Working while attending college can help you avoid student loans, but if you’re not careful, the job itself can become expensive. Aside from covering transportation costs, your wardrobe could require major upgrades, whether you’re aiming for business casual or even more formal attire.
With these six tips, however, you can tailor your college wardrobe to your off-campus work style, all without cramping your finances.
1. Know the dress code
2. Start with what’s already in your closet
3. Set a budget for your office-inspired college wardrobe
4. Purchase high-quality, versatile classics
5. Never pay full price for the best of your college wardrobe
6. Be careful how you pay for your college wardrobe
1. Know the dress code
The most important thing to consider before you start building a work wardrobe is the dress code of your industry and potential new employer.
“For example, the dress code for most positions in a technology company is business casual to casual,” Susan Heathfield, a longtime human resources expert told Student Loan Hero. “If you’re looking for a position in industries where you need to look very formally professional because people are judging your competence by your appearance, then it’s a very different approach to building a wardrobe.”
If you’re pursuing internships at a financial consulting firm or law office, for instance, you might err on the side of formal attire. It’s generally better to be overdressed (trying hard to impress) than underdressed (not making enough effort).
Generally, you’ll need one or two outfits to attend interviews, and it’s smart to ask questions ahead of the interview about attire expectations. Most recruiters and managers would prefer a candidate who asks about the dress code and shows up in appropriate attire.
If your prospective employer doesn’t offer clear guidance, university campus resources such as career services can at least help you define business casual on campus.
Wait until you have that internship or part-time job offer in hand to expand your office wear beyond that. Request a copy of the company dress code from your new employer so you can be sure that anything you purchase will be in line with its standards.
2. Start with what’s already in your closet
Before setting foot in a store, take a second look at what you already own.
Casual dress codes are becoming more commonplace, Heathfield said, which could make it easier to transition college wardrobe styles from the classroom to the workplace, especially if you’re only in the office a few days per week.
“Most people have a couple of basic pieces in their wardrobe that would properly transfer to a workplace environment,” Heathfield said.
For instance, the right slacks could pair well with a…
- Cardigan
- Sweater
- Button-up shirt
- Blouse
“I think if you look at the individual pieces of clothing that you have and dress them up one notch, they’re going to work well,” she added.
Conserving and perhaps redesigning your existing clothing is one sure-fire way to save on college’s other costs.
3. Set a budget for your office-inspired college wardrobe
As you get a better idea of what clothes you have to work with, you might start seeing gaps in your college wardrobe that need to be filled.
Make a list of the items you need to purchase, along with a few that would be nice to have. Decide how much is reasonable to spend on each item. Then, tally up what you can expect to spend overall and compare that to the cash you have on hand.
If your funds fall short, go back to the drawing board and decide on which items you’ll buy first – and then save up for more purchases down the road.
You could also review your college budget to see where you could cut back for a week or a month to free up funds for your new office apparel. Make sure that any money you plan to spend on your new and improved wardrobe won’t leave you short on bills, student loan payments or other expenses.
And remember, your new boss knows your college student status. They won’t expect you to be able to afford Armani and the like.
4. Purchase high-quality, versatile classics
Budget for high-quality, classic styles that can act as the core of your college wardrobe for office use.
“If you are building a basic wardrobe, you want to start with the best pieces you can afford,” Heathfield said.
These would be basic-yet-classic pieces such as a…
- Suit
- Blazer
- Dress slacks
- Office-appropriate shoes
For these items, aim for high quality. You don’t have to upgrade to designer-label workwear, but you should end up with clothes that can last you for a while.
Be sure to choose building pieces that are classic, neutral and versatile, too.
“The more ways a piece of clothing will look good on you, the more ways you will use it,” Heathfield said.
5. Never pay full price for the best of your college wardrobe
Just because you’re aiming for quality doesn’t mean you have to pay a premium to get it. Here are some tips to spend less when shopping for your office-inspired college wardrobe:
- Shop at outlets for quality at a discount. T.J. Maxx, Nordstrom Rack, J. Crew Factory and other stores offer name brands at big discounts. Clothing companies like these are also among stores with student discounts.
- Hit the clearance rack. Before wandering around a store, check out the clearance rack. And look for advertisements on sales, especially those that offer an additional discount on clearance items.
- Sell old clothes to pay for your new attire. If you have outdated or unworn pieces in your closet, you can sell your clothes for cash or store credit. That could make buying appropriate attire more affordable.
- Take advantage of coupons and codes. Check coupon code sites if you’re shopping online. Consider signing up for a store’s email list to get coupons sent to your inbox. You can even install shopping browser extensions that’ll alert you to deals for the site you’re on.
- Shop through cashback sites. Visit Rakuten, Swagbucks and others to find deals and earn rewards for shopping.
- Lived-in clothes could get you by, at least temporarily: If you’re close to an interview or start date, you might hop over to the local thrift store to find hidden gems. You could also search fashion consignment websites like Poshmark and ThredUp for secondhand items that match your new job wardrobe needs.
