<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>