<p>The Harvard video is pretty well done, too, though unlike the Yale video, one viewing was plenty for me. I love Yo-Yo Ma, but I heard the Bach unaccompanied prelude and was like… come on. That’s as bad as playing Pachelbel’s canon.</p>
<p>Also, woah, ^Starbuck 11, calm down.</p>
<p>All he said is that the decision will follow you into the future. The same is true of any big decision you make. Where you go to college isn’t that important in that many people will flourish and have great experiences in all sorts of environment, but it matters very much for what will happen in your future in the people you meet and the specific opportunities and experiences you’ll have. Which will probably be amazing at different schools, but will be different, and thus influence what happens in your future.</p>
<p>I got to see it all last night. It was awesome. So corny.</p>
<p>A comment I’m hearing is “get real: if Yale chooses you, who wouldn’t choose Yale?” as though it was a silly exercise for Yale to feel the need to market to applicants. Of course there are students every year in the fortunate position to choose between many good schools, Yale among them.</p>
<p>However, I also wonder if one of the goals of the video is simply to encourage a larger number of talented students to consider applying to Yale in the first place. Especially for those of us who don’t live anywhere close to New England, this clip completely buries any residual stereotype about Ivies. Kids look like kids everywhere, doing one of the dozens of interesting, difficult or even goofy things that kids do. It seems like almost anyone watching this would find a reflection of themselves somewhere on the screen. </p>
<p>I’m “just a mom” but my gut feeling is that this video fairly accurately reflects Yale students’ enthusiasm and passion. Yeah, it was corny, and but I love that it wasn’t cynical. I’m waiting for a review from my high-school-aged neice and her mom, who I suspect are the real targets.</p>
<p>Look at the 2:00 mark of the video [YouTube</a> - That’s Why I Chose Yale](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3-RW8Ajk]YouTube”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGn3-RW8Ajk)</p>
<p><em>awkward see turtle</em></p>
<p>Didn’t this originate with a group of current students, and one admissions officer who is a recent grad? They wanted to do a musical, and found friends who all could sing, write music, edit, etc. They then went to the admissions office and asked for funding and got it. I don’t think that the goal was to show a proportionate representation of all types of Yale students. Their goal was to do a campy musical, a la Glee or high school musical.</p>
<p>To me, this whole process represents what Yale is about-enthusiastic, extremely talented students, and an administration that tries to stay out of the way, and help make good ideas happen.</p>
<p>50, I didn’t mean to say it was a goal of the video to show Yale diversity. I’m on the campus several times a year, and I think the demographic on the video was a fair representation of the current student body, and possibly “whoever showed up” and not a cleverly selected group. I did intend to say that for a current high school student trying to figure out if he would fit in at Yale, this video might be an encouraging view. </p>
<p>Maybe this sounds strange, but when I first visited the Ivies just 3 years ago, I didn’t know what to expect: guys in ties and girls in sweater sets? Keeping up with admissions selection trends and the students’ personal styles wasn’t part of my schema. This would have been very informative to my kid as we considered whether the Ivies were something she should be looking at or not. This may sound shallow, but kids are still just kids who want to belong and feel comfortable with their fellow students while they pursue the most amazing education on earth.</p>
<p>This will make the applicant pool next year even more competitive ):</p>
<p>riverrunner-I agree with you completely. </p>
<p>I didn’t intend to respond to your post, but to several other posts which seemed to feel that the video showed too many drama/music/ artsy type students. </p>
<p>I’m way behind on this thread!</p>
<p>I just received Yale student D’s response to the video. She liked it, but thought it was a bit “corny” and didn’t like that it “made us look typical.” Lol, I thought that last part was funny, in light of some of the comments here that looking like regular students was a good thing! D is experiencing the time of her life at Yale, and I know she thinks it is an extra special place, and not a “typical” university.</p>
<p>Dbate, I think it’s a ridiculous that you’re criticizing the acting of this video–it’s supposed to be tongue-in-cheek bad, campy, etc., as in most Broadway musicals and as in Cats. If you can’t recognize that…I don’t think you really have any authority in critiquing acting. </p>
<p>I think its a <em>great</em> video. Everybody knows Yale is serious…one of the best universities in the country…etc. What they <em>don’t</em> know is why they should pick it over the other great universities, and this video is the answer. We have fun. We know how to poke fun at ourselves. We’re creative and have a sense of humor as well as being intelligent. Contrast this to the Harvard admissions video…and that’s exactly why <em>I</em> chose Yale!</p>
<p>I thought it was delightful and mesmerizing! And corny and nutty and fun.</p>
<p>And I <em>believe</em> at the beginning the guy is spoofing the standard formulaic info session.</p>
<p>I loved it</p>
<p>I loved it, too!!!</p>
<p>That was amazing!</p>
<p>Yeah, I’ll chose Yale…if Yale just chooses me. This video only made me love Yale even more. :D</p>
<p>I liked it a lot.</p>
<p>It was very witty and will bring some sense of youth and fun to many people who still stereotype yale as being