Video Essays: The Future of the Dreaded College Process?

     College applications: the most discussed complaint and worry of first semester senior year.  Now that I have finally finished mine, I have started to block the stress out of my memory and look forward to a more relaxed second semester.  However, reading an article on the Washington Post website reminded me of some painful memories and brought to mind the unnecessarily brutal process that is applying to college.

     Some universities in the United States, including George Mason University in Fairfax, have begun to accept videos made by applicants as part of their supplements.  Applicants can produce, shoot, and edit a video about themselves using whatever equipment and resources they have available.  Most schools that accept videos do not accept them as a replacement for an essay and are usually list them as optional.  Luckily, none of the schools I applied to have this option, but the article had me thinking about what this new addition could mean for future applicants.

    When I first heard about the video option offered by some schools I thought it was an interesting idea.  Videos give applicants a chance to more fully represent themselves than in essays.  Some things can’t be as well portrayed on paper than they are visually, and some people have a hard time expressing themselves through writing.  It makes the admissions officers’ jobs a little less boring and monotonous as well.  Instead of reading essay after essay, most of which they have probably seen before, they get to see the personality of the applicants in action and their creativity in a different medium.  I’m not sure how well I could do with making an application video, but I know a lot of kids who would definitely thrive with that kind of a project.

     Although, the more I thought about these videos, the more issues I began to see that accompanied them.  The biggest one I saw was equipment.  Sure, if you have a lot of creativity it should show no matter the quality of the equipment, but there are still huge advantages in having more advanced cameras and editing programs.  An applicant could have an amazing idea for a video, shoot it with whatever camera they had and end up getting terrible sound quality, making the entire project useless.  On the other hand, someone could have access to top of the line equipment and have options to add in to his video that other programs don’t provide.  If the video options continue to become popular with colleges, I think more guidelines should be put in place with the production of the videos to allow a little more fair chance in the process.

     Another major issue I saw with the video supplement was how public some of them become.  Some schools create YouTube channels for video supplements for applicants to post their videos on.  Even if the videos are on a specific channel they are still open to the public of YouTube viewers.  With something as competitive and stressful as the college process, having part of the application public is a very bad idea.  Even though high school seniors are supposed to be entering adulthood and should be mature does not mean that we are.  Classmates of students who post videos for applications could potentially see the video and use it as a judgment for or against them.  Applications are meant for admissions officers, and once a public aspect is introduced to them, their entire nature could change.  If a college decides to offer a video supplement, they should make sure to have a private and secure way for the videos to be submitted.

     I know I may be getting a bit ahead of myself.  As of now, very few colleges actually do accept video supplements and most of them have very little effect on whether the applicant is accepted or not.  However, if the idea is adjusted and revised, I think accepting videos could be an innovating step for the college application process.