The Secondary Photo!
Started by Doodl3s
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Haha true true
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u guys might not believe me.. but i took my secondary pic in front of a white wall at work, had someone from HR take it with his digital, and I was wearing a yellow Brazil soccer shirt with the green trim.
My guess is that people are thinking about this too much... Even though I didn't get in this past year, the photos I submitted were just the best ones I could find from Facebook (which turned out to be me in a plain old t-shirt). I doubt committees care that much, and they just want to make sure they put a face to a name.
xD I wore a plan t shirt and sent it in to 3 schools already... should i take a new picture dressed up?? T.T
I'm just planning on submitting one of my graduation pictures from the yearbook where I'm wearing a suit and there's a pretty awesome library background. It's a professional picture and looks good. Just going to resize it to whatever dimensions the school asks for; should be fine.
Is it worth taking another picture with said collared shirt for the few remaining schools that request photos? Or is it not a big deal.
I took mine outside in front of a tree, and it shows leaves in the background. White background looks awful IMO, and I'd much rather associate myself with the beauty of living plants 🙂
Seriously, I wouldn't really worry about it. For anecdotal evidence that it doesn't matter, I received an interview last year and I wore a t-shirt and had a camera bag strap across my body. They (most likely) only want it to put a face to a name.
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Well that's bad news for me, because I'm getting plastic surgery at the end of July haha. (It's a procedure I've wanted to have done for a while, just never was able to get enough time off to take care of it properly - correcting deviated septum from a sports injury when I was 12)
Not a good idea. I went to an interview where the associate dean standing next to me in line for lunch basically ridiculed an applicant that submitted a photo that was a crop and not passport-style. If you can find a previously taken photo where you're dressed well and the background is plain, then maybe you can get away with it, but I wouldn't do it.
find a friend with a DSLR and flash (not the pop-up one) and have them take one of you at home in front of a white wall. Maybe it'll turn out better because its a more casual situations. Plus since its a friend and you can take multiple shots if you don't like the way you look!
Yes, I have the same question. I'm wondering if I can use a photo that was already taken on a camping trip or at a wedding, etc. I'm not directly facing the camera, it's a slight profile. Or, for example, how about a picture with my niece?
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No. You are applying for a professional school, and should act accordingly. You don't need anything fancy. I just put a collared shirt and tie on and stood against a white wall in my apartment and had my roommate snap a pic with a standard cheap camera. Looked perfect.
But take the time (and it's really so little time) to at least do something like this. They are not asking for your photo so they can "see you in your element." They're asking so they have a face to put with your name when they review your file post-interview, primarily.
Our dean of admissions used to laugh about all the kids who basically sealed their (unfortunate) fate by sending in "action shots" or random group photos with the others poorly cropped out along with their application for a professional school.
Bottom line: don't do it.
Here's mine:
I'm still practicing though. I think I might defer this year and apply again next year, just so I can pull off the Magnum to get into top tiers.
I'm still practicing though. I think I might defer this year and apply again next year, just so I can pull off the Magnum to get into top tiers.
Here's mine:
I'm still practicing though. I think I might defer this year and apply again next year, just so I can pull off the Magnum to get into top tiers.
Pocket flaps on a tuxedo jacket? Yeah you'd better think about waiting until next year to apply.
Yeah, I think I'm going to go post-bacc for suit design. I think that will give me the best shot at my dreams by improving my subpar fashion sense. The suit you wear and the secondary picture have to be at least 90% of the weight on matriculation.
In all seriousness, I sat on my school's adcom and our dean of admissions gave us explicit instructions to "flag" any application with a picture that deviated from what he considered "standard" or "normal." Loose guidelines were "passport style; shirt and tie for males, blouse for female."
Those "flagged" applications were almost universally tossed. It had nothing to do with wanting a bunch of drones. It had everything to do with people exercising common sense. Choosing an application photo is not the time to "spread your wings" or try to "set yourself apart from the pack." It is the time to understand common social mores. Just as you should not attend an interview in a seersucker suit or a sweatervest, you should not be submitting pictures downloaded from facebook with the background cropped out.
Medical schools can indeed afford to be picky . . . why give them another reason to avoid picking you?
There are also schools with very strict dress codes. If they can't see you being mature enough to put on a nice set of clothes for a simple picture I can imagine that they wouldn't have a problem discarding you.
And just so you know, Google Image Search "Tux"
7th image in.
The UMich second look packet actually has a list of all accepted students and (what I assume to be) their respective secondary photos. Nothing scandalous, unfortunately. http://www.med.umich.edu/medschool/admissions/weekend/program.PDF
Scroll towards the bottom for the list.
Scroll towards the bottom for the list.
Once you're in, my school didn't care what you wore to and from class (as long as it wasn't strewn with profanities). No real dress code (until third year when again common sense prevails). It's simply that if you can't figure out that a professional school wants a big-boy photo, that's probably not working in your favor for the application process.
And I don't really get why you're directing me to the stock image you already posted. Is there a deeper point you think you're making that I'm not getting?
Chris Dampier, you silly boy, you.
Kai Qui, from MIT,
your profile picture, fewest pixels it be.
Nope, I thought you didn't realize it was a stock photo. My apologies. As for schools, mainly those that seem to have patient centered learning (PCL) curricula, tend to have less 'casual' days due to direct contact with patients, and require formal dresswear whenever in their presence (for obvious reasons). It's definitely a maturity thing, as you alluded to.
If a school is actually going to be this picky, then it should broadcast exactly what it is looking for in the photo; otherwise, it just seems petty. As the UMich packet I linked above shows, successful applicants had both professional-looking and less professional-looking photos. Most schools (correctly) understand that using what you're wearing in an application photo to judge your character/sense of professionalism is pretty reaching.
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But seriously, just don't take a self-holding-camera myspace shot & wear reasonably nice clothes. And don't shoot in direct full sunlight, it's really unflattering as portrait lighting.
I should note that we (at least I) never flagged photos where, say, a guy was wearing a polo shirt or something a little less "fancy", as long as it was otherwise normal. I don't think anyone intentionally tried to be super rigid about it, but I can tell you that if someone sent a picture of themselves in a t-shirt at a bar with the background cropped out, they probably weren't making it to the next round.
So glad I'm not the only one freaking out over this photo thing haha
