Prospective Students Using YouTube To Bolster Their College Applications

If you want to know how popular YouTube is among today’s youth, you only have to look at this year’s Tufts University applications. Almost 1000 applicants took the advantage of the option in their application to post a short video about themselves. This is besides the mandatory essays they have to write as part of the admission process.

The prospective students, in order to support their application, demonstrated their talents on video in a variety of styles. While video gives the applicants a further chance to show off their knowledge and different facets of their personalities, these videos have also created a fan following among YouTube users.

The New York Times explains more:

Lee Coffin, the dean of undergraduate admissions, said the idea came to him last spring as he watched a YouTube video someone had sent him. “I thought, ‘If this kid applied to Tufts, I’d admit him in a minute, without anything else,’ ” Mr. Coffin said.

… “At heart, this is all about a conversation between a kid and an admissions officer,” Mr. Coffin said. “You see their floppy hair and their messy bedrooms, and you get a sense of who they are. We have a lot of information about applicants, but the videos let them share their voice.”

Videos are genuinely optional, he said, so not having one does not count against a student — and a bad video would not hurt an applicant’s admission chances “unless there was something really disgusting.”

Mr. Coffin remains committed to the traditional essay-writing requirement. “We will never abandon writing,” he said. “No matter what, it’s important to be able to express yourself elegantly in writing.”

NY Times: “To Impress, Tufts Prospects Turn to YouTube”