I'm sitting in on a class this coming Monday at a program to which I plan to apply for an MBA. What should I wear? I feel like a suit might be too formal, but I'm not sure if biz casual is too informal. Anyone have some advice on this? Thanks

glad we have a fashion police on the board BTW, I tuck my polo shirts in, hee hee

This must be a cultural thing, because I think that unless you have a trendy shirt you should always tuck it in Polos can be tucked in too btw, but I prefer them outside. Will arrest me for that Gixxer?

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mba class visit attire

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gixxer1000

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15 Sep 2008, 17:49

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rca215

One thing I noticed is that the women were dressed much more formally than the men.

I can see that. Men have a lot more leeway when it comes to casual dress. Put on a pair of pants, a shirt and make sure a picture of Borat's not on the front with the phrase "I like sex!". Women have to worry about the length of the skirt, amount of cleavage, etc.

isa

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15 Sep 2008, 17:56

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rca215

One thing I noticed is that the women were dressed much more formally than the men.

I think women have many more options when it comes to business casual...there's the more casual range of biz casual, the more formal end that involves a jacket...etc. It's just really easy to mess up

so going more formal is just easier a lot of the time (at least for me!)....

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15 Sep 2008, 18:00

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Slacks and buttonups mostly. One had a jacket. The ladies were formal.

refurb

raabenb

At my Yale SOM visit today there were 2 (out of 12 of us) prospective students in jeans....one had a neon green polo untucked.....

How was everyone else dressed?

RF

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15 Sep 2008, 18:06

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The female students in my class as a whole dress much more professionally than the guys. So I could see that holding true to applicants too.

kryzak

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15 Sep 2008, 19:04

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West Coast Schools = business casual at most (button down long sleeve shirt and slacks).

do NOT wear suits to class visits, or even a tie. You'll *really* stand out (and not in the best way, though not bad either). Even our company presentations are business casual (with tie) at most.

Kellogg = business casual (what I wore and I didn't feel out of place).

gixxer1000

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15 Sep 2008, 19:25

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kryzak

I'm going to play style police again because this is one of my pet peeves :-D

. We often refer to a dress shirt as a button up shirt. The problem is that many people often substitute the "down" for the "up" and call it a button down shirt. A button down shirt is a dress shirt that also has buttons on the collar so you can "button down" the collar. It was created by Brooks Brothers and is more informal and rarely worn with a suit.

kryzak

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15 Sep 2008, 19:40

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glad we have a fashion police on the board :wink:

BTW, I tuck my polo shirts in, hee hee

Audio

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15 Sep 2008, 19:45

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rca215

At MIT today it ranged from jeans and T-shirts to suits. Most of us were business casual...slacks and a button down shirt.

Oh, and any type of shirt tucked into jeans is horrible! Unless you're a 48 year old with 3 kids and a minivan! :lol:

This must be a cultural thing, because I think that unless you have a trendy shirt you should always tuck it in :-D

Polos can be tucked in too btw, but I prefer them outside.

Will arrest me for that Gixxer? :lol:

Paradosso

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16 Sep 2008, 00:55

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You freakin' European, Audio

RVD

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16 Sep 2008, 02:39

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i think it's pretty clear that:

class visit = business casual
interview = suit

if you are doing both at the same visit, suit (since you'll be interviewing).

students (even at the executive program level) tend to dress pretty casually. there are always some students wearing shorts, t-shirt, sneaker, etc. we even had one guy who wears flip flops every day.

RVD.

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16 Sep 2008, 07:33

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i had my visit yesterday and went in khakis, a tucked in dress shirt, and brown loafers. i felt totally comfortable. i'll probably go with suit pants and shiny black shoes next time as that seemed to be the most common get up.

one guy in class was so overdressed i almost laughed out loud. you sure can see those aspiring finance guys a mile away can't you. everyone else was dressed casual but this guy had on the donald trump shirt (white collar on a blue shirt), silk tie, french cuffs with ciff links...the works. i think it's one thing to dress well, it's another to go so far over the top just for a class that you stand out in a bad way. there's something off-putting about that.

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17 Sep 2008, 09:42

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gixxer1000

raabenb

At my Yale SOM visit today there were 2 (out of 12 of us) prospective students in jeans....one had a neon green polo untucked.....

I hate to be the style police but you shouldn't tuck a polo shirt in with jeans.

lol

scorcho

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Echo RVD re: Wharton EMBA attire: do the suit if you've got your interview that day. If you sit in class (and you should), there will be other dorks like you in there all dressed up, and the students themselves were in your shoes not long ago.

I did the interview/visit in the same day. The original instructions said business casual, the final instructions they send the week of your interview said business or business casual. From my hotel room on the road I winced a bit.

I had planned for good business casual because I was coming in from a long week on the road. I hadn't brought a suit with me.

Of the 6 or 7 fellow interviewee/class visitors I meant, only myself and one other guy weren't in a suit. I fretted a bit in the waiting area, but whatever, I figured they weren't going to take me or not take me because I wasn't wearing a tie.

But don't listen to me, rock the suit.

Omne

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04 Apr 2009, 16:59

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scorcho

My advice: Interview is suit; anything else is business casual. I always did my interview on the same day as the visit so I was always in a suit. At Wake, there was such a long time in between I rocked business casual in the morning then put on my tie and looked sharp for the interview.

xenok

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04 Apr 2009, 19:48

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Isn't business casual basically a suit sans tie? So I don't see the big problem here. Put a tie in your bag, rock the sans tie look. When you need to go interview, pop into the restroom for five minutes and put on the tie. Seems like the suit sans tie look with a tie in the bag will cover all the bases. Am I missing something here?

scorcho

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05 Apr 2009, 06:50

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xenok

Isn't business casual basically a suit sans tie?

I think business casual means different things in different contexts/orgs. I work in big IT consulting, business casual here usually means slacks/khakis, button down, nice shoes. Business formal is suit and tie. There really isn't a suit-no-tie stop on the continuum. I think this is the more common interpretation of business casual.

At one of my customers' facilities, business casual means you don't have to wear a tie (this makes it a little harder to get too excited about casual Fridays).

A good sport coat is a nice bridge between the two imo.

refurb

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05 Apr 2009, 23:57

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scorcho

xenok

Isn't business casual basically a suit sans tie?

At the Fuqua dinner they suggested "smart casual" which is basically a suit minus the tie (or even minus the jacket too).

I think its being used to replace business casual as BC can range from khakis and polos all the way up to a suit minus the tie, depending on who you ask.

RF

Jerz

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06 Apr 2009, 05:18

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For my visits to Booth, Kellogg and Duke, I wore jeans and either a sweater or dress shirt. The other visiting students were a mix of jeans or khakis, but I'd say the majority wore jeans. I interviewed on a different day than my visit so a suit wasn't in the equation.

billyjeans

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06 Apr 2009, 15:29

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Good thread, will go with my casual out-fit to school visit and buy a suit for the interview (if i ever get one

)

SparkleMotion

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31 Oct 2009, 09:27

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Thread revival!

I have a class visit, student lunch, and admissions Q 'n A at HBS coming up in a couple weeks.

As far as attire goes, I'm leaning towards the nice jeans/leather shoes with sweater/wool coat combo. Since I've heard most HBS students dress casually for class (and I'll be hanging with them most of the day), I don't want to overdress with the typical "business casual" (i.e. slacks and button-up dress shirt). Will non-traditional business casual (i.e. jeans) be too casual?

I'm scheduled for an interview the following day and will be wearing a suit and tie (of course) but it'd be nice to keep it "classy casual" the day before so I can blend in a little more. Jeans have come a long way in the last couple years and a pair of nice jeans can look as nice than the old slacks/shirt combo...and I'm not talking about the Jerry Seinfeld "Bugle Boy jeans and blue blazer" combo, either.

Thoughts?

- SparkleMotion