Law school dress atire

[KatieManley01]

Ok, ok, I know this is sort of a ridiculous question, but I'm wondering what the typical dress is for a day at school.  I'm getting ready to do a little school shopping (yes, I do realize I sound like I'm in middle school, but I need a few new clothes), and am wondering what people wear to class.  Is it like undergrad where people just throw on ratty jeans and a t-shirt, or do people look a little more presentable (kackis, slacks, polos, button downs, etc)?  Will there be days that we are expected to dress up? 

Also, I'd like to buy a couple suits.  How often will we need business suits?  Would 2-3 be enough for school, or will we be wearing suits fairly often?? 

Thanks in advance!

[DeltaTauKyle]

Actually, I'm interested to know this as well.  Don't wanna be the only shorts and flipflops guy

[makotosan]

Thanks for asking what we all were thinking. 

[duma]

I have the same experience as Todd.

[rezipsa]

Shorts, jeans, flops...basically the poster boy for Abercrombie & Fitch.

[RUSewCrazy]

While visiting classes this spring I noticed all kinds of attire. Jeans, shorts, t-shirts, tank tops. I saw 1 or 2 suits, but I believe those were probably 2L or 3Ls preparing for interviews. It ranged from business casual/khakis to very casual in the classroom. Hope this helps!

[jdohno]

To the OP: you don't need that many suits your first year. The only time you have to look respectable your first year is in the spring semester when you defend your brief. But you do that in front of your professor and maybe 2 other people. Everyone is broke first year so the standard is jeans, sweats, etc. You might have 1 or 2 guys who dress in suits everyday. And a few girls who dressed up like they are trying to pose for Vogue. Until it gets later in the semester and then they get too busy for dress up. People tend to look awful around exam time.

You need suits for the OCI season which depends on your school. You need to wear suits for OCI. But at my former school, since a lot of firms didn't come to campus, OCI seem like it was only 2 days. Whereas top schools might have OCI for a week or something. But OCI is for 2Ls and 3Ls. I think the location of the school matters too. Some of the schools I visited in DC had a lot of students wearing suits and others wearing jeans. But I think some of those people might have been part time students coming from work. Some people try to look nice everyday because they don't who is coming to campus. I doubt bigwigs coming to campus are going to care about a lowly 1L student. Time is so precious your first year. Spending an hour on your hair or anything like that is a waste of time.

[lincolnsgrandson]

everything jdohno is seconded. Especially the part about being broke.  One dark suit should do, and you might not need it yet.

layers is the key - law schools have no idea how to control temperature in classrooms.

on a lighter note, some students wore shorts and flip-flips in the winter at my New York school, so that everyone could see that they lived in the dorms and didn't walk around the corner to get to class.  I thought they looked like dorks. 

[twarga]

I have mostly khakis, jeans and cute tops (standard mom attire) and I figure as long as it follows the military rule (clean, dry, and serviceable), it'll do fine.

[makotosan]

This is all pretty much what I was hoping to hear... I can just buy what I'm going to be comfortable on the train in! Thankfully my parents bought me two nice suits as a graduation present, so I should be set... at least until I get a real job.  Thanks for the great info!