because they never felt comfortable with their out-of-classroom experiences. </p>
<p>So, while it may sound superficial, one person's definition of "nice dress" may be another's "extravagant dress."</p>
<p>"They may just be observations of one of the hundreds of items they are looking at when trying to determine whether a school is a good fit for their student."</p>
<p>well put.</p>
<p>What does one mean by "nice clothes?" Some seem to think this means expensive and connotating wealthy kids.</p>
<p>One poster mentioned preppy-looking clothes. In fact, looking preppy does not entail spending much money. A pair of khaki trousers does not cost more than a pair of designer destroyed jeans. A polo neck T-shirt does not necessarily cost more than a T-shirt with fancy designs. </p>
<p>Among my S's friends, the kid on full scholarship is "better" (or at least more neatly) dressed than the kids whose parents are paying full-fare. </p>
<p>I once knew a young man who wore shoes kept together with duct tape. His father owned a shoe factory (that was before shoe-manufaturing was outsourced). The parents heroically refrained from commenting on his footwear and gave generously to the college.</p>
<p>I remember reading something last year about students in Wisconsin dressing up for Halloween as "coasties" They wore Northface jackets and Ugg boots since that is so east and left coast and it makes them stand out.</p>
<p>D dresses nicely (or does until the end of the qtr when she is too tired to worry about it) but she doesn't choose her friends by what they do or don't wear.</p>
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<p>There is absolutely no question that when my kids look at a college, they check out the clothes people are wearing. If they sense any kind of competitive-dressing environment, it's a significant negative. That applies equally to expensive clothes and to outrageous piercings, tattoos, etc., but they were much more likely to encounter the former than the latter given where they were (are) looking. My daughter is even something of a dresser-upper, on the cheap, but she didn't want to be in a place where that seemed mandatory, or where labels seemed to matter.</p>
<p>There's not all that much you can actually learn by visiting a college, but if you visit while school is in session after a few hours you can definitely tell the shape of the curve of attitudes about clothes (and accessories) there, and it does differ from school to school. It shouldn't matter that much, but it does at least a little. And, from the kids' perspective, it's impossible actually to meet any meaningful sample of students at a college in a few hours, or even in a few days, but it is possible to "read" the signals a large number of them choose to present to the world (and kids are very tuned into what various appearance choices are understood to mean).</p>
<p>Nothing. But as other posters have mentioned it is all about feeling comfortable in your environment, which can, of course, work both ways. Don't necessarily be fooled into thinking that ALL these kids are spending as much as it seems, though. When it comes to designer stuff, especially, can you say ebay fakes ?!</p>
<p>There's no question in my mind that dress, hair, piercing styles very much reflect the reality of campus life. The fact that one might even want fakes, or look for designer labels secondhand, says an awful lot about campus life, as do the cars you see in the parking lot.</p>
<p>Three years ago, I ended up running an enormous amount of data on socio-economic diversity on campuses, all prompted by what we actually saw as differences among a number of top LACs. In every case, the data seemed to match our perceptions.</p>
<p>It matters - a lot. I spent four years as the poor slob at a rich man's college (it was only male at the time), and I felt out of place constantly. I also learned heaps about myself, and about other people from the experience, and grew as a result, and I am grateful for the experience to this day. But, knowing what I do now, it is not one I would be likely to repeat.</p>
<p>Northface fleece is ubiquitous here, even at my younger daughters inner city high school, I don't know how some kids afford it, but we bought hers on ebay.
Not so much with the Ugg boots, that was one year.
Students at BYU are going to dress differently than students at Bard.
I agree that clothing is up to the wearer, however- it is a pretty established fact that one of the ways that we get information about others, is by what they choose to look like.
If we are coming from a high school where students have a different designer purse for every day of hte week, we might not feel like we would fit in somewhere, where students make a pointed statement, by not wearing things that grandma would be proud to see you in. On the other hand, we might feel like that was a relief, because it can be a huge stress, if you feel that others are judging you on your outfits.
My older daughter isn't so much caring about clothes- at her age I went shopping every week ( ok not at her age, because I had her at her age- but a tad younger I guess) when she was in college, she wore the same clothes she wore in high school, which saved lots of money but i was glad I wasn't there to see it.
My younger daughter does care about fashion, and I doubt she would be comfortable at a school where the students generally make a statement by showing how much they Dont care about fashion.
