All you Pre-Collegiettes™ getting ready to apply to college are probably a lot of the same words and phrases over and over these days: “Be CREATIVE.” “Stand OUT.” “Show who you ARE.”
Easier said than done. With more students applying to college every year, it many feel impossible to distinguish yourself from the pack. For some ideas, let’s look at a couple of truly creative ways students used to get off the waitlists at their favorite schools:
When Grace E. Oberhofer found out she had been waitlisted at Harvard, she didn’t resort to sending lame extra essays or peer recommendations. Grace tried to outdo the rest in a pretty creative way—wearing all Harvard gear, she filmed this video of herself singing about why she wants to go to Harvard:
I don’t know about you, but I think Grace has got some serious pipes! And this song is pretty funny and creative. If it was me making the Harvard admissions decisions, I totally would have let her in!
Unfortunately, Grace was denied admission. But she’ll be attending Tufts this fall, an awesome school famous for allowing prospective students to submit one-minute videos as part of their applications. Sounds like the right place for her!
Want to see a waitlist video that worked? Michael McCartin sent this rap to Johns Hopkins after he was waitlisted and got in:
He did extensive research and incorporated it into an extremely catchy rap with pictures of the school to go along with it. A winning combination!
As pointed out in the BostInnovation article where we first found Grace’s video, there’s no guarantee that the admissions committee will even watch a video you send in, even if you’re as awesome and unique as these two! But there’s no harm in trying—and you might get an acceptance letter to your dream school as a result.
So, Pre-Collegiettes™, what do you think of these videos? Would you send in something similar? Let us know in the comments!