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Now Playing: My College application
College admissions officers see video supplements as a logical way for students growing up in a technology-driven culture to showcase their personalities.

By Stephanie Haven, Bethesda, Md.
Age 17

When high school senior Ted Knox submits his college applications this year, he's not relying on a perfect SAT score or 4.0 grade-point average to help his application stand out. He's taking matters into his own hands and creating a video.

Knox is showcasing his technical talents, and a bit of his personality, by submitting a one-minute video about his computer knowledge as part of his application to Tufts University, one of several colleges that have started accepting video supplements.

 "It's much easier to pay attention to TV, YouTube or Facebook rather than reading bodies of paragraphs," says Knox, 17, a senior at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Md. "The admissions officers are going to enjoy an application with an entertaining video more than just reading a plain text piece of paper."

'BEYOND 8:30 TO 2:30'

Saul Sparber's application to Tufts included this video of him deejaying at a rave.

Last year, some 10% of college applicants submitted videos. This year, admissions officers say, they expect that number to increase dramatically. More students will use the option to submit a 10-minute video as part of their art portfolio to any of the 415 colleges using the Common Application, to directly upload a video with the Universal College Application to 100 schools, or submit a one-minute video as part of their supplements to five other colleges.

"Students get memorable in the process when it comes down to 300 students who are academically identical," says Richard Edgar, director of admissions at St. Mary's College of Maryland. "The video helps determine that you can do the work at the institution, but we're trying to get a full view of who these people are with essays, resumes and recommendations."

Publicly posted video supplements do erode some of the privacy of the college-application process, and some experts caution that they may open the door to more subjective assessment of candidates on the basis of looks. But admissions officers see the video supplement as a logical way for students growing up in a technology-driven culture to showcase their personalities.

“Students spend so much time essentially living on the Internet,” Tufts admissions counselor Donelle Durham says. “We thought this would be a good way to allow students to use the medium they are most comfortable with to show who they are as an individual.”

Historically, colleges have allowed students to send supplemental materials, and some schools have requested a picture. A musician could send a tape, an actor could send a headshot or a photographer could send slides. But starting in 2008, a few colleges began encouraging applicants to send in a video.

"If a student is better equipped to present their personality or character in a multimedia fashion versus a written fashion, that's cool with us," says Ben Toll, assistant director of admissions at St. Mary's. "We're looking to see who they are beyond 8:30 to 2:30 at school."

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF

Saul Sparber, a freshman at Tufts University, had a friend record his work deejaying raves, adding perspective to an essay he wrote about producing electronic music. More than 9,000 people viewed his video, which was featured in a Feb. 22 New York Times article about the new Tufts supplement.

"Unlike most people, I didn't have a stellar transcript," he says. "That was a big part of why I did the video. I'm not outstanding like everyone else, so I used the video to aid what I was already telling them about myself."

While many students send their videos directly to the admissions office, applicants like Sparber post them on YouTube. Comments people post on videos won't affect admissions decisions, Edgar says. But by posting the videos, applicants expose themselves to more scrutiny.

Sparber says he doesn't mind that the whole world can watch his application video; besides, he says, it's easier to upload a video to YouTube than to burn it to a DVD.Although the negative comments troubled him before he was accepted, he now looks forward to the feedback.

"I'm glad I posted the video online and that it's gotten the attention it's gotten," he says. "I'm just waiting for somebody to come up and talk to me about it on campus. I'm sure they will; it has like 10,000 views now. It was fun just sitting back and watching the numbers grow."

GOING VIRAL

Some of last year's Tufts videos went viral on YouTube shortly after the New York Times article. A robotic flying elephant had more than 20,000 views and a math dance had more than 100,000 views.

Isabelle Zeledon, a freshman in a dual-degree program at Tufts University and the New England Conservatory, submitted a 10-minute slideshow with pictures of her singing in concerts while her opera singing played in the background. Zeledon's video was part of her art portfolio.

"They can see from my resume and a lot of my essays that I'm really into music and that it's my passion," Zeledon says. "The video just helped my application a little bit more to show creativity and a different perspective. They were able to experience what I can do without me just saying it on paper."

The acceptance rates for students who did and didn't submit the new supplement were the same because the video is as significant as any other optional essay, Durham says.

Most applicants created their videos and few had professional help, Edgar says. Admissions officers evaluated it based on the quality of content, not on how well the student filmed and edited the material, Toll says.

DO LOOKS MATTER?

But psychologist Leanne Magee says she worries about the potential for discrimination, especially when two applicants are equally qualified on their paper application.

"The person who is more attractive would get a more positive reading as far as inferring positive personality characteristics that you may not have picked up on otherwise," says Magee, a psychology fellow at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. "We've been taught to value things that are attractive so you'll then run the risk of having a culture-bound response to what the college student should look like."

Teachers rate more attractive students as more social, more confident, smarter and as having more academic potential than their less attractive classmates, she says.

But admissions officers say they evaluate videos on what a student says or does in the video, not what they look like.
"Admissions offices don't look at video as a way to move people out because of their differences physically and religiously," Edgar says. "It always continues to be used fairly."

Admissions officers continue to emphasize that no single part of the process will guarantee a student's acceptance--or rejection. Still, Knox is hoping his video will help his chances.

"I spend more time watching video or making video than I do reading essays, so I feel that I can make a better product than I can on my essay," Knox says. "But any specific aspect of the college application isn’t entirely representative of a person. There really is no single part of the application that makes a huge difference; it’s the big picture."