6. Be careful how you pay for your college wardrobe
Any credit card balance you carry will incur steep interest charges that’ll add to the costs of completing your sophisticated college wardrobe. Consider paying with debit or cash. If you pay with credit, only charge what you can pay off in full each month – that way, you’ll avoid credit card interest.
You might also be tempted to use extra student loan money on much-needed business casual clothing for college. More than 1 in 4 current students use education debt to finance new clothing, according to a 2019 Student Loan Hero survey.
Despite the temptation, it’s generally best to avoid using loans for nonessential expenses. That’s because paying with borrowed money increases the cost of the clothes, in this case, perhaps beyond your ability to immediately pay it back.
Andrew Pentis contributed to this report.
Interested in refinancing student loans?
Here are the top 9 lenders of 2022!| Lender | Variable APR | Eligible Degrees | |
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 | 2.49% – 11.72%1 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 2.50% – 6.30%2 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 4.13% – 7.39%3 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
 | 2.49% – 7.99%4 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
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 | 3.69% – 9.92%8 | Undergrad & Graduate | |
| Check out the testimonials and our in-depth reviews! 1 Important Disclosures for Splash Financial. Splash Financial DisclosuresTerms and Conditions apply. Splash reserves the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. Rates and terms are also subject to change at any time without notice. Offers are subject to credit approval. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident in an eligible state and meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers receive the lowest rate. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. If approved, your actual rate will be within a range of rates and will depend on a variety of factors, including term of loan, a responsible financial history, income and other factors. Refinancing or consolidating private and federal student loans may not be the right decision for everyone. Federal loans carry special benefits not available for loans made through Splash Financial, for example, public service loan forgiveness and economic hardship programs, fee waivers and rebates on the principal, which may not be accessible to you after you refinance. The rates displayed may include a 0.25% autopay discount. The information you provide to us is an inquiry to determine whether we or our lenders can make a loan offer that meets your needs. If we or any of our lending partners has an available loan offer for you, you will be invited to submit a loan application to the lender for its review. We do not guarantee that you will receive any loan offers or that your loan application will be approved. Offers are subject to credit approval and are available only to U.S. citizens or permanent residents who meet applicable underwriting requirements. Not all borrowers will receive the lowest rates, which are available to the most qualified borrowers. Participating lenders, rates and terms are subject to change at any time without notice. To check the rates and terms you qualify for, Splash Financial conducts a soft credit pull that will not affect your credit score. However, if you choose a product and continue your application, the lender will request your full credit report from one or more consumer reporting agencies, which is considered a hard credit pull and may affect your credit. Splash Financial and our lending partners reserve the right to modify or discontinue products and benefits at any time without notice. To qualify, a borrower must be a U.S. citizen and meet our lending partner’s underwriting requirements. Lowest rates are reserved for the highest qualified borrowers. This information is current as of September 6, 2022. 2 Important Disclosures for Laurel Road. Laurel Road DisclosuresAll credit products are subject to credit approval. Laurel Road began originating student loans in 2013 and has since helped thousands of professionals with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees consolidate and refinance more than $9 billion in federal and private school loans. Laurel Road also offers a suite of online graduate school loan products and personal loans that help simplify lending through customized technology and personalized service. In April 2019, Laurel Road was acquired by KeyBank, one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies. Laurel Road is a brand of KeyBank National Association offering online lending products in all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. All loans are provided by KeyBank National Association, a nationally chartered bank. Member FDIC. For more information, visit www.laurelroad.com. As used throughout these Terms & Conditions, the term “Lender” refers to KeyBank National Association and its affiliates, agents, guaranty insurers, investors, assigns, and successors in interest.
