a smile or a blank face for our application photos?

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dhinaabi

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so should we have a blank face or a smile for our med school application pictures?
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i sent in a blank face cause i don't have a mouth
 
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Hey there!

I had a neutral smile...and so far my smile has not scarred any adcomms from giving me interviews....go with what you feel more comfortable with 😀
 
I put a smile....
i hope that's not the reason why I haven't been getting as many interviews...
 
I sent in kind of a mona lisa calm-smile. No teeth, but no stone face.
 
dhinaabi said:
do you mean you had on an expression of "I'm really constipated" in your application picture?😕
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think more along the lines of "i'm trying hard not to be constipated."

this probably works best using a method acting approach. for inspiration, i suggest viewing jeff daniel's performance in the toilet scene of "dumb and dumber":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbDiujuv6rQ
 
guys...this is probably the most trivial aspect of medical school apps you could be talking about. Just send a picture. Nobody looks at it and nobody cares.
 
QuinnB said:
guys...this is probably the most trivial aspect of medical school apps you could be talking about. Just send a picture. Nobody looks at it and nobody cares.
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really??? should we put this theory to the test...?:laugh:
 
szhao said:
i sent in a blank face cause i don't have a mouth
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Really? How do you eat or drink? If you do eat by some other means, can you actually taste the food? I've never seen a person without a mouth before 😕
 
theblastopore said:
Really? How do you eat or drink? If you do eat by some other means, can you actually taste the food? I've never seen a person without a mouth before 😕
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.. sigh, i guess i can be a pathological liar and say i utilize an tube (iv tube) that injects nutrients into my blood stream every 6 hours.
 
szhao said:
.. sigh, i guess i can be a pathological liar and say i utilize an tube (iv tube) that injects nutrients into my blood stream every 6 hours.
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Wow, that must be sad because you probably can't taste the food. Since you can't perform oral sex, do you have an alternate method or do you have to make it up in other areas?
 
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theblastopore said:
Wow, that must be sad because you probably can't taste the food. Since you can't perform oral sex, do you have an alternate method or do you have to make it up in other areas?
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yea isn't it sad, *cries
 
theblastopore said:
Wow, that must be sad because you probably can't taste the food. Since you can't perform oral sex, do you have an alternate method or do you have to make it up in other areas?
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don't listen to him. i think he's a troll. i bet he really does have a mouth.
 
theblastopore said:
Wow, that must be sad because you probably can't taste the food. Since you can't perform oral sex, do you have an alternate method or do you have to make it up in other areas?
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lol. What in the world?!
 
dhinaabi said:
so should we have a blank face or a smile for our med school application pictures?
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Is the general consensus no smiling? I guess I hadn't thought of NOT smiling. I'm just wondering why wouldn't you smile in your picture? If anything, I'd think it would only help you...right? I'll smile... 😀
 
szhao said:
lol let me bold the term i wanted you guys to read *SIGH*
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that's just like a troll. once previous posts are brought out that proves it's a troll, they then go back and deny it, reinterpreting the other posts. don't feed the troll. he said he doesn't have a mouth, and i doubt it's true. if it's true, then i'm sorry.
 
i am not denying anything, and frankly i don't care about what you think, i thought it was fairly obvious that i was just messing around. but maybe it wasn't as obvious as i thought. *SIGH*
 
smile--you can tell a lot about someone by their smile.
 
yeah I smiled 🙂. People tell me it's one of my better attributes...

I wore a black longsleeve, and it's just a headshot, so it looks professional enough. No fancy collar or anything like that. I dunno, it just looked like ME.

To be serious for a minute...I think it's just important to send something in a headshot that looks like you and where you are wearing DECENT clothing...ie: no slutty stuff. And, candids can be nice, but only if it's a head shot with a smile...nothing too ridiculous.

Guess I can't send it that picture of me with chopticks sticking out of my nose or the one where I'm on the toilet turning blue from constipation.
 
my serious answer is simple enough and it's why i had a hard time taking this thread seriously: look pretty. you will look pretty if you dress nice, and probably look pretty if you smile.
 
I was just playing off szhao's sarcastic comment to give you guys a few laugh. I apologize if that caused some heat here, lol

To answer the OP, just send in a nice picture of yourself-smiling or not. Personally, I can't force myself to smile, especially for photography. I look like a ****** when I try to smile for the picture.
 
Rachael07 said:
smile--you can tell a lot about someone by their smile.
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i dunno, i've seen some photos of my friends were the smile looks sooooo fake... if i was reviewing their file, that would pop out at me. with the blank expression, it kinda shows your not trying to get anything across.
 
My photo was a headshot, wore a nice t-shirt that isn't visible except for the collar, shaved down to a goatee, and smiled with some teeth. Just a regular kinda shot, nothing fancy, no stern looks or anything.
 
i've been told my photo looks like a mugshot (by friends, not adcomms). i'm pretty sure it has no bearing in admissions unless its offensive.
 
What about backgrounds? Does everyone have a blank background? I used my sorority picture, and there are trees/foliage in the background.

and I'm smiling. 😀
 
With regards to the original question, I just used 'Paint' (great program) and cut myself out of a picture. I was smiling and it was at night (so, yes I had been drinking).

Anyhow, you should look for that post about a guy sending a 9 x 12 picture of himself shirtless. I love how people kept buying it even as it got more ridiculous. Also, the poster was nice enough to provide a photo to 'back-up' his claim.
 
I'm acquainted with someone who has been on an admissions committee, and he said that he strongly recommends spending $50 or so and getting professional photos done. No funky glamour shots, but something nice and classy, perhaps akin to a yearbook photo. I suppose this would imply a smile.
 
Smile. Do you really want to go to a medical school that rejects your application because you smiled in a photo?
 
DrHusky said:
With regards to the original question, I just used 'Paint' (great program) and cut myself out of a picture. I was smiling and it was at night (so, yes I had been drinking).
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Ha, I did the same thing... I just had recently gotten an excellent photo taken of me at a party & decided that that photo was better than any other I could conjure (sp?) up. So, I went with it.

And to the comment about going pro - are you kidding? 😱 Application process is expensive enough.
 
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