For the third straight year, Tufts admissions offered prospective students a chance to put bubbling personalities on display with a supplement that has become legendary on our campus and beyond –the optional Youtube application.
Though Tufts is not the only school to give students the option of submitting a video — St. Mary’s College in Maryland was the first in the nation to have the idea, according to a story in last year’s Daily — prospective Jumbos have set themselves apart. Without the video supplement, there would be no math-dance girl. We wouldn’t get our yearly fix of white Jewish girls in sweats breaking out ill rap lyrics. And who can forget our introduction to the ultimate (or not so ultimate) campus energizer, the Saul Sparber rave?
Just six percent of applicants to the Class of 2015 submitted a video, Tufts Admission’s Lee Coffin told the Daily last year; yet if a similar percentage made videos this year that means there are still hundreds of Tufts application videos for the Class of 2016 floating around the web.
Below is a breakdown of the videos we’ve found most amusing so far. With so many videos out there, we’ve surely missed some gems. Help us out by posting your favorites in the comments!
Sarabeth, “Falling for Tufts”:
This video has just 80 views on Youtube so far, half of which have come from me because, well I just think it’s great. In this video we see Sarabeth bungee jumping while we get to know her a bit. She’s “falling for Tufts” See? It’s a pun. It’s adorable. We also find out that Sarabeth is a self-described “nerd,” who wants to join her “fellow nerds” at Tufts. Sarabeth is so nerdy that when she loses her phone her first move is to “think Control F,” which doesn’t work because she unfortunately is not a computer.
I’ve got just one small bone to pick with this video, however. In the beginning, Sarabeth says that she’s “about to jump off the Stratosphere, 855 feet.” A true nerd would know that even at its lowest altitude the stratosphere in fact exists at four miles above the Earth’s surface, or 21,120 feet. The only way Sarabeth’s explanation would make sense is if the physical contraption she is jumping from is itself called the “Stratosphere.” We’ll give her the benefit of the doubt.
Nate Schaffer, “Mario Theme Song (plus kale!)”
More than half of the many videos I’ve seen during this process involve students playing music of some kind, and of that chunk more than half of those people sing (so more than 1/4 of total videos involve singing). I like Nate’s video because he doesn’t sing; instead, he plays the Mario Theme Song on a medley of instruments, and eats a bowl of kale. Right on, Nate! No one seems to give kale a fair shake –or stir fry — in this spinach-dominated green leafy world we live in. You’ve set yourself apart both by not singing –like EVERYBODY ELSE did — and with your classy vegetable choice. Nicely done.
Aoife Dowd, “Bag it Up”
This one gets major points for creativity. In her video Dowd fuses plastic bags into fun shapes, like a Jumbo elephant. She also apparently has a collection of plastic bags that tell her life story, which fits in extremely well with our environmentally friendly campus, and scores high on the overall quirkiness scale, which naturally is a plus. The video is understated and the message simple and resonant. It’s yet another example of “the beauty we can find in everyday objects.” Strong work.
Rachel Ki, “Everyday I see my dream”:
This kind of video, a remix of LMFAO’s hit of the same name, could have easily been cheesy and unoriginal, but to Rachel’s credit it turned out entertaining and super cute. The whole thing is craftily edited, with shots of symbolic railroad tracks framing Rachel’s ode to what we’re told would be her ultimate journey –to Tufts of course. For a petite Hawaiian chick, Rachel can sort of spit rhymes! We also have very similar arms-flailing-about dance moves.
An honorable mention in the category of Tufts-themed covers goes to Asha Nidumolu, who wrote a cover of “Hey Jude” that was also nicely edited and homey.
Youtube name Deryalyuksel26, “Stopmotion Monopoly”
Rounding out our five favorites might be the most innovative video I’ve seen yet. Deryal’s video is filmed in “stop motion,” as we traverse with her around a Monopoly board that is a metaphor for her life. At each stop on the board, different cards appear on the screen and show us stops on her life’s journey. It’s not the content that shines here as much as the unique form. You can tell that Deryal put hours of work into this video, and if she didn’t put in hours then she’s clearly some sort of savant and needs to be accepted immediately.
So what do you guys think? Can you do better? Let us know in the comments.