Some colleges have begun requesting a YouTube video along with your personal essay. Tufts University is giving students the option to submit a one minute YouTube video along with their application. The student’s video should say something about the student. Only a fraction of students have taken advantage of this option so far. According to the New York Times about 1,000 of Tuft's 15,000 applicants have submitted videos.

Lee Coffin, dean of undergraduate admissions, told the New York Times the idea came to him last spring as he watched a YouTube video someone had sent him. “I thought, ‘If this kid applied to Tufts, I’d admit him in a minute, without anything else.’”

Students’ videos range in creativity. Some simply talk straight into the camera while others use it to show off their skills. And Tufts isn’t the only school that is taking videos. Dartmouth applicants are also submitting videos without it being required.

Check out one of Tufts applicant, Amelia Downs ,who shows off her “math dances” This one minute video racked up over 6,000 hits on YouTube before being featured in the New York Times (new total: 55,000 and climbing).
 

(via Switched and The New York Times)