Historically, college is one of the few times in your life where being obviously poor isn't considered a sign of laziness or bad luck, and excess concern about your appearance might be taken as a sign you aren't involved enough in your studies :)</p>
<p>I just noticed that the OP is from NYC. Newsflash: Dress standards in NYC (and, to a lesser extent, LA, but who cares?) are different from just about everywhere else. On any day at any hour almost anywhere in Manhattan (from Morningside Heights on down, at least, and maybe a little further south as you move east), 90% of the people on the street are "flaunting it" from a provincial point of view. It's really striking, and it's been true forever. (I worked in Manhattan for 7 months 30 years ago, and I have never felt so conscious of what I was wearing and what other people were wearing.)</p>
<p>So, I think people have to adjust their perceptions in both directions. I know my daughter had a different standard for NYC schools than she did for schools elsewhere -- she just took it for granted that people (especially women) would be more dressed up there, because everyone was more dressed up. (And anyway she tended to approve of what they were wearing. The Barnard quad had dozens of young women dressed exactly like my daughter. I thought it was hilarious). By the same token, it would behoove Manhattanites (and their ilk) to remember that, north or east of Greenwich and south or west of Princeton, they may be perceived as "flaunting it" even if they don't mean to do that.</p>
<p>*</p>
<p>I just noticed that the OP is from NYC. Newsflash: Dress standards in NYC (and, to a lesser extent, LA, but who cares?)*</p>
<p>I thought this column painted a pretty accurate picture of how we dress in the Northwest
ttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2003125762_susannielsen14.html?syndication=rss</p>
<p>
[quote]
I FLY from the Northwest to New York City every few years and try to imagine an alternate life as a fashionable person. I pack my sleekest clothes and adopt some urban affectations, but I still manage to look like the sale pages of the Eddie Bauer catalog.</p>
<p>The women gasp at my telltale scrunchie. The schoolgirls sneer at my 1980s backpack. The men don't notice me at all, except to say things like, "You're sitting on my coat."</p>
<p>I am the Elephant Man of fashion, trundling down Fifth Avenue in my fleece vest and utilitarian shoes. It's always a relief to return home and rejoin my clan of people who don't give a rip about clothes.</p>
<p>In the Northwest, the devil doesn't wear Prada.</p>
<p>The devil hasn't even heard of Prada
People in the Northwest don't give a rip about a lot of things.</p>
<p>They don't worry much about status, for example, and that limits their ambition. A high level of ambition requires chronic dissatisfaction with one's rank.</p>
<p>They also don't care much about money, power or appearances.</p>
<p>This seals their fate, in the world of high fashion, as bad dressers.</p>
<p>They don't see the point of the custom-tailored suit or the $400 stilettos. They would never pay a month's salary for a handbag that is so stylish, so now, that it will be hideous and dated in six months.</p>
<p>They don't consider what's "in season." They consider what season it is, as well as what's cleanest on top of the pile. And they choose their fleece pullovers, wool socks, waterproof parkas and rubber-soled shoes accordingly.</p>
<p>They look great, in context. They look healthy and relaxed and alive.</p>
<p>Just don't pull them, or me, out of our natural habitat. Plop us in Manhattan or San Francisco, and we become exhibits at the state fair.</p>
<p>Living in a fashion backwater does get old sometimes. Our co-workers wear the same ties year after year. Our only real occasion to dress up is Halloween. Our closets reflect the region's sensibilities as well as our own:</p>
<p>Comfortable instead of inspired. Good enough, rarely great.</p>
<p>It would be fun to try on a little more ambition now and then.</p>
<p>Imagine how thrilling it would be for the Northwest to possess the same thirst for change, the same pulse of dissatisfaction, that drives some people to wear ultra-trendy clothes and others to strive for greatness.</p>
<p>But then I'd have to wear pointy shoes. Abandon the ancient windbreaker. Burn the Garfield nightshirt.</p>
<p>We'd all have to attempt to be presentable and fresh and edgy, and so would our neighbors.
Trying that hard just isn't our style.</p>
<p>The other night, my husband and I went out to dinner. I was a vision in bleach-stained capris and a royal blue sweat shirt, circa 1993, with an "Icicle Seafoods" logo on the back. He was dashing in a signature T-shirt, one that transitions nicely from playing beer pong to staining the fence to celebrating a night out with his wife.</p>
<p>In New York, we would've been one fanny pack away from getting arrested for criminal bad taste. Our waitress, in a polyester Hawaiian dress with gardening clogs, would've joined us behind bars.</p>
<p>But here in the Northwest, we wore what we wanted and enjoyed our dinner and watched the people stroll past on the boulevard. They stopped to pet each other's dogs and listen to the guy playing guitar.</p>
<p>Most of their clothing appeared to be chosen at random from a clearance bin, but they still managed to look happy and healthy and alive.</p>
<p>It's a fashion statement, to be sure.</p>
<p>Just not the kind that travels well..
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I've always thought I belonged in the Pacific Northwest. Now I know I do.</p>