<p>I've seen some threads about this from 7 years ago, but I didn't really find a definitive answer. The Georgetown application has this optional section to upload a recent photograph. Why should I/should I not? What's the purpose? Should it be something official, like my yearbook photo or like my Facebook profile picture or..?</p>
<p>This was commonly a requirement until sometime in the sixties, when schools began to worry about exposure to discrimination suits. Now (mostly) if it exists, it’s offered as an option. Should you do it? Depends on your reading of the school.</p>
<p>What do you mean by that?</p>
<p>The purpose is to put a face to a name, which mentally helps the application readers think of the person they’re evaluating as a person, rather than a set of statistics and extracurriculars. That can be a hard thing to do after the hundredth application or so.</p>
<p>Really, that’s it. I can’t speak to what the purpose was back in the day (e.g. the 60s alluded to earlier), but nowadays, it is simply for humanization and is purely optional.</p>