I went to freshman orientation recently. I got my i.d card. I do not like the way it looks. I have scraggly facial hair in the picture(I cut off my facial hair now). I also have glasses and a lanyard around my neck. I read that having a lanyard screams freshman. I feel like I look stupid in the picture and feel very uncomfortable showing others my i.d to be able to get in the gym. I think it is about 25 dollars to replace the i.d photo at UMD. Should I spend the 25 dollars? Do people honestly care about how I look in my i.d picture to how I look right now? Right now I am clean shaven with thick brown hair.
No one cares about what your ID looks like.
No one cares if you wear a lanyard.
You’re overthinking this. Change it if you want but I sincerely doubt it’ll ever be an issue unless you make it one.
Nobody cares that you’re wearing a lanyard, and the bored kid at the gym who will look at your ID isn’t even going to pay attention. Seriously, basically everyone has a bad ID picture, and it does not matter at all.
Seriously…I give you about a 99.9% chance that nobody will ever even notice that you’re wearing a lanyard. Nobody cares. Seriously. You are not going to be judged for wearing a lanyard. Again…seriously.
You can spend 25 dollars on other much more worthwhile pursuits.
Your ID exists only to prove you are a current student at UMD so you can take advantage of certain facilities/programs/services/etc - it is not supposed to be some sort of modeling headshot where people will judge your physical appearance. NO ONE will care.
My boyfriend’s college, instead of taking students’ pictures at orientation, had everyone send in two personal pictures for ID purposes. My boyfriend had one nice picture on his phone, but he didn’t have any others accessible. So he took a quick selfie and sent it along with the other, assuming the college would use the nice picture.
They did not. They used his quick selfie, which is not well-lit, with his hair sticking up in all directions, and a dopey expression on his face.
The only people who laugh at it are the people to whom he has shown it for that express purpose. (He has to admit, it’s a pretty funny picture.)
Ok to let you know the truth yes a lanyard is kinda freshman-y. I’m going to be a junior this coming semester but in your photo id it’s not too big of a deal. Like at my school at lot of incoming freshman will like attach lanyard to keys and rock the lanyard out there pocket lol. I did it too for like a week lol, tbh it’s not really a big deal but it is a thing. I would suggest if you have a lanyard on your keys it’s ok but like keep it in pocket lol and deff not wear lanyard neck mine came with like attachment to ID card so some freshman will wear it around neck with ID attached like that is deff not the move lol. And you probably don’t need to change ID photo like I think it’s more what you look like in person which people will probably see if you give them ID. I actually have nice ID photo for school but shittest driving license photo and I’ve lived with it since 16 lol and no big deal.
People won’t care about how you look. However, I’m going to bring a different opinion into this thread. Change your picture if you want to. While $25 is a bit more than my school charges, it’s not that hard to spend it on your ID and forget about it. It could be handled differently at your school, but at mine, ID pictures are seen by the teachers, places where your ID is swiped, and generally within the first week of school. If you’re not comfortable with that picture of you being shown, change it.
On the other hand, you end up swiping your card so often that your picture isn’t even recognizable. I know mine sure isn’t, and it was pretty bad! Plus, many people have very bad pictures. It’s funny sometimes. But it helps to just remember that everyone has a bad picture and there’s most likely going to be someone with a worse off picture.
So you all are saying that if I don’t wear my lanyard in public but the lanyard is only in my I.D picture people honestly won’t care and even know that I am a freshman?
Ok also just to add being a freshman is not that big of a deal lol your a freshman it’s a fact everyone was one at once lol. When you get to know people they probably will ask you your year just as like small talk etc what will you do then lie lol, no you just be like freshman and no one will care. Like I think the lanyard isn’t really the big deal I think it’s more about you not wanting to be seen as a freshman but it really doesn’t matter. Also FYI I’ve never changed my photo and I don’t think most people would but that lanyard doesn’t even necessarily mean your a freshman in your photo it just says it was taken your freshman year.
I worked in the library when I was in undergrad and looked at tons of student IDs. I’ve seen every kind of ID picture out there. There are tons and tons of people who do not look a thing like their ID (including my own friends, so it can’t be that everyone is just using a friend’s ID). No one cares. At all. Think of it like your driver’s license with little 16-year-old you in the picture. My friends and I always get a good laugh at looking at each other’s pictures =D
Also, about the lanyard, I never used a lanyard until my senior year of college because when I was carrying a bunch of stuff it was so handy and, let’s be honest, I really didn’t care at that point. I still have the lanyard as a keychain because it’s easier to grab out of my purse and I haven’t been a freshman in a really long time =D And you know, unless they’re a transfer student, everyone’s a freshman in their student ID picture. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Stop worrying about this. No one cares except for you.
You seriously are overthinking this so much. This is a 100% non-issue. Nobody cares what your ID picture looks like. Nobody. Wear a lanyard if you want to wear a lanyard. There are students that are freshman, sophomores, juniors, seniors, and super-seniors that wear lanyards every day. There are also students from all of these groups that have never once worn a lanyard.
"So you all are saying that if I don’t wear my lanyard in public but the lanyard is only in my I.D picture people honestly won’t care and even know that I am a freshman? "
No, we’re saying that nobody cares in the first place. Why is it a bad thing to “seem like” a freshman? Every single college student is a freshman at some point. Seriously, nobody cares one single iota about what your ID picture looks like.
What exactly do you envision? Going to the gym and having the work-study student look at your ID and start laughing hysterically because you’re wearing a lanyard in your ID photo? How closely do you think they’re going to be examining it? It’s like a 1 square inch photograph. They’re going to glance at it very briefly and barely pay attention to it. They’re not going to hold it up and closely inspect it and judge you for what you’re wearing in your 1 square inch ID photo.
Stop worrying about this. Take the $25 and go out for dinner or something instead.
Makes sense I will just keep the photo. You are right I am overthinking this probably no one cares. Thanks for your help. I do not need help on this discussion anymore. I will close this discussion.