<p>After reading the thread about weight and discrimination with the app process, I began wondering what the purpose of providing a photo of oneself for the supplemental apps.</p>
<p>Are they:</p>
<p>looking to see if you might be a URM?</p>
<p>looking to see …what?</p>
<p>I’ve heard that they request the photo as part of a security check of sorts, and they match it to the one that was taken at the time of the MCAT just to make sure the same person took the test and is showing up at the interview. I don’t know this for sure, just something I heard along the way.</p>
<p>America’s Next Top Model- Med School Edition?</p>
<p>I didn’t know that they took a pic at the time of the MCAT or did they copy the drivers license pic?</p>
<p>Curmy…ha ha.</p>
<p>Security at MCAT sites is pretty tight. You get photographed and fingerprinted before you go in.</p>
<p>I’d also heard the photo request is a sorta of security check–only to make sure the school can recognize you when you show up.</p>
<p>I asked about this at Northwestern. They told me it was to make sure the kid who took the MCAT (yes, they take a pic of you, and also your fingerprints, and look at your driver’s license) was the same as the kid who showed up to the interview was the same as the kid who showed up the first day of class.</p>
<p>A funny side story: Northwestern has a decent-sized interview group (10? 12?) and along with our packets of info they gave us an index sheet of the other interviewees–pic, name, college, major. I’m actually really glad they did! I showed up arguably late (arguably in that I wasn’t late, but I wasn’t 15min early, more like 2min early), check in, and (before I have a chance to open the packet) the girl next to me says “Oh! You’re Kristin, right? I’m Blair. Nice to meet you!” (I’m confused.) She proceeds to tell me that she and the few people around her had been waiting to meet me (I’m still confused). I ask them why. “Well, you looked so friendly in your picture, it was a nice change from all of us in suits standing in front of blank walls.”</p>
<p>What was my picture? Me TAILGATING for a football game, outside on a beautiful day, decked out in my school’s colors, with a huge smile. It was my facebook profile pic of the time, and I thought it was cute.</p>
<p>Guess I missed the memo that I was supposed to be wearing a dark suit and standing in front of a wall!</p>
<p>I have no idea what happened to Blair, but we had a good time that morning.</p>
<p>During DS’s college application cycle, if I remember it correctly, it is rumored that Brown University asked all applicants to provide photos. The end result is that their class tends to be better looking than the class at other college., full of hot boys/girls.</p>
<p>If the above is true, doctors as a group could be better looking than the general population :)</p>
<p>(Cross-posted with kristin) I think DS submitted a picture (the one to med school, not the one to MCAT) which was taken during his commencement (taken by me). At least he looks very happy, also with a huge smile, in that picture. But the background seems to be not right (in green, because it is the color of tree leaves.)</p>
<p>*Well, you looked so friendly in your picture, *</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>and looking friendly can be a bump, I think! Everyone likes to be around friendly people!!!</p>
<p>(doesn’t surprise me a bit that our Dr. K looked friendly in her pic!)</p>
<p>I mean, you never know, I might even be friendly in real life!</p>
<p>They match up your photos from the MCAT with the secondary and finally with the kid who shows up at the interview. Everything must match.</p>
<p>D did many student interviews while in her fourth year. She said she used the picture for matching purposes only. In Kristin’s case, they might have talked about their tailgating experiences. :)</p>
<p>H and I often commented on how healthy and good-looking D’s classmates were. When we look at her co-residents we say the same thing.</p>
<p>Son said that when he took his MCAT, they just scanned in his DL…they didn’t take a pic.</p>
<p>I assume that his photo is on his license. (Isn’t that a requirement in all states?)</p>
<p>Right…</p>
<p>What I should have said is that they didn’t take a photo of him, they just scanned his DL which has a pic of him on it.</p>
<p>Since (I think) all DLs have pics on them, I didn’t specifically mention that point.</p>
<p>It sounded as if some testing sights were actually photographing test-takers.</p>
<p>^They took my pic with a webcam, much like they do for DL and student IDs (at least here…)</p>
<p>I had my photo taken and ID scanned at the start. It was then linked to my finger print. I then had to sign in/out and give my finger print when going back in for the breaks.</p>
<p>Step 1 is the same deal except you also have to turn your pockets inside out and get scanned with a metal detector wand each time you go in.</p>
<p>And they save the photos and fingerprints to compare them when you take step 2 (and presumably step 3).</p>
<p>They copy pics onto the name tags at some interview sites.</p>
<p>I would guess that it might help people tweek their memory when discussing/remembering the folks that they interviewed?</p>