The acceptance and rejection reports continue to trickle in, but because we are one year removed from CJ's class and two from BH's, the drama is not the same.  The stories of surprise, elation and disappointment are just not as significant when you don't know the kids involved.  Plus, there are so many reports of unhappy freshman who are transferring and frustrated seniors who are unemployable, that the whole admissions genre seems to be facing an existential crisis.

But that doesn't mean that the Neurotic Parent has lost interest in the college process….in fact, quite the contrary, now that students' applications have hit youtube big time.  One new development, which overshadows the videos produced by the admissions people at Yale and Macalaster, is that Tufts allowed prospective students to submit an optional video this year (in addition to three required essays).  For those of you who know me, you're well aware that the only activity that brings me more enjoyment than blogging is creating montages, and one student actually used that format for his video.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/23/education/23tufts.html

Now take a look at some of the videos, most of which have comments that reveal who got in and who was blackballed.

http://tuftsobserver.org/2010/03/the-top-5-youtube-application-videos/

Finally, watch the dancing math girl's video, also on youtube, with over 117,000 hits, which was profiled on NPR.

The Neurotic Parent applauds the optional video trend, and undoubtedly admissions officers will as well. Now applicants don't have to bore the committee with tales of Guatemalan latrine building.  Instead they can just head off to the park with a Flip camera. become famous overnight for reciting a brief Macbeth soliloquy. And watching a dumb one minute video is infinitely easier than reading a lousy 250 word essay.