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" So earlier this week, an e-mail from Columbia Business School to its first-year students made its way into the dirty meathooks of the Internet. The subject line? &amp;quot;Personal hygiene,&amp;quot; which, needless to say, got the blogs all excited about everything from rain boots to haircuts &amp;quot;clearly done by subway hobos and/or rats.&amp;quot; And with good reason, sort of: No institution of higher learning, especially on the graduate level, should have to remind its students to use deodorant or brush their teeth. But Columbia also encouraged avoiding &amp;quot;no tacky cufflinks or watches (with no crazy patterns, silver is preferable to gold).&amp;quot; Which is damn good advice, as far as we&amp;#039;re concerned. Here&amp;#039;s some more, for those entering the great geeky abyss that is another four (or seven) years. Because it would be a shame if our next shining captains of industry looked like ushers at the Cineplex. Even if that&amp;#039;s how you&amp;#039;re footing the loans. 1. You are not the next Mark Zuckerberg. And even if you are, don&amp;#039;t dress the part. Because if the know-it-all bloggers are wrong about another thing, it&amp;#039;s that the king of Facebook is a fashion icon. So: no pajamas, no slide-in Adidas flip-flops, and never, ever the robe in public. If you&amp;#039;re an undergrad, maybe, but the on-campus lounge-wear look says one thing: that you&amp;#039;re not at all serious about professional life. Which is the reason you&amp;#039;re in grad school to begin with, right? 2. Your roommate is not a barber. Get a haircut. Not necessarily a &amp;quot;professional&amp;quot; one, as Columbia recommends, but one that defines you \u2014 and one that is not uneven. Because symmetry is important here: you&amp;#039;re young, you still have a good hairline, and it&amp;#039;s worth at least twelve bucks. And unless you&amp;#039;re applying for a position in Justin Bieber&amp;#039;s entourage, try and keep things relatively close and clean. 3. Buy a suit. And make sure it fits. This doesn&amp;#039;t mean it has to be expensive. In fact, if your grad school&amp;#039;s in a decent-sized town or near a decent mall, head over to Club Monaco, whose suits are always a steal. If not, check out one of the new custom-suit services like Indochino. Either will run you five hundred bucks, which, considering the return on investment, is an excellent starting point. 4. Treat an interview like a date. Keep in mind that the relationship between yourself and your potential employer will eventually take up more time than that lady in the library. Not that they don&amp;#039;t notice the same things: a little styling in the hair, clipped fingernails, fly. Same goes for the mutual importance of first impressions, and the only thing more fleeting than a first date is a job fair. That and how quickly students probably deleted their latest missive from Columbia&amp;#039;s B-school. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/advice/a8722/how-to-dress-for-graduate-school/>