Get to Know Tufts Students via YouTube

Just when you thought we couldn't get enough of Tufts, we stumbled across a new set of specimens from our neighbor in Somerville: admissions videos from high school applicants for Tufts' Class of 2014.

When Elle Woods applied to Harvard Law School, she hired a director to film her admissions video—which eventually got her accepted. It seems like Tufts is now encouraging students to do the same, save the hiring a director part, of course.

In an obvious effort to try to be quirky, optional essay number 6b on the Tufts' college admissions application asked candidates to "share a one-minute video that says something about you, upload it to YouTube or another easily accessible website, and give us the URL. What you do or say is totally up to you. (Unfortunately, we are unable to watch videos that come in any form other than a URL link.)"

Unlike the art supplement submissions that Harvard College accepts as part of its application—which might include videos in the form of DVDs for admissions officers' eyes only—these YouTube shorts are for public viewing (or humiliation, depending on how you view them).

We sifted through some of the creative, awe-inspiring, and downright geeky videos to bring your our five favorite types (and the statements they seem to be making).

1. "I am an awesome musician. Check out this song I wrote...about Tufts!" Believe it or not, a surprising amount of people decided to sing about Tufts, though some were slightly better than others.

2. "I'm going to be creative and tell a narrative about why Tufts is for me." A creative approach, yes, like this animated autobiography. But original? Maybe.

3. "I am a superstar at my sport. Watch me win." You can ice skate. She can jump rope. He can throw fire. Their video quality may be lacking, or they may have really gone over the time limit, but these applicants (especially the fire guy) think they're pretty hot stuff.

4. "I'm a huge nerd, and I'm proud of it." Too bad this Math Dance isn't a clever drinking game for p-set night...yet. At the time of this posting, it's been viewed almost 70,000 times!

5. "Make a video? Hah. I already do this for a living." These are some of the most well-done and artistic videos, including one about color (our favorite), one about knowledge, and one about, well, making videos.