15 College Halloween Costume Ideas

Forget finals, exams, and mid-term papers: coming up with a costume idea for Halloween is real pressure. If you’re sweating over what you’ll be dressing up as this year and want to avoid the tired out plays on pirates, zombies, and vampires, we have 15 unique costume ideas that will score you points with fellow party-goers and overage trick-or-treaters. These unique ideas can be a great jumping-off point to create your own look or improve on the past’s great costumes.

1. Favorite Internet Meme

Every year brings its own crop of viral internet memes, and here’s your chance to celebrate your favorite. You can dress up as Grumpy Cat, Good Guy Greg, your favorite LOL cat, or a combination of any of your favorite internet memes from the past several years.

2. Forgotten Comic Book Heroes

Sure the X-Men, Superman, and Batman get plenty of notice, but what about Swamp Thing, Thor, or If you want to show off your Geek Cred, dress up as Halk Kar, a superhero who had many of the same powers as Superman but to a lesser degree. Halk Kar was briefly thought to be Superman’s older brother, but it turned out he was from a different planet – Thoron – and was eventually scrapped by DC Comics.

3. Your Younger Self

Break out the acid wash jeans, Dippity Do gel, and velcro high tops. Dress up as your middle school or junior high self. Bonus points for dressing up as your Kindergarten self with an accompanying yearbook photo.

4. Sexy Vader

Pair up that Darth Vader mask with fetish PVC gear for a unique look sure to turn some heads.

5. Reality Show Fast Forward

Pick your favorite (or your least favorite) reality show personality and dress as you predict they’ll wind up 20 years from now.

6. Made by Lego

Drag out that plastic bin of Legos and start building. People online have started developing instructions, blueprints, and tips for building masks from plain Lego blocks. Use their instructions to create Star Wars inspired masks or create your own and upload it.

7. Lego Man

It’s also easy and fun to dress up as the original Lego Man. Use Large Construction Tubing to make his head (it will need to fit over your own head) and cover with Yellow Duct Tape. Build a blocky red shirt with cardboard and red tape or contact paper. Cut arm holes in the sides and wear a long sleeved red tee shirt underneath. Finish it off with black trousers and yellow rubber gloves.

8. Loading ….

Get a picture of your own face or of a celebrity or whoever you want to use as a mask. Run it through an online filter to pixelate it and go as a slow loading jpeg or an 8-bit version of that person.

9. A Suessy Solution

Going as your favorite Dr. Seuss character can take some planning. Hit up cosplay friends for tips on making sweeping takes, furry hats, and prosthetic makeup to make the characters come to life.

10. Zipper Face

Grab yourself a zipper either from those jeans that will never fit again or pick up a new one at a fabric store. Paint the whole thing (unzipped) with clear nail polish so it won’t turn your face green, and then use spirit gum or facial adhesive to plaster it half zipped onto your face. You can do it down your nose and have the zipper open right over your mouth or go side to side. Paint each section of your face a different color or use it as a foundation for a monstrous makeover. The use of a real zipper adds a lot to the impact of the costume. Find out more on how to apply Halloween makeup from one of our blog posts.

11. Going as a Group

Planning your costume with a group of friends opens a world of ideas. Gather up a few of your best mates and go as

• a group of Tetris pieces
• Paper, Rock, Scissors
• the Spice Girls
• the Evolution of Madonna
• the South Park gang
• Calvin and Hobbes

12. The World in Black & White

Use monochrome clothes, face paint, black lipstick, and dark accessories to go as yourself in Black & White.

13. Get Punny

If you’re a fan of word play, dress as a pun. A bra and two cups of spice bottles turn you into an instant ‘Spice Rack’. If you have red hair (and you’re a guy), you can tie some bread around your neck and wist and go as a ‘Gingerbread Man’.

14. Frame It

If you’re willing to support a cardboard frame for the evening, you have several options. Framed options include

• the Mona Lisa
• walking FaceBook
• live action YouTube Video

15. Not Dressing Up is Still a Costume

If you find yourself at the 11th hour with no costume, no money, and no time, don’t despair. Grab a white t-shirt and a sharpie and write ‘Error 404: Costume Not Found’. You may not win any prizes, but at least it counts as a costume.

By the way, this costume remains on top of the list for years. We’ve even added it to our list of The Best Halloween Costumes for College Guys.

Bonus

Clowns are really creepy. If you want all your friends to be scared of you, try to wear a clown costume. There are many variations of it; therefore, we’ve completed the entire blog post with Scary Clown Costume Ideas for This Halloween.

Have an epic costume idea? Share it below!