Assumptions: Repayment examples above assume a loan amount of $10,000 with repayment beginning immediately following disbursement. Repayment examples do not include the 0.25% AutoPay Discount. Annual Percentage Rate (“APR”): This term represents the actual cost of financing to the borrower over the life of the loan expressed as a yearly rate. Interest Rate: A simple annual rate that is applied to an unpaid balance. Variable Rates: The current index for variable rate loans is derived from the one-month London Interbank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) and changes in the LIBOR index may cause your monthly payment to increase. Borrowers who take out a term of 5, 7, or 10 years will have a maximum interest rate of 9%, those who take out a 15 or 20-year variable loan will have a maximum interest rate of 10%. KEYBANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY OR DISCONTINUE PRODUCTS AND BENEFITS AT ANY TIME WITHOUT NOTICE. This information is current as of April 29, 2021. Information and rates are subject to change without notice. 3 Important Disclosures for LendKey. LendKey DisclosuresRefinancing via LendKey.com is only available for applicants with qualified private education loans from an eligible institution. Loans that were used for exam preparation classes, including, but not limited to, loans for LSAT, MCAT, GMAT, and GRE preparation, are not eligible for refinancing with a lender via LendKey.com. If you currently have any of these exam preparation loans, you should not include them in an application to refinance your student loans on this website. Applicants must be either U.S. citizens or Permanent Residents in an eligible state to qualify for a loan. Certain membership requirements (including the opening of a share account and any applicable association fees in connection with membership) may apply in the event that an applicant wishes to accept a loan offer from a credit union lender. Lenders participating on LendKey.com reserve the right to modify or discontinue the products, terms, and benefits offered on this website at any time without notice. LendKey Technologies, Inc. is not affiliated with, nor does it endorse, any educational institution. Subject to floor rate and may require the automatic payments be made from a checking or savings account with the lender. The rate reduction will be removed and the rate will be increased by 0.25% upon any cancellation or failed collection attempt of the automatic payment and will be suspended during any period of deferment or forbearance. As a result, during the forbearance or suspension period, and/or if the automatic payment is canceled, any increase will take the form of higher payments. The lowest advertised variable APR is only available for loan terms of 5 years and is reserved for applicants with FICO scores of at least 810. As of 09/09/2022 student loan refinancing rates range from 4.13% APR – 7.39% Variable APR with AutoPay and 2.99% APR – 9.93% Fixed APR with AutoPay. 4 Rate range above includes optional 0.25% Auto Pay discount. Important Disclosures for Earnest. Earnest DisclosuresYou can choose between fixed and variable rates. Fixed interest rates are 3.99% – 8.74% APR (3.74% – 8.49% APR with Auto Pay discount). Starting variable interest rates are 2.74% APR to 8.24% APR (2.49% – 7.99% APR with Auto Pay discount). Variable rates are based on an index, the 30-day Average Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR) plus a margin. Variable rates are reset monthly based on the fluctuation of the index. We do not currently offer variable rate loans in AK, CO, CT, HI, IL, KY, MA, MN, MS, NH, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, and VA. 5 Important Disclosures for Navient. 6 Important Disclosures for SoFi. SoFi DisclosuresFixed rates range from 3.99% APR to 8.24% APR with a 0.25% autopay discount. Variable rates from 3.24% APR to 8.24% APR with a 0.25% autopay discount. Unless required to be lower to comply with applicable law, Variable Interest rates on 5-, 7-, and 10-year terms are capped at 8.95% APR; 15- and 20-year terms are capped at 9.95% APR. Your actual rate will be within the range of rates listed above and will depend on the term you select, evaluation of your creditworthiness, income, presence of a co-signer and a variety of other factors. Lowest rates reserved for the most creditworthy borrowers. For the SoFi variable-rate product, the variable interest rate for a given month is derived by adding a margin to the 30-day average SOFR index, published two business days preceding such calendar month, rounded up to the nearest one hundredth of one percent (0.01% or 0.0001). APRs for variable-rate loans may increase after origination if the SOFR index increases. The SoFi 0.25% autopay interest rate reduction requires you to agree to make monthly principal and interest payments by an automatic monthly deduction from a savings or checking account. This benefit will discontinue and be lost for periods in which you do not pay by automatic deduction from a savings or checking account. The benefit lowers your interest rate but does not change the amount of your monthly payment. This benefit is suspended during periods of deferment and forbearance. Autopay is not required to receive a loan from SoFi. 7 Important Disclosures for Purefy. Purefy DisclosuresPurefy Student Loan Refinancing Rate and Terms Disclosure: Annual Percentage Rates (APR) ranges and examples are based on information provided to Purefy by lenders participating in Purefy’s rate comparison platform. For student loan refinancing, the participating lenders offer fixed rates ranging from 2.73% – 7.99% APR, and variable rates ranging from 1.74% – 7.99% APR. The maximum variable rate is 25.00%. Your interest rate will be based on the lender’s requirements. In most cases, lenders determine the interest rates based on your credit score, degree type and other credit and financial criteria. Only borrowers with excellent credit and meeting other lender criteria will qualify for the lowest rate available. Rates and terms are subject to change at any time without notice. Terms and conditions apply. 8 Important Disclosures for Citizens. CitizensBank DisclosuresEducation Refinance Loan Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69%-9.92% (3.69%-9.92% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49%-10.11% (4.49%-10.11% APR). Undergraduate Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 6.39%- 9.60% (6.39% – 9.60% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 6.58% – 9.79% (6.58% – 9.79% APR). Graduate Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69% – 9.16% (3.69% – 9.16% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49% – 9.35% (4.49% – 9.35% APR). Education Refinance Loan for Parents Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69%- 9.09% (3.69%- 9.09% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49% – 9.28% (4.49% – 9.28% APR). Medical Residency Refinance Loan Rate Disclosure: Variable interest rates range from 3.69% – 9.16% (3.69% – 9.16% APR). Fixed interest rates range from 4.49% – 9.35% (4.49% – 9.35% APR). |
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