Top 20 College Halloween Costume Ideas

Whether you’re planning to put on a Halloween party or attend one, you’ll want to dress up. That’s half the fun of Halloween! If you’re looking for costume ideas, you’ll find our list of ideas later in the article.

Right now, we’ll take a look at some party ideas in case you’re the one putting on the party!

Halloween Party Theme

When you start setting up a Halloween party, it can be a lot of fun to come up with a theme. The theme can be just a backdrop for the party, or it can be used to inspire costumes! You can have the party anywhere its allowed. This could include at an apartment, in a friend’s backyard, at a house, and more.

What about decorations? This is what will set the theme of the party. What type of decorations would you like? You can do a traditional Halloween-themed party. In that case, you can use pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns, witches, bats, skeletons, and more.

If you’d like some more non-traditional, then why not choose your favorite horror movie for inspiration? Another idea would be to take a theme from your favorite mystery novel or another book that’s scary. Then purchase or make decorations that would go with that theme.

You’ll Need Food

What kind of foods can you have? Just about anything you’d like! You can go with simple cheese and crackers, chip & dip, etc. And don’t forget the candy! You might also consider baking cookies that match your party theme.

Don’t feel like you have to do all the food yourself, either. That can be expensive and take quite a bit of time. Instead, ask everyone who comes to the party to bring some food with them. This could be their favorite snacks, pizzas, and more.

Games & Activities

You may also want to come up with some games that match your party theme. Or just some fun games you and your friends enjoy! Some game ideas to consider are:

• Scary movie drinking game
• Pumpkin truth or dare
• Pumpkin carving contest
• Create mummies out of toilet paper: you’ll need to create teams, with one person to be wrapped in toilet paper. The team who wraps their person the fastest wins!
• Pumpkin Pictionary (for this game, you can use pumpkins and carve pictures into them, which others have to guess at what they are)

Party Tips

Remember, this party is supposed to be fun for everyone! Here are some tips to keep it fun:

• Only invite people you enjoy spending time with
• Use paper plates and napkins (cleanup is much easier)
• Serve finger foods (you don’t need knives/forks/spoons)
• Be sure to clean up when the party’s over!

OK—now we’re ready to take a look at some costume ideas for your party!

College Costume Ideas

1). Betty & Veronica from Riverdale

This is a great choice for best friends who both love the show! These costumes would be easy to create. Just choose matching shirts & skirts or dresses in complementary colors! Then choose shoes to finish off this ensemble of friends!

2). Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Did you love that show when you were a kid? Then why not consider dressing up at Sabrina? This is another easy costume. All you need for this costume is a cheerleader’s outfit, a blond wig and a black headband. That’s it!

3). Peanut Butter & Jelly

This would be a great costume for a couple or for best friends! All you need is a brown t-shirt and a purple or pink t-shirt. Get some letters that can be glued on, or you could also use puffy paint and then add the words to both shirts. Of course, the brown shirt is peanut butter, and the other shirt is jelly!

4). Basketball Players

This is another costume that would be great for friends or for a couple. All you need are two basketball uniform costumes, tennis shoes, sports socks and a basketball!

5). Zombie

Do you love horror movies with zombies? Then why not go to the party as a zombie? This one’s pretty easy. Just take an old t-shirt and cut holes in different places, and pair it with some old, ripped jeans. Then use Halloween makeup to create blood, color parts of your skin dark, and more. You can also use fake blood on your clothes!

6). The Incredibles

This would be a really cute idea for a group! Here, you can buy red t-shirts and black leggings. Then create the Incredible’s chest icon and place one on each shirt. Oh, and we can’t forget black masks to wear across your eyes! There you go, how cute is that?

7). Pumpkin

This could be a great costume for one person, a couple, friends, or a group! All you need for this costume is matching orange t-shirts and black leggings. You’ll also need some black paint or fabric. Use the black paint or fabric to create some cute jack-o-lantern faces on each shirt. And if you’d like another embellishment, tie a green ribbon in your hair to represent the pumpkin stem or leaves!

8). Football Player

This is another costume that’s perfect for one, a couple, or a group! Football is a huge part of going to university, so why not dress up as a football player? All you need are matching football uniforms—that’s it! You might make this a little more authentic by placing black makeup on your cheeks, under your eyes, like the football players do!

9). Rey From Star Wars

Rey has become one of the most popular characters from the newer Star Wars movies! If you love her character, all you need to dress up like her is a white, flowy shirt, a brown belt, some fabric to make arm guards, and a fake light sabre. You can even do your hair up in three buns; however, if that’s too difficult, then just create three ponytails and tuck the ends up. Everyone will know who you are!

10). A Cactus

Do people say you have a prickly personality? Then why not dress up as a cactus? You may be able to find a cactus costume, or you can make it yourself! All you need is a green dress, shirt, or even a sweater, some pipe cleaners (to be the spikes), hot glue or needle and thread.

You can bend the pipe cleaners in different ways and then sew them in different parts of the green dress/sweater/shirt. You could even make a cute headband of spines for your head!

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11). Maverick from Top Gun

If you love this character, you can either find a costume for an airman, or make one! All you need is a green jumpsuit, patches that look like they’re from the military and some aviator glasses! Just sew (or glue) the patches onto the jumpsuit, then put on the glasses and there you go!

12). Marty McFly

Back the Future was a great movie! The main character, Marty McFly, ends up accidentally going back to the future, and has a great adventure! You may be able to find a costume for this character or you can DIY your own. All you need is a puffy vest, a jean jacket, a checked shirt, jeans and high-top tennis shoes.

13). David Bowie

Here’s another fun character! David Bowie was a great Rockstar. If you love Ziggy Stardust, then you may be able to buy a costume. If not, then make your own. What you really need for this one is a wild wig of red hair, with hair standing up all over on top. Then you’ll need a wild 70s or 80s pantsuit or jumpsuit!

14). Indiana Jones

Here’s another great character from the past—Indiana Jones! All you need for this is either to buy a costume or DIY your own. For that you’ll need a leather jacket. Khaki pants, and of course that hat and a whip!

15). Clark Kent

Here’s another iconic character from the past—Clark Kent! All you need for this is a regular white shirt, a air of jeans, and a Superman t-shirt to wear under the white shirt! That’s it!

16). Danny Zuko

This is the main male character from the movie Grease. What do you need for this costume? Slicked back hair, a black leather jacket, a black t-shirt and some black jeans. That’s it!

17). Error 404

If you’re a computer nerd, then why not consider this costume? It’s really easy! All you need is a white t-shirt and some lettering that looks a little robotic. The shirt says, “Error 404 Costume Not Found.” If you need a last minute, easy costume, this is the one for you!

18). Tourist

This is the perfect costume for anyone who loves to travel. And it can work for a single person, a couple, or a group! What do you need? A pair of shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, a fishing cap, fanny packs and tennis shoes or sandals! Pretty easy!

19). Eye Candy

OK—this isn’t that kind of eye candy! But if you’re looking for a cute idea, at the last minute, this one may work for you! All you need is a black t-shirt, 4-5 large eyeballs (the kind that are white, with a black pupil that moves), and small candies (Kitkat bars, etc.). Just attach the eyes to the front of the shirt in a random way, and then randomly attach the small candies! Really cute!

20). Dalmatian

This is another super easy costume. All you need is a white t-shirt, and some black paint. Just randomly paint black dots all over the t-shirt. You can wear the shirt over leggings or jeans. Another idea would be to get some doggie ears or a headband that has doggie ears and wear these with the shirt! And don’t forget to paint your nose black!