Should I put Vine on my college app?

Applying to College
1

Hi, I’ve been going back and forth whether or not to mention my Vine account (r.i.p.) in my college app. I had around 500k followers when the app closed and spent significant time editing and interacting with followers since 2013ish.

Would mentioning this hurt in an application for Northwestern or WashU (two of my top prospective schools)? Thank you for your help!

2

OK, I’ll bite. What is a vine and why do you think it would impress AO’s?

3

Vine used to be Twitter’s video platform—sort of like YouTube for shorter videos. I was thinking that it could convey creativity and (potentially) set me apart from other applicants

4

Normally I would say make sure the content is something you wouldn’t mind an adult whose job is to judge you looking up, but I’m not sure if videos are still accessible now that the site’s gone kaput?

5

Thanks for the explanation. I think that it would depend on what major you are applying for. If you are looking into film or something creative, it might be an interesting sidenote or something that you could put into your portfolio.

6

Archives are still available online (so they’d be able to confirm) but the app itself is gone

7

My intended major is quite the opposite… Chemistry, in fact. I just didn’t know if it would be a cool little fact to include either in my activities or additional info on the Common App.

8

what was your username on vine?

9

If you look on youtube there’s that one youtuber (Morgan Yates) who said she wrote about Youtube in her common app essay. She’s a communications major nonetheless, but if Vine was important to you in some way, I would list it. (also could you PM me your username but only if you’re comfortable with that lol)

10

NOPE. Unless you are monetizing your social media apps and have turned it into a profit making business of some kind, I’d consider it a hobby not an EC or activity worth mentioning.

11

Would I not mention it at all or should I put it in my additional info section on the app?

12

I think it depends. Was it just for fun? Or was there a purpose? My instinct says that it shouldn’t be mentioned, because its a bit like saying “Here’s a link to my MySpace account. See how many followers I had?” Does anyone care about it anymore? Or was it even worth mentioning in the first place?

Maybe you could write a creative essay about modern obsolescence and how it has personally affected you. I don’t know, I am not sure either way.