What to wear for visit day

[LivingVicariously]

How do people generally dress while visiting the campuses on visit day? Semi formal i.e. Dockers/Khakis + long sleeved shirts + Leather shoes (mabe a jacket) or Formal suit and tie.

[zonko]

How do people generally dress while visiting the campuses on visit day? Semi formal i.e. Dockers/Khakis + long sleeved shirts + Leather shoes (mabe a jacket) or Formal suit and tie.

I'm just going to wear long sleaved shirt (not even a formal looking one) + cords. Academics don't really do formal so I wouldn't worry too much about it

[jeanne]

I went business casual. I wore nice pants, a sweater, and heels. Guys were wearing mostly khakis and a button down or sweater. Some wore a jacket, but not a suit. Usually it's a grad student arranging these visits. You can always email them and ask what the dress code is.

[red_crayons]

Given the weather in the area of my first open house weekend, anyone who goes for business casual will end up with some ruined shoes and miserably cold, wet feet all day. Ooohhh, heels in the north in March!

I'm going to wear what I wear to my super casual office, which is also what I wore when meeting people in the department before I applied: Skinny black pants (yay Banana Republic for figuring out that market niche!), my look-more-expensive-than-they-are knee high leather boots, collared shirt, sweater. I'll also carry around some black flats in my bag in case we ARE inside one building for an extended period of time. Business casual plus fancy boots: if it works for work, it'll work for a bunch of academics.

[rogue]

I went to my first visit day this week, and ended up settling on black skinny jeans and a black sweater and boots (not fancy ones; black lug sole snow/work boots). It was in NYC and it was snowing, so I wasn't going to dress up too much. I felt pretty perfectly dressed for the occasion. Some people were business casual and some had on blue jeans. I think once you're in, what you wear matters a bit less than if you were interviewing for admission.

[prolixity]

How do people generally dress while visiting the campuses on visit day? Semi formal i.e. Dockers/Khakis + long sleeved shirts + Leather shoes (mabe a jacket) or Formal suit and tie.

Just to set the record straight, what you described as semi-formal is actually referred to as "dressy casual" or "business casual" (ie, sport coat and slacks/trousers). Semi formal implies that tuxedos are not required, but a dark suit is..

Formal requires tuxedos and black ties.

[chimerical]

This is very field-dependent, but in general I think it's safe to go business casual. I'm applying to business programs so I'll be on the dressier side of business casual (and in a suit for interviews) but other fields are definitely more laid-back.

[quadsbaby]

Jeans and a wrinkled button-down stripedy shirt.

[jeanne]

Given the weather in the area of my first open house weekend, anyone who goes for business casual will end up with some ruined shoes and miserably cold, wet feet all day. Ooohhh, heels in the north in March!

Well, one of my visits was to Madison, WI and the other was to Champaign-Urbana, IL. I guess I did OK with the shoes. But then again, I'm a Chicago girl so I'm used to all this snow.