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Monday, November 28, 2011
UD applicants may submit video essay
DAYTON — For the first time, high school seniors applying to the University of Dayton may submit a video essay instead of a written one. University officials say it’s a nod to the way the YouTube generation communicates and a chance for prospective students to stand out from thousands of other applicants.
This year’s UD applicants have the option of submitting a video, written essay or both. The videos must be about what “servant-leadership” means to the applicants, who can compete for $50,000 in scholarships through a video contest on Facebook.
Kevin Schultz, assistant director of university marketing and digital innovation, acknowledged the move flies in the face of a long-standing practice.
“The college application is something that is so steeped in tradition and ritual,” he said, noting that many high school seniors write their essays and have their teachers proofread them. “We kind of like to flip things on their head.”
Nancy Owen-Hawkins, an English teacher at Vandalia Butler High School for 35 years, starts giving students practice writing college application essays during their junior year.
“Writing at the college level is crucial,” she said. “There is no longer any course you can take at the college level that does not involve writing.”
She called UD’s video essay “an interesting update” to the application process.
“I would imagine that regardless of how students are asked to represent themselves in an application essay, their communication skills are going to stand out,” she said.
Some colleges don’t require an essay Wright State University does not require any type of essay as part of its application process, said Cathy Davis, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions.
“We are a liberal admission university, so we’re looking at the grade-point average, college prep curriculum, ACT or SAT score,” she said.
Davis called UD’s decision to accept video essays “a good move,” and she thinks students will take advantage of that option.
“I think it just allows more opportunities for students to express themselves and be creative and communicate, and that’s the way everything seems to be going,” she said.
But not everyone likes seeing such a move.
Wright State computer science major Casey Braaksma, 20, of Kettering, recalled the intense writing prompts he had at Fairmont High School that gave him valuable experience for writing essays in college.
While he said a video essay may capture one’s personality, he stressed, “I think showing off your writing skills is important.”
Maria King, 40, of Miamisburg, said UD’s decision to accept videos makes sense in this day and age when technology reins.
“You can see their creativity,” she said.
“ But,” King continued, “can you tell if they use proper grammar or spelling, or if they know how to write a paragraph? I had to write 1,000 papers (in college).”
Schultz noted the essay is not the only part of UD’s application process. University officials also consider such things as the student’s high school transcript and test scores.
“It is a risk for us perhaps to not require written sentences as part of our application, but I think it might even be more of a risk for a student to say ‘here I am in all-of-my-glory in ways that I can’t hide on camera,’ ” Schultz said. “There is a lot that can be hidden behind the written word, and with the face-to-face communication, that goes away.”
Marketing strategy paying off Some other schools, including Tufts University in Massachusetts, accept videos as part of their applications.
UD — which historically has about a 75 percent acceptance rate — already has received about 20 video essays. The early entry deadline is Dec. 15, but prospective students can enter the contest at www.facebook.com/universityofdayton until Feb. 1 if the video is not part of the official application.
The 10 videos with the most votes will be reviewed by a team of university faculty, students and staff. The grand-prize winner will receive a $40,000 scholarship over four years; the runner-up will get a $6,000 scholarship and the third-place winner will win a $4,000 scholarship.
UD officials say these kinds of creative marketing strategies to introduce UD to high school students across the country are paying off. The university already has received 8,471 applications for next fall’s first-year class, a record pace and a 30 percent increase over last year at this time.
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