Here’s what you should dress as for Halloween, based on your Exeter degree

Because what’s scarier than your deadlines?

6 months ago

The spooky season is well and truly here! The days are getting shorter, the temperature has taken a rapid decline and pumpkins are to be seen in every shop down Fore Street. With Halloween fast approaching, many of us Fever-ishly anticipate the big occasion and cannot wait for all the Halloween-themed activities. Halloween is the ONE night of the year where students can dress however they want, after all. Whether you prefer a more daring costume that will take you at least a green Venom to wear, or the more comedic approach that will make you the life of the party and shared multiple times on Exeter Overheard: Halloween is anyone’s game!

If you’re a student at the University of Exeter and struggling to find the perfect Halloween costume to wear, struggling to find something that is just so unique, or struggling to find something that makes you stand out in the TP smoking area: Look no further! Here is a list of all the characters and costumes you can be for Halloween based off your degree (you’re welcome).

1. English

We all know how much an English student love their books. English students immerse themselves in the book they are reading and begin to develop a strong bond to the characters and their fictional world. English students cannot help but lose themselves in a good piece of literature (often finding it hard to put down their beloved Virginia Woolf).

As English students become engrossed in their novels and stories, they begin to imagine themselves in these creative realms and universes. Halloween is the perfect opportunity for English students to live out their mythical fantasies. With this in mind, it’s most likely that an English student will dress up as a fictional book character. Many have patiently waited for their chance to live out their Pride and Prejudice dream of Elizabeth Bennet searching for her Mr. Darcy or, perhaps, a more lavish look of The Great Gatsby with the flappers, bling and cigars (but not the automobiles, you’re on a budget). Perhaps they’ll even go as more recognisable characters of J.K Rowlings’ Harry Potter, and live out their true Hogwarts vision in Cheesy Tuesday by requesting the theme tune. There is no doubt, you will most likely see many English students dressed in some kind of Victorian gown and claim they are Jo March from Little Women.

2. Engineering

For engineering students, their Halloween costume becomes relatively cheap in comparison to the other degrees. Engineering students have the upper hand in organising their Halloween costumes as they can put their degree to use and craft their own costume. As engineering is pre-occupied with the importance of efficiency, their mathematical and physics-led brains can design their costume to become interactive if need be – very cool.

Engineering students will most likely create their costume out of the materials they have at home and make everything out of scratch. The world becomes their oyster! By being an engineering student, you are able to get crafty and make nothing into something. There is no need to send yourself into your overdraft by splashing out on Amazon with last minute costumes or taking a trip around town only to find the most basic Halloween costumes. If your friend is an engineering student, you’re in luck, as they will most likely design your costume too. Meaning, you will both stand out from the room two Fever crowd! So, if you see someone wearing a Hello Fresh box redecorated into a car, you know that they’re most likely are an engineering student.

3. Computer science

Now, for the computer science students. Their degree is heavily about technology, and they centre their lives around computers. Which, on the surface, is very boring, but not to computer science people of course. In computer science, when they are not on their fifth hour of playing Minecraft, they delve into their nerdiness by consuming magazines or Marvel films. Many computer science students love the MCU, DC, Star Wars, Star Trek or any form of fantasy sci-fi. So, for Halloween, their enjoyment of these films becomes a reality as they jump to the chance of dressing up as their favourite comic book hero.

They may have already had a Batman costume that has been hung up in their wardrobe for months, waiting for the acceptable chance to finally save Gotham or they already own multiple lightsabers, so that they can easily become the next Luke Skywalker. Either way, computer science students love Halloween, it is their one night of year where they can finally embellish in their fandom and not be accused of being a nerd (even if owning all of the figurines is still a bit geeky).

4. Film

Similar to English, film students are engrossed in the films they view and the stories they tell. Halloween is the night for film students to show off their recognisable, Hollywood outfits and their own style of their favourite thriller, comedy or sci-fi. For many film students, the characters aren’t just fictional but represent their own beliefs and aesthetics which film students attempt to seek in themselves. Let’s face it, after a trip to the cinema, your personality does change for the next two weeks where you heavily relate to a certain character in a coming-of-age drama.

So, for Halloween, many film students will take this opportunity to dress up as their favourite protagonist, femme fatale or villain. Arguably, a lot of film students are quite snobby about their extensive knowledge of films and will mansplain every plot of a thriller to you. Undoubtedly, you will find many film students dressed as the notorious, classical Hollywood films. An extremely popular Halloween costume for many film students is none other than Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Not only is this film riddled with crime, violence and chaos, but the costumes are quite stylish too, especially the well-known character, Mia Wallace. Girl film students long to be the enchanting femme fatale, so her aesthetic is perfect. Likewise, for boy film students, the classic horror of American Psycho will definitely have the boys desperate to dress as Patrick Bateman (a very problematic character, but a great Halloween costume nonetheless). So, if you see these well-known characters with their bloody nose, black hair and white shirt or bloody raincoat and headphones floating around TP, just know that they most definitely study film.

