And the Oscar Goes To…College Applications?
Oh the joys of college applications. Hours of standardized tests, filling out mind-numbing paperwork, and the ominous duty of constructing a meticulous essay highlighting what makes YOU so special – and now YouTube?
Applicants for Tufts University’s Class of 2014 had the opportunity to submit a video as an application supplement. About 1,000 of the 15,000 applicants submitted a video, with some becoming viral online sensations.
My personal favorite is local North Carolinian Amelia Downs, with more than 6,000 views for her video combining “two of my favorite things: being a nerd and dancing,” in which she performs a bar graph, a scatter plot and a pie chart, among others.
I’ve never been a very tech savvy or artsy individual – when given the option to write a ten-page paper or construct a diorama, I always went for the paper. But not everyone is like that, just like not everyone has to ability to move a story along visually.
The problem that arises with this new option is whether students will have to channel their inner James Cameron, in addition to scoring good grades, being able to write and filling in the correct bubbles on a standardized test. Is this increased pressure and competition going to be too much for already overburdened 17-year-olds?
