Hey all, I’m applying for some competitive boarding schools (Phillips, Choate, Lawrenceville, etc.), but I don’t have a lot of multimedia links. I didn’t have a chance to record any videos (I’m a chorus soprano), but I do have a (last-minute) Instagram with clips of my skating. No competition footage though, only training clips. All schools have told me that the majority of applicants don’t submit links, and I’ll be okay if I don’t, but it seems like a lot of people on CC do. Does anyone have any ideas as to if this will affect my chances/give me less credibility in my abilities? I’m in Honors chorus/all-county chorus, btw.
Here are some of my thoughts on the links. Feel free to ignore what doesn’t feel right to you.
When you write out your activities and essays and awards, and you are talking about your activity (let’s just say: “I’m soprano in my school choir and have been on the all-state honors choir as their lead soprano, and I came in 2nd place in my state’s annual soprano contest”), the reader will picture something; the reader will get a good sense for the level of talent you have. They all know very well what a nice high school level soprano sounds like, approximately speaking.
IF YOUR LEVEL OF TALENT IS GREATER THAN WHAT YOU THINK THEY ARE PICTURING, then I think a video becomes more important.
Also, if the level of talent you describe is CRAZY-HIGH (“I won the world championships in soprano singing and was the youngest singer ever to go to the Soprano Olympics”), then I think a video is important to lend credence to the claim.
All that to say, if you described your singing and skating well enough and had enough in the accomplishments to establish your expertise, then a video may not have been necessary. In fact, what they are imagining in their heads might even be better than what the video shows, especially if the video is rushed or low quality.
Note that I’m not talking about the recruited sports world because they need something to evaluate as they picture specifically what role you would have on the team.
But if the point of showing the EC is to present an interesting skill set that may be interesting to the school (“hey, we could use a few sopranos to replace the girls who are graduating”) or if the EC is meant to show other characteristics (such as discipline, commitment, etc), then I think the video matters less.
The flip side to this all is: if you are someone who just presents so well that people will fall in love with you and advocate for you like crazy after seeing your video, then obviously, the video gives you an advantage that would be smart to use. But then we aren’t even really talking about the talent in the purest sense of the word, but more of an X factor or charisma. If we saw a video of you ice skating and you were super charming and the audience loved you and was cheering for you, then admissions audience might also fall in love with you just a little bit, and I think that would influence people reading your application. It’s human nature. We advocate for the people we like, and are willing to overlook small flaws when we are quietly rooting for someone.
All that to say, I think you are fine, and might even be better off. (But I understand the inclination to go back and question what is already submitted.)
Listen to what the schools tell you. MOST kids don’t submit links. Last year there were kids who submitted links and they could tel they were never opened.
No one is going to think you’re living about being in chorus because you didnt have a link.
Even the athletes don’t always submit clips on an app. We sent stuff to coaches. Coaches came to games. The admin person wasn’t going to care about bb clips.
@Calliemomofgirls @one1ofeach Thank you guys so much. I guess the stress is getting to my head after all, haha.