Format for Uploading Videos to College Applications

Many colleges now invite students to submit optional curt videos as part of their applications as a way to inject a lilliputian more of their personal vocalization into the process. Here's University of Chicago's invitation:

If you would like to add your phonation to your application, you have the option to submit a ii-infinitesimal video introduction in lieu of the traditional college interview, which is not part of our awarding process. Your recording does non need to be extensively rehearsed or polished, and the video does non need to be edited. You lot may record your video introduction using the platform of your option, and so upload either a file of or link to the introduction into your UChicago Account. If in that location is whatsoever important data relevant to your candidacy yous were unable to address elsewhere in the application, delight share that data here.

It's hard to give universally applicable advice about videos similar this (other than obvious ones, like follow the directions and don't record anything that would embarrass you if your parents or teachers saw it). Don't exist funny? Don't overproduce your video? Don't make annihilation then out-there that it's inaccessible to viewers? The truth is that some applicants can pull those videos off, and others tin't.

Merely at the adventure of being a one-trick advising pony, I remember our Collegewise advice around college essays applies perfectly here.

one. Don't try to impress—just tell the truth.
You don't want the viewer to experience like they're watching a sales pitch, and much as with college essays, that happens in videos when applicants but attempt as well hard to guess what admissions officers want. So if y'all're a musically expressive person who loves writing catchy jingles and you want to sing a personal song while playing the ukulele, that sounds similar a pretty honest portrayal of who you are. Just if you're forcing yourself to do it considering you are trying to stand out and you lot think showing off your uke chops will go the job washed, that's trying too hard to be something yous're not. Your goal should exist to capture something, no matter how simple or circuitous, that makes the people who know yous best say, "That is and so you!"

2. Ain your stories/footage.
If it would exist possible for 1000 other applicants to shoot the aforementioned video, there'due south a adept hazard in that location will be plenty of others just similar yours in the figurative stack when you employ. The way to counter that is to utilise details. Example: If you're a basketball game player, you could include highlights of hitting jump shots, but at that place are plenty of other varsity basketball players who could and probably will provide the aforementioned footage. Instead, y'all could begin a video on the neighborhood court where y'all first began playing basketball when you were 8, explain how you tagged forth with your older brothers and how you'll never forget the solar day they finally invited you to join, tell the viewers how you spent your unabridged summer earlier 10th grade working out here by yourself because y'all knew that the ability to drive to the hoop with your left paw too as your right would be a fundamental to your game, and picture the spot under the hoop where y'all tore ligaments in your talocrural joint and had to sit out for your junior season. Another basketball game player might accept their own similar experiences. Simply these particular memories on that particular grade are yours alone. Details make all the difference.

three. Don't repeat information from the rest of your awarding.
If the viewer finishes the video and thinks, "That was dainty, simply I already knew this information," you lot've merely missed a big opportunity. Playing your favorite violin piece is squeamish, but if y'all've been in the orchestra for iii years, that skill is not exactly new information. So either share something that hasn't been mentioned at all on the application, or utilize the video to shed visual light on a new aspect of something already mentioned. Example: if you worked at a deli in high school, you don't demand to provide video evidence in the form of, "Here'south the cafeteria where I piece of work." But if the task gave you lot a real appreciation for the art of making a proper pastrami on rye—and you haven't explained that in any of your essays—that is make new information to the viewer.

four. Audio like you.
If you're funny, be funny. If you're quirky, be quirky. If y'all're a nerd, permit the nerdiness wing. This video is meant to capture yous, not to brand a commercial featuring a performer playing a office. So don't say or do anything that feels like acting. Your video should not require a script or intensive rehearsal. Sure, don't constitutional with no cease in sight—you should know what yous want to talk near when the camera rolls. But the more than rehearsed, polished, or otherwise unnatural you appear, the less constructive your video will be. And if you're really non comfortable with the idea of existence on a video at all, don't make ane! Colleges mean information technology when they say that something is optional, and in that location is no hidden penalty for opting out, especially if yous're uncomfortable with the medium birthday.

v. A bonus tip: Relax.
Equally long equally your video isn't blatantly offensive or crusade for concern over your safety (or the safety of your futurity college peers), information technology'southward non probable the video alone will torpedo your admissions chances. It's likewise equally unlikely that a video lonely will shift the admissions tide if the readers were already leaning towards a denial. And then let yourself off the claw. Don't let the video be yet another source of stress where you feel like you're under the awarding microscope. If you lot like the idea of recording something, go record the video that makes you happy and proud to share. Colleges are in the business of evaluating, understanding, and getting to know 17-year-olds. A video that works for you is i that volition probably work for them, too.