Students go from YouTube to Mason: Video applications now part of admissions

News1 April 19, 2010 at 1:05 pm Comments are Disabled

By Rashad Mulla, Staff Writer Prospective George Mason University freshmen had a new way to impress admissions officials during this year’s application cycle: one-minute video essays. About 150 potential students took advantage of the option to include a supplemental video essay as part of their applications for fall 2010. The video gave high school students another opportunity to stand out from a record applicant class of more than 17,000. Mason accepts less than 50 percent of applicants, said Andrew Flagel, dean of admissions. The concept is novel — Mason is one of at least four schools that encourage video applications — but it will not make a huge impact on admission decisions, Flagel said. “It’s fully incorporated into the application, but it’s not meant to replace the written essay,” Flagel said. “The dominant issue, by far, is a full review of the student’s academic record.” Despite its perceived minimal impact, student demand was one of the reasons the admissions office decided to implement the video essay option. Until fall 2000, Mason conducted interviews with many applicants. During the fall 2000 admissions cycle, Mason interviewed about 5,000 of the 7,400 applicants, according to Flagel. The process was tedious, but allowed for […]