Video Killed The College Essay
According to a recent New York Times article, almost 7% of Tufts University’s incoming class submitted YouTube videos as part of the application process. These submissions were in response to an invitation from the university for an optional YouTube video submission. This is making big news for the university within the blogosphere and within mainstream media. Some of the videos have already received tens of thousands of views.
Lights, Camera, Cut
It seems that many factors could be driving this trend. For years now, Apple’s market share has been rising among college students. Last year, Furman’s IT department reported that 48% of the incoming class had Macs. Thanks to Apple’s iMovie software, which comes standard with any Mac, many prospective students now have access to easy-to-use video editing software. Even more ubiquitous, though, are video cameras. Cisco’s Flip division really were the ones to kick off the cheap, flash-based video camera craze and are still going strong. Every Mac laptop, iPhone, and most iPods come with built-in cameras. Even low-end cellphones now include cheap video cameras. The final piece of the puzzle is the tool to share the video. I could write an entire post about how comfortable teens are with sharing their lives online with other teens, but it’s pretty obvious with a quick YouTube search that teens are posting much of their lives on the network and sending those videos to an admissions counselor would be a natural fit for today’s connected kids.
What About The Underprivileged?
Lisa Gillespie at Campus Progress thinks that YouTube videos should have nothing to do with the application process. ”A portion of kids who graduate from inner-city schools cannot read and write, which means it’s a bit hard to write a college essay and fill out paperwork, let alone get access to a video camera and editing software,” says Gillespie. Although I’m not certain how kids who cannot read and write are going to get into any college, I do agree that access to the technology is a valid concern, but this concern isn’t new. With over 95% of college applications coming in electronically, access to a computer and the internet is already a necessary piece of the college application process.
Applications Become Public Record
Colleges have been accepting digital additions to applications for years. YouTube is just the latest format for these submissions, but it does bring more to the table than just a new format. It makes the video sharing process much easier, which means more students will use it, but more importantly it makes the application open to the public. This could be both good and bad, but so far the gamble is paying off for Tufts and, with several of these videos receiving tens of thousands of views, the university is receiving a lot of free publicity.
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