<p>I would love any guidance or information about what others have done in providing a photo for college applications. Juilliard and Oberlin are quite clear that a photo is required, and having done that I am inclined to provide one to other schools.</p>
<p>I am thinking that this is the point where we should get a professional photographer, and have the photographer do a head shot as well as a full body shot. DS is quite tall and well built, so I think that the photographs are helpful to his application. </p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>Depends. Is he auditioning for roles (other than at school) where he needs to submit good quality photographs? If so, then by all means get some shots done by a pro. If he is not doing this yet, many young men look a good bit different after a year or two of college than they do the summer before starting. He is likely to need to have them redone anyway, so you have to ask yourself how much use he would get from a set taken now.</p>
<p>If he gets an audition at Oberlin or Juilliard, he will either have to go to the school or will be videotaped at a regional location. Either way, that will give them a much better feel for his looks than a photograph or two.</p>
<p>I do not know how Juilliard uses the photos, but at Oberlin they want to be able to associate a face with the application forms and they want a photo of last resort for use in programs and on their web site should the student win a competition, appear in a major role in a school production, or do something else they consider worthy of publicizing. In most such cases they would have their own photographers take new shots, but they like to have a stock photo ready to go in case that does not happen.</p>
<p>It seems to me that a session with a professional photographer would be a wonderful college graduation gift for a voice student. I don’t think spending lots of money on professional photographs would give him an edge in the college application process unless there are schools that would not otherwise see him either at a live audition or on videotape.</p>
<p>Juggling Mom,</p>
<p>From what I remember (I applied to Oberlin as a voice performance major 3 years ago), the photo was really only in place so that admissions could put a name to a face at an audition/audition site via videotape. I also agree with BassDad’s “stock photo” statement. I can’t tell you about Juilliard though.</p>
<p>And according to this PDF file: <a href=“http://www.oberlin.edu/con/admissions/applicationPDF/Photo%20request%20final.pdf[/url]”>http://www.oberlin.edu/con/admissions/applicationPDF/Photo%20request%20final.pdf</a> , the photo was not required, and it could be a simple snapshot (I think I used one of my wallet-sized…or slightly larger…senior portrait).</p>
<p>I echo BassDad’s sentiments: unless you’re sending several audition (non-pre-screened) videotape/audio recordings, I wouldn’t invest in professional photography at your stage of the game. I know most of my friends at my school/other schools decided to wait until their grad school auditions/upper-division summer programs with that.</p>
<p>I had extra ‘head shot’ type and full photos with her violin taken of my D during the senior pix sessions. They turned out great, and I am guessing she will be able to use them if she solos during college.</p>
<p>I concur that the photo’s are generally used to associate a face with an audition. But he might as well get a professional head shot, preferably someone who has already worked with classical vocalists, since he will be using these frequently in the near future.</p>
<p>Ummmm…I’m assuming that most students applying to colleges are or recently were high school seniors. Don’t most of them have senior pictures laying around? Maybe I’m missing something.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the helpful feedback so far! I am not sure that the school my son is at will have a good quality senior photo done, or that it will be ready when he needs to get in the Oberlin package for Early Review.</p>
<p>I am a good photographer (but not professional), so we may just go with that.</p>
<p>Any and all other thoughts are welcome!!!</p>
<p>My D needed a spur of the moment head shot for an audition last year - not for college so it needed to be a bit more casual than a senior portrait or classic head shot. She went over to the mall to The Picture People. Fortunately, one of the photographers had done lots of head shots and he did a really great job. She had lots of great shots to pick from in about 20 minutes. There was another girl there getting more formal head shots done and we saw some of them and they looked good too - a very reasonable alternative if big budget head shots don’t make sense right now.</p>