Some colleges, including Tufts and the University of Chicago, have started allowing prospective students to supplement their applications with YouTube videos. This can only end well!
At Tufts, for instance, 1,000 out of 15,000 applicants this year submitted one-minute videos about themselves. And apparently, they're being taken pretty seriously:
Lee Coffin, the dean of undergraduate admissions, said the idea came to him last spring, when watching 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.
Since there are no details as to that video's origin, I'm going to go ahead and assume it was Chris Crocker.
Ultimately, this is a good thing. It lets college admissions officials get a better sense of the students they're vetting. On the other had, did Amelia Downs of Charlotte, NC really expect or want over 12,000 people to view her Tufts application video? Or more to the point: how will she feel about it five years from now?
Oh, well. As long as it gets us closer to the day when colleges consider YouTube comments in applications, I'm fine with it. [NY Times]