Students - ditch the suits!

Picture a sweltering day with temperatures hitting 33 degrees Celsius. A group of teenagers are buttoned up in white or pinstripe shirts. Many of the boys wear dark suits and ties, while nearly all of the girls are in fitted black skirt suits and tights.

If they look uncomfortable, it may be because they are overdressed or perhaps, nervous. They are, after all, at a major local university for undergraduate admissions interviews. Soon, they will be corralled into classrooms in small groups to face a panel of interviewers. This may be the first of many such interviews.

This scenario is playing out across Hong Kong as the university admissions season begins, including at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where I teach.

Applicants know that what they say and how they present themselves will affect their chances of being offered a place, so they are well-prepared. I imagine they have taken advice and suggestions from teachers, careers counsellors, parents, maybe older siblings and friends who are already studying at university.

Despite all their preparation, I think they might not understand what interviewers are looking for.

Let’s start with the suits. I don’t know whether students have been advised to wear these outfits to admissions interviews, or whether it was their own idea. I do know that when I face a line of people dressed almost identically, my heart sinks.