5. Sport science

As we know, the University of Exeter is riddled with athletic people and holds a much beloved place for sports. Many sporty people take their love for fitness to the next level by studying sport science. However, it is a very common stereotype for those studying sport science to commonly be footballers, rugby people or some kind of athlete. Many sport science students are known to be the usual muscly, “goes to the gym six days a week”, protein-powder obsessed types of people. We know that they will find ANY opportunity to flex their muscular build.

For Halloween, we know that sport science students see this as an opportunity to wear the most revealing outfits known to man in order to show off their physique. Typically, the male sport science students relish at this chance whether that’s wearing a Playboy bunny outfit, a Fireman outfit or just borrowing a girl’s crop top and skirt. These students will find some way of having their full body on show. They love to be the walking eye candy of the night and use Halloween as an excuse to do so. If you see a flood of tall, muscular bodybuilders running down Sidwell Street in their minimal clothes, you just know they are associated with sports of some kind. Just beware of being held captive in the TP smoking area as they decide to challenge you to another round of arm wars: “Rah, go again! Best of three!”

6. History

For the history students, Halloween is the time of year where they can put their degree to good use and time travel back to the ages. History is often a very boring subject for many, so by having a good historical, Halloween costume, you might prove them wrong! It comes as no surprise that History students are most likely to dress up as a type of historical period whether that’s the Tudor times, the Victorian times or Medieval ages – history students’ options are endless.

However, for history students in “Exetah”, there is only one popular costume and that is the toga costume. Toga has become a recurring theme for many students in Exeter. And so, for history students, they have the chance to use this costume again and again and again – some may say the costume is timeless (no pun intended). The toga costume is definitely going to be a popular one this year! With the TikTok trend of the Roman Empire, you are bound to see many students in their white sheets, shivering down Sidwell Street as they make their grand entrance to TP. If you’re a history student struggling to choose a good Halloween costume, look no further: The toga will save you (and you can guarantee you will definitely be on his mind). The only downside is you have to be prepared to pre twice as hard because the autumnal, Devon weather may not be on your side.

7. Drama

Drama students are the life and soul of the party. They know how to put on a good show and give a good performance to anyone they encounter. If you’re a drama student, you are most likely an extremely extroverted person who loves to make new friends, go to new places and make new memories but above all, you like to be the centre of attention. No offence, drama students, but you do love the limelight.

When the spooky season creeps around the corner, drama students’ ears prick at the thought of being in the spotlight. So, for Halloween, many drama students will find any way to be the comedic relief on their Halloween outings. To make themselves known and seen as much as possible in any Exeter club, we know that drama students are most likely the type to wear those large, obnoxious, inflatable costumes. There is a large variation of these blow-up costumes: The inflatable “fat” costumes, the “being picked up by an alien” costume or the enormous, inflated T-rex classic. Drama students will choose any of these to make their night all about them. Alternatively, drama students may choose a funny, cartoonish character that involves incredible amounts of time and effort to capture the embodiment of the beloved Gru, Megamind or Smurfs. Either way, both ideas are extremely memorable and that’s exactly what a drama student wants.

8. Law

For the law students, it’s a surprise they have actually stepped out of the Law Library for once and decided to take a night off from endless reading about legal history. As law students often find themselves constantly in “judge” mode, it is hard for them to switch off from their extremely work-driven mindset. Most law students are ambitious and committed to their studies – so much so, they haven’t even had the chance to think about Halloween (or been able to get more than four hours of sleep).

So, for Halloween, law students may take a more boring, formal approach to the occasion. They will most likely dress up in some form of business attire and claim they are a spy or just put on a £1 mask from Poundland over their suit. Either way, they are dressing in style. Alternatively, some law students may decide to go for a more fun way of approaching Halloween, especially if they are a girl. For female law students, they may decide to dress up as Elle Woods from Legally Blonde in her iconic pink lawyer suit: “What? Like it’s hard?”. So, if you see law students dressed in suits scattered around the TP wine bar, no, it’s not the bouncers coming to kick you out: It’s just Law students manifesting their dream of being a lawyer (and being too busy to actually buy a costume).

9. Geography

Last, but not least, we have the geography students. Now, let’s face it: Geography has to be the most boring degree of them all (no offence to any geography students out there). Geography students are most likely the type to only emerge for pres, but leave before you enter Logic Monday as it’s “too late” for them. When geography students hear about Halloween approaching, they are not bothered. They see Halloween as a pointless holiday and can’t stand the whole theatrics of it. When they have spare time away from looking at rocks or rivers, they certainly won’t be considering their Halloween costume and will leave it extremely last minute.

For Halloween, geography students will most likely have no costume at all. They will show up to pres in just normal clothes and claim they forgot. Everyone else in your group will be in array of costumes, but the geography student sticks out like a sore thumb on the room two Fever dancefloor. They will be easy to lose in TP too, as they have no Halloween feature to make them recognisable. Be prepared for the group chat to be flooded with “Where are you?” as you hunt for the geography student (they have probably gone to Efes and gone home). If you’re lucky, a geography student might, just might throw on a mask over their normal clothes or put on a pair of devil horns to make their costume more horrifying. They cannot see the fun in Halloween, and this is shown by their extreme lack of effort. If you’re a geography student who doesn’t know what to be for Halloween, at least splash out on some fake blood and pretend you’re a zombie.