<p>Emory asked for a photo, when my daughter applied in fall of 2005. In all the hassle of getting the application together and mailed out, we forgot to include it. She was admitted without it.</p>
<p>We also got the explanation of putting a face with a name, but Emory is a school that tracks interest.</p>
<p>Why in the world would they ask for a picture? What does that have to do with an applicants qualifications?</p>
<p>I would think that schools would want to avoid any hint of discrimination.</p>
<p>Georgetown also asks for a picture. The “it helps us remember who we interviewed” is a straw man argument, esp. when many of these schools (including Georgetown) use alumni interviewers.</p>
<p>I have no problem with <em>accepted</em> students sending pictures in for freshman viewbooks, etc.</p>
<p>We were thinking of having my S add a picture to the 'Why Engineering?" essay of him with his k’nex windmill that is taller than him at age 5. He talks about building things with k’nex in the essay. Too hokey?</p>
<p>Why not ask for a photo? Why would there be an “ulterior” motive? I absolutely would never believe that an admissions group would sit around and think to themselves “Hmmm we’ve got 100 short, brown haired boys, let’s find a tall blonde hair boy”. Or that as a group they would reject some poor kid with bad acne. Really. If anything, it is in people’s nature these days to bend over backward NOT to have any appearance of discrimination. Anecdotally it appears that with the few colleges that do this it is optional so no harm no foul either way.</p>
<p>SJTH–yup, Columbia does. (or did when S applied, anyway).</p>
<p>I’d send one if they asked, not if they didn’t (I would probably just describe the K’nex sculpture in the essay, kttmom, though that might be an instance when an unrequested pic would add to the app.)</p>
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<p>It is people’s nature to favor those deemed attractive by society. The vast majority of people are not even aware they do it. Acne is another good example. While no one thinks they would discriminate against a child with severe acne, acne is wrongly associated with poor hygine. In otherwords, when we look at photographs what we are aware we are thinking is sometimes in conflict with the feelings being provoked.</p>
<p>So, again, why ask for a photo? What is the benefit? The vast majority of colleges do not ask for them any more and are not suffering for it.</p>
<p>What seems even more strange is that at my DS’s High School, there is a photo included on the transcript. Is that normal for HS transcripts? So, even though he was asked for a photo at several schools, all of the schools got one anyway with the transcripts.</p>
<p>And I do agree with pugmadkate, that in society, it is people’s nature to favor those deemed attractive by the society’s culture. We toured a lot of small, private schools that all had a “look” to their current student body. Those just happened to be the schools that asked for a picture. The private schools where my DS decided to apply that asked for pictures, were the ones that also had a student body where his look “fit” in. He was also admitted to these schools, often with lower stats than others were rejected. Was this a deciding factor? We will never know.</p>
<p>Interesting enough, I think students when going on tours, do look around the other students and make judgements about the school based on how they think the other students look. Do they look like me? Would I fit in here (without talking to students, how would they know, except by looks?). Check out the thread on “Stupidest reason child won’t look at a college” and see that many students judge a college on factors that include looks. Shoes, tour guides, etc.</p>
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<p>Of course they do. People do that subconsciously every day. When they interview they look around and decide if they will fit that culture. When they buy a house, they look around at the neighborhood. None of which is rooted in much other than a desire to “fit in” and not make a decision that ends in remorse. Some people want to try on a new culture or be different, others not so much. But I think that conversely people that pick and choose for jobs, pick and choose for colleges, pick and choose for committees, teams, etc. these days bend over backward not to give the appearance of stereotyping or selecting a certain type of person.</p>