Attire for dinner before interview day

[windypoplars]

If you have a dinner scheduled on the previous day of the interview, is it ok to just wear casual clothes (instead of business attire) for the dinner? Is jeans ok? 

[VirginianFeminist]

Will the faculty members be in attendance? If so, you should probably go with business casual. You want to make a good first impression with the faculty. You'll have plenty of time to dress down once you are in grad school. If it's a dinner with current students and other prospectives, go casual and wear your jeans. 

 

During my interview weekend, we had two dinner events. The first one was with current grad students and it was totally casual. The other one included the faculty members and the dress code was decidedly more formal.

 

Good luck with your interview!

[PsychGirl1]

Agreed with above- but I'd still lean towards business casual as much as possible, as the other applicants may dress up and you still want to look professional, even if it's just other applicants and students.

 

For example, I'd do something like a pencil skirt, nice black fitted tshirt, and a black cardigan with casual pumps. Comfortable, and pretty casual if you take off the cardigan, but if professors are unexpectedly there, you won't look like a slob. But when in doubt, dress up .

[psychresearch]

Agreed - at my interview, people wore dress pants and sweaters the first day, which included dinner with the department and grad student hang out time.

[Maziana]

Interesting... I asked a grad student before an interview of mine, and he said casual. I wore dark jeans and a nice shirt - had a nice cardigan but it was too warm to wear it. There were no professors there, though, and some of the students were wearing incredibly casual clothes. *shrugs* I'll see if I get in, haha!

 

I will try to dress up more for my other visits though...

[PsychGirl1]

I think it's also more formal for Clinical interviews than for other areas of Psych, so that's also something to keep in mind- I just noticed you're I/O.

[alyoshakaramazov]

If the e-mail didn't explicitly say, I'd go with a step between casual and business. I wore a button-down striped shirt, dark pants, and black loafers to my social. Hope your interview goes well!

[Maziana]

I think it's also more formal for Clinical interviews than for other areas of Psych, so that's also something to keep in mind- I just noticed you're I/O.

 

Good point! I do have one visit where they explicitly asked that I wear business casual, so I'll assume that means Thursday night too, to be safe.