Advice on teenage girl interview outfit for University

[Frecklesfrecklesfreckles4]

Hi, my DD has an interview for university coming up and we need to buy her an outfit. We could do with advice on what to wear. She normally wears jeans and big hoodies! She was a size 14 but has recently lost weight and is probably about a 12 now. Thank you!

The more conservative the course, the more conservative the dress for interviews. If medicine then a suit. Arts based courses could probably be more colourful but not too wacky.

Why not? Jeans albeit with something a notch up from a hoody is what half of interviewees seem to wear.

What course do you interview for manumission?

I haven't said I conduct interviews purple. You have a very narrow idea of who might have powers of observation on a campus

Which departments have you been covertly observing interviews in them?

What a strange thread for a mother to start.
It really isn't

My DD has so far had 4 interviews (for engineering) and says people were in everything from boys in suits and ties through to blue jeans. She wore pretty much her usual school attire of black skinnies check shirt under a plain crewneck wooly, but black desert boots rather than her usual high tops, hair in its usual bun a shade less 'messy' than normal, and a decent coat. Pretty much along the lines manumission says.

And as she has 4 offers now including Cambridge it's clearly perfectly ok.

No it's true that I can't match students to courses with pinpoint accuracy and I don't know who gets offers.

But it's just such a mixture going into various departmental buildings. No medical school but various Soc Sci, Humanities and Arts type subjects dotted around. It's the International Business applicants that really tend to overdo it and turn up fully suited and booted. Some kind of chino type thing is probably the mid point in the scale (do they even call them that now?)

I just can't help think it's a MN thing to buy whole new outfits.

Mine both went in jeans I think. I can't even remember. I think maybe DD did velvet blazer and jeans. It's a bit of a lucky jacket for her.

I forgot to say good luck to your DD, OP, and to also second purple on the comfy shoes - they may get a department or campus tour, my DD regretted that her boots were brand new by the end of her first interview day!

Yes a good proportion of Oxbridge applicants are scurrying around in interview week looking like they slept in skips or just raided Oxfam too You can tell who they are because they look a bit lost and scared.

Seriously don't worry too much OP. You're right that feeling relaxed and comfortable is the most important thing and I don't believe for one second that (outside of clinical courses) interviewers will allow dress to influence them one inch.

Good luck to your DD.

I hope you didn't mean to infer my DD would have looked like a skip-sleeper

No! Sorry errol.

I drifted off into trying to remember what the hell DS wore to all of his interviews. Probably more doorway-napper to be fair to him

I'd go cigarette trousers and a pyjama blouse. Comfy and smart but not over the top.

I don't work in a uni but was a part time student recently. From what I saw, I doubt it matters for straight maths. Also, this is anecdotal but my son went for a maths interview in jeans and a hoody a few years ago, got an offer and said most people looked similar. (Admittedly I'm not sure how much he'd have noticed!)

However if there's any kind of work placement involved then I'd go for something a bit more business appropriate but understated and comfortable e.g. trousers and jersey jacket. Good luck!

For medicine (and possibly law?), wear a suit.

Anything else, wear what she is comfortable in, leaning more towards "dinner with friends" rather than "slobbing around the house". My teen db wore dark jeans and desert boots rather than his usual uniform of joggers and trainers, for example.

dd is doing the rounds currently. she did a summer school type program last summer where they had to bring two 'business' outfits for presentations, so so she owns a pair of black dress trousers (more cigarette/ ankle skimmers than my middle-aged black dress trousers), a black jacket and a short black dress. So for interviews she wears either the short black dress with black opaque tights, or black trousers and any plain top. She takes the jacket with her and wears it if she needs to. She's interviewing for cell bio. (For campus tours and visits, and school, and the rest of her summer uni program she lives in jeans/ sweatpants and hoodies - she's not a fashionista and never wears make up except on stage, but is comfortable in her interview/ business gear now that it has been out a few times ;-) ) Always flats, never heels.