Get excited, collegiettes – Halloween is almost here! This year, your costume can look great and proudly show off your faculty.
Business
You can’t go wrong with a costume based on Mad Men. Mobsters, mafia members, and almost anything film noir is chic and entrepreneurial too.
Education
Rock a schoolgirl costume – Britney Spears-esque or otherwise. The Community cast makes an amazing school-related group costume; switch characters’ genders if you and your squad don’t have the right ratio.
Engineering
Most engineering students get to build and battle robots. So choose a friend and put together typical robot costumes (spray paint some cardboard boxes in metallic colors and attach wires) to start. Whenever you and your fellow battle bot see each other, act ready for a brawl.
Fine Arts
Pop art makeup tutorials are everywhere this year, but you could also use makeup to transform yourself into another famous art style, or a famous painting. The Scream is in the spirit of the season and some Van Gogh swirls on your cheeks would be cute, too.
Or, wear a fast-food worker costume, and say you’re dressed as someone in fine arts! This hits back at stereotypes and starts a conversation.
Math, Statistics, and Computer Science
If you can transform a tee or varsity jacket into a mathletes shirt, you’re most of the way to being Cady Heron or Kevin G. from Mean Girls. Any Matrix themed costume is really cool too. Felicity Smoak, of the T.V. show Arrow, is the ultimate hacker girl – rectangular glasses, a cute dress, and a sleek blonde ponytail are key to her look.
Humanities
If you’re in English, combine a bed sheet, white face makeup, a famous novel, and some trademark accessories to become the ghost of a long-dead writer – with friends, you could form a literal Dead Poets’ Society.
If you’re in History, there are loads of famous figures to draw from. Go for Mary Queen of Scots, like the character Spencer in the first PLL Halloween special, or Cleopatra with gorgeous makeup. Or you could put a twist on the classic “slutty Halloween costume” and go all out as a historically accurate prostitute – you could even throw in some blood to be one of Jack The Ripper’s victims.
Gender Studies majors (who’ll probably disapprove of the previous costume – sorry!) are probably sick of Rosie the Riveter outfits. Instead, with zeroes, ones, and various gender symbols on your outfit, you can go as the gender binary.
Law
The sexy judge costume is just confusing (how is that powdered wig “sexy”?!), so this year, pair up as Harvey and Mike from Suits, or try the Legally Blonde look – you know you want to. Mix law and demons, à la Devil’s Advocate, for a creepier ensemble.
Medical Sciences
Dress as Dr. Frankenstein and get a theatre or science major to be your Monster. Zombies are thematically appropriate too – maybe a zombie surgeon, with a bloodstained facemask?
Science
If you’ve got a dark sense of humour, become Marie Curie post-radiation poisoning. Do your hair up tight like Curie’s, wear an old-fashioned outfit, and carry a beaker. Dust your skin lightly with green makeup for the radiation.
Whip together a cheap and easy “failed science experiment” costume by throwing together pieces from your old animal costumes. Cat ears, a rabbit tail, a duckbill, and a frog suit? Sure! Or, with a bow tie, glasses, and suspenders, be female Bill Nye!
In Environmental Studies? Godzilla is a good option. Astronomy? If you don’t want to be a constellation or an alien, dress as Laika, the first dog in space, by combining a cute terrier costume and an astronaut helmet.
Social Sciences
For poli-sci students, blonde curls, a pant suit, and a stack of binders make you into Leslie Knope, Hilary Clinton, or Elizabeth May – take your pick! Or put on a niqab and carry a ballot (or wear a cardboard voting station) to start discussions about current Canadian politics. Michelle Obama and Wendy Davis (complete with pink sneakers) are great political role models, too.
Psych majors: in a cheap white t-shirt splattered with black ink, you’re a symmetrical inkblot test. To mess with people, make the inkblot look like something very specific and odd (say, two bears fighting a moose), but act concerned whenever someone says that that’s what it looks like.
Criminology students: wear all black or gray, with white tape outlining your body, and you’re a chalk outline.
Athletics
Switch jerseys with your teammates: go as one another. Venus & Serena Williams, Mo’ne Davis, and Ronda Rousey make some badass costumes, too.