Heres a short version of the story of my aunt getting into dental school(20 years ago? more?).
She applied to Harvard and got an interview. She was very nervous to begin with. She arrived and the airlines lost her luggage. It was apparently very cold. A cold front had come through and this poor Florida girl was seeing snow for the first time in her life. All she had with her was the clothes on her back and her wallet. Unfortunately the clothes on her back were pink colored sweats (it was the 80s). She got into town very late and the only place she could find open was a convenience store and her interview was first thing in the morning. So, she bought what makeup she could, but all they had was makeup for dark skin colors but she is just about as pale as you can get without being an albino. Crying, she bought them anyhow and went back to her hotel. Apparently it only got colder overnight. She woke up to go to her interview, put on the makeup, and was shaking from the moment she walked out her hotel door (and crying still). As she was walking to the campus crying and shaking, some old bum came up to her and gave her his coat out of pure pity (thats how terrible she was looking). She didnt want to deprive the poor man of his coat nor did she want it because it smelled like death and booze, but she took it because of how bad of shape she was in that temperature (she gave him some money to put her conscious at ease). She had picked up a coffee thinking it would warm her up and apparently between the wind, her hands being numb and her shaking from chill, the coffee spilled all over her. So, she walked into dental interview looking like a tramp off the street coming indoors to avoid hypothermia. Smelling of death, body odor, booze, coffee, and cheap convenience store perfume, the secretary was rather doubtful about her actually being an applicant.
This event allowed the interviewer to see my aunt for the real person she was. Faced with all of these obstacles she overcame them and showed a lot of character. The interviewer thought the world of her. She was told that she was definitely going to be accepted.
It kinda ruins the story but she declined the acceptance because of the cost, weather and distance from home. My point is though, if you go through a situation like this, its alright to not show up in a suit. Its forgivable. Anything short of this....and I personally you should have been wearing a suit. Its cool that you got accepted however. Maybe this is a new tactic, separate yourself from the herd 🙂
