Shoes for business school admission interviews (and beyond)

I currently run a family business in the south and am able to mostly wear what I want. I have a pair of AE McCallisters in walnut, a pair of dark brown Cole Haan penny loafers, a pair of light burgundy Cole Haan captoes (Fifth Avenue style with the broguing), and a pair of black leather soled captoes I got in Florence whose quality, based on the immediate, rumpled creasing, is not that great and whose look is similar to the AE Park Avenue. None of those seem perfect for business school admissions interviews. I know the conservative thing to do would be to buy a pair of black Park Avenue's or something similar, but I hate to be redundant and that seems a little boring for me. I will be interviewing at UVA, Duke, Yale, Northwestern, Berkeley Haas, UCLA, and Vanderbilt with the intention of going into entrepreneurship, by the way. I can't imagine that matters, but trying to provide you with all the relevant details.

So here is what I'm thinking. Since I will be trading my high-paying job for a high-tuition school, I need to make this purchase count. Should I go for a cordovan shoe? Would the AE Strand in dark brown burnished calf or cordovan work for my purposes or are they just too busy? There is a sale coming up so AE makes a lot of sense to me, but should I bite the bullet and get an Alden?

Shoes for business school admission interviews (and beyond)