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• Formal business attire is a common look on business school campuses and in MBA classrooms.
• But the “suited and booted” look seems increasingly out of place with modern workplaces.
• Is business school fashion becoming a little more relaxed—and does it need to?

 
Before Shriya Boppana started her MBA at Duke University Fuqua School of Business, she was faced with plenty of unknowns. What would her lecturers be like? Would she get along with her classmates? How would the course content be taught? But at least one thing was a formality in her eyes: the dress sense among students.

“I knew that the age demographic in the class was naturally higher,” she says. “And I got the impression that these are business professionals who have been in the workplace for a while. So naturally their sense of dress is not going to be casual—they're not going to show up to class in sweats.”

Boppana was right. Her fellow MBA students didn’t necessarily turn up to class in a three-piece suit, but for coffee chats with employers and recruitment events, they dressed to impress. “People have tweed jackets, light pink suits, there was a guy wearing a tailored maroon suit with a pink shirt underneath … I always see people dressing to stand out from the crowd.”

The formal attire often seen on business school campuses can be attributed to a number of things. As Boppana mentioned, the fact that MBA candidates are a little older than the average student (the average MBA student is ) and already have experience in the workplace means that they often bring formal dress codes back into the classroom.

Another reason is the need for MBA candidates to set themselves apart. An MBA program is a very competitive environment, and if you’re contending with 80 other students when a recruiter comes to campus, you have to do something to stand out. That’s particularly the case in industries like consulting and finance, two hugely popular routes for MBA grads, which tend to have a more formal dress code in the office.

An MBA program is a very competitive environment, and if you’re contending with 80 other students when a recruiter comes to campus, you have to do something to stand out.

These factors come together to create a certain expectation on campus—one that demands business school students wear formal business attire. But is that attitude a little out of step with modern workplaces?

“In many cases, yes,” says Ken White, associate dean of graduate business programs at the College of William and Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business in Williamsburg, Virginia. “Especially for younger professionals. They want to look good and be comfortable. We’ve had a number of CEOs and leaders speak at our business school this year. Few of them wore traditional business attire.”

White also says the subtle is a result of the post-pandemic work-from-home boom. For workers accustomed to settling down in front of the computer in little more than pajamas, showing up to class in a polished suit suddenly seems like an alien concept. The remote work phenomenon has turned the dial down on work dress expectations. “In the old days, everyone wore a suit to the office. Today we see everything from suits to jeans and sneakers,” says White.

 For workers accustomed to settling down in front of the computer in little more than pajamas, showing up to class in a polished suit suddenly seems like an alien concept.

Now, though, it seems like those changes in the professional world are slowly seeping into MBA classrooms. Although Boppana was right to expect a dress-to-impress attitude at business school, the fashion choices are much broader than before. “I think they’re changing with the culture,” she says. “And the style of what people consider business casual these days has also changed.”

Caitlin Luetger-Schlewitt, a lecturer in leadership and career readiness at North Central College’s School of Business in Naperville, Illinois, believes that because business programs are “skewing younger,” there’s also a shift in the fashion trends you see on campus. “I think the reason there’s that difference is because there are folks who’ve had some work experience and been exposed to company cultures. And they’re coming into grad school with a different set of expectations and behaviors compared to people straight out of their undergraduate program.”

White adds that the more relaxed look on campus can still be suitable depending on the situation. Many students have simply gone from business professional to “other centric”—dressing appropriately to meet the expectations of lecturers or other students. “Now, rather than a business suit, we’ll see students in dress jeans, a dress shirt, heels or dress sneakers, and a patterned jacket,” he says.

The clothes you’re wearing can sometimes seem like a small factor in the grand scheme of things; it’s unimportant in the face of exam scores and essay deadlines. But our fashion choices can also have a broader, lasting impact. For instance, what we wear affects how we’re perceived by other people. More formal attire can project authority and high standing, while more casual wear can suggest approachability and friendliness.

It can even affect how we perceive ourselves. Luetger-Schlewitt recalls a time when the dean of her school—all suited and booted—came into an undergrad classroom replete with students in sweatshirts and pajama pants. “Afterwards, they told me they felt so uncomfortable having a person in a suit in the room. I thought it was interesting that it made them feel like they couldn’t express themselves in the classroom, or it made them feel like they were a little bit under the microscope.”

What we wear affects how we’re perceived by other people. It can even affect how we perceive ourselves. 

Even if the MBA classroom is more less-dress than best-dressed these days, the shift toward casual isn’t likely to continue unabated. White says that it’s important for students to avoid looking too comfortable, and things like quarter-zip pullovers, khakis, and golf shirts will never be suitable for a professional environment.

Although some think that business school fashion is a little out of step with some modern workplaces, perhaps it’s more important that a person’s wardrobe choices align with the right places. Consulting and finance are two consistently popular industries for MBA grads, and they’re both areas where formal business attire is a little more common in the office. If MBA classroom fashions mirror the industries their students will be working in, that can only be a good thing.

Really, though, the answer to this question is one you’ll probably hear at every business school in the world at some point: it depends. Different industries will always have different expectations of what you should wear—but the thought process behind your fashion choices will never change.

 “It really depends on the person, your cultural background, and your personal preferences,” says Luetger-Schlewitt. “There are definitely some environments where wearing a suit would be the norm. But there are also environments where if you walked in with a suit, people would probably think, Why is there a suit in the room?”

“Ultimately, you just want to present the best version of yourself that you can.”