How to Dress Confidently for Grad School
Graduate school is an interesting beast. On one hand, you can be whoever you want to be. You can totally switch up your style from college to grad school, especially if you attend a new school, and no one would know any different. On the other hand, imposter syndrome can be absolutely crippling. It’s a daily struggle for most of us to feel confident when that voice in the back of our head is saying otherwise (even beyond grad school—oh hey, it me).
What you wear can have a direct impact on your mood, how you carry yourself, how you assert yourself, and how you are perceived by others. I firmly believe that confidence can come from what you wear.
Below are six outfits that I wore in grad school that gave me a much-needed boost of confidence when I needed it. I shared specifically why these outfits helped me feel confident in case you’re struggling to figure out what you like to wear. I hope this post encourages you to wear what YOU love and what makes you feel your best in grad school!
How to Dress Confidently for Grad School
What to Wear in Grad School
Embrace Your “Girly” Side
I don’t know why, but there’s something about wearing outfits that some may think are “too girly” for a more professional setting that makes me feel more confident. Yes, I will explain this complicated set of equations to you while wearing a polka dot dress or an eyelet skirt at the same time. Dressing “girly” or inherently feminine does not make me any less intelligent.
I also LOVE a good blazer. Well-tailored blazers always make me feel more confident! I think it has to do with the structure. It’s fun to contrast your more “girly” garments with masculine elements like a blazer.
I wore the first outfit to defend my Master’s thesis back in October 2014. (I wore the same dress to present my project at the end of my NASA internship, too!)
COMFORTABLE SHOES
Here’s another outfit featuring a “girly” touch: a tulle skirt. Remember those things? They were so popular a few years ago! I loved my navy tulle skirt because it was the perfect color to go with anything. The other outfit features one of my favorite color combinations, blush pink and burgundy!
I also often wore my beige Cole Haan pumps for presentations. The key to choosing shoes that you’ll feel confident wearing: they MUST be comfortable. You need to not be thinking about them/in pain while you’re wearing them! My leather Cole Haan tall boots were also grad school favorites; Cole Haan makes a super comfy shoe if you’re in the market!
I wore this first outfit to present my PhD proposal (called a “general examination” at the time—it was more or less a mini defense with an oral presentation and questioning from my committee about the direction of my research and eventual dissertation!).
ELEVATED BASICS
Sometimes, you do what you can to fake it ‘til you make it. When I’m not feeling particularly confident (usually thanks to our old frenemy, imposter syndrome), I’ll put together an outfit of elevated basics to help me feel better.
For me, a fun patterned collared shirt and shiny gold flats usually does the trick! This is an outfit I repeated while I was in grad school; something about the patterned shirt, which is an elevated version of a simple white shirt, and the more interesting flats makes me feel like I know what I’m doing. I also loved peplum tops for the same reason (and wearing jeans with wedges).
If needed, I could throw on a third piece, like a blazer, and feel presentation ready in a pinch—in a casual grad school kinda way! (You could also swap the light wash jeans for a darker wash—more on that below!)
TEXTURED NEUTRALS
Level up a neutral color palette with textures! Even though the colors in these outfits aren’t all that exciting to look at, they’re comfortable and easy to wear, and the textures in the top and skirt in the first outfit add some dimension that wouldn’t be there if I had stuck with an all-black or all-grey color palette. Same goes for the second outfit: the linen shirt adds some much-needed texture!
Neutrals were a definitely safe zone for me, especially for conferences, so I tended to gravitate towards those (and they’re easier to mix and match when packing). The uniform of slim top + skirt + third piece (blazer/jacket/cardigan) became a go-to for me in grad school. I wore it here to present at an academic conference, and I also wore another variation at another conference.
DARK WASH DENIM
There’s nothing a good pair of jeans can’t fix, amirite? I swear that my dark wash (skinny) jeans were my holy grail through grad school (other than ponte pants, of course!). They instantly made me feel put together and polished, even though it was denim! You can’t go wrong with a well-fitting pair of dark wash denim, and a classic style is always better. We can call skinny jeans classic, right? #millennial Slim boyfriend or straight leg fits also work!
A simple outfit like these can make me feel like I can take over the world when everything fits perfectly. I liked to call the second outfit and variations of it my “power outfit”—I’m not sure if it was the heels that did it or if it was a combination of everything, but I surely felt like I could handle anything coming my way in an outfit like this! (As long as my papers were accepted for publication and I passed my defense for my graduate degree, ha!)
WHAT SPARKS JOY
I learned very quickly in graduate school that the best outfit to wear to boost confidence is to wear whatever sparks joy. Channel your inner Marie Kondo and only wear what you really love to wear. There’s no need to buy in to all of the latest trends or those lists that say you NEED this or you NEED that—just do you!
I have many outfits from grad school that sparked joy, and these outfits are a great example of that. The Peter Pan-collared top is yet another “girly” item, and this outfit leans heavily girly overall with the pleated skirt and velvet kitty flats! Everything about this outfit felt very me, and made me happy, and because of that, I felt confident while wearing it!
This faux romper outfit (with a silk top and coordinating silk shorts) also brought me SO much joy when I wore it. Find the outfits you really love to wear and wear ‘em over and over and over again!