Some colleges have begun inviting students to create optional videos they can post to YouTube so admissions officers can view them as part of the application. Two of the most viral video creations from fall 2010 applicants were a flying elephant from a Tufts hopeful and a ukulele-playing student applying to George Mason.
I got an email from a reporter doing a story about this who wanted to know:
What do you make of this trend? Fun? Not a good idea? Good way to showcase personality? Is this the college application of the future? And does this concern you at all, either from a serious privacy level, or just the idea that these kids have their dorkiest moments that go viral, moments that they'll never really be able to escape later?
Here's the response I sent:
I like the video option because it coaxes kids to relax and maybe even have a little fun. Kids feel so much pressure when applying to college today that a lot of them are scared to death to just be themselves in their applications and essays. Colleges are in the business of evaluating seventeen year-olds, so it’s OK to just be a real kid behind all the grades and test scores. If a student sees the video option and gets excited to make and share something about himself, that’s probably a good sign. Even the directions on the Tufts application section for the videos say, “Think outside the box when you answer the following questions. Take a risk and go somewhere unexpected. Be serious if the moment calls for it but feel comfortable being playful if that suits you, too.” They’re inviting kids to stop worrying about being impressive and to just share what they want to share.
We’re not necessarily looking at the future of college applications here because I don’t think videos are ever going to be something that’s required or even encouraged by a majority of colleges. It’s time consuming for admissions officers to view these, and the applicant pools are just too large at many colleges to make this an option. There’s also a question of inequity–too many kids don’t have access to video equipment. Does a get a student who’s got thousands of dollars worth of equipment to shoot, edit and produce a masterpiece deserve an admissions advantage over a kid without those resources? That’s why colleges will never be able to place too much weight on videos. They’ll be a fun option that some kids use, but never a significant factor in the admissions process.
And something you brought up in your original email is what concerns me about the videos–their longevity. How many people do you know who would feel comfortable with the college application essay they wrote back in high school being posted online for the world to see today? Most people wouldn’t want that. YouTube videos live on forever. When you’re a seventeen year-old college applicant and you make a video showing how much you like to air guitar in your room, that might make for an endearing college application video. But how is that kid going to feel after college when potential employers do a Google search and see a video of him rocking out to Journey’s Greatest Hits? Not good.
That last point doesn’t concern me enough to say that colleges shouldn’t invite kids to do this. Kids are putting stuff up online with or without the colleges’ invitation to make videos But it is something that I think people will be talking about five years from now when those applicants come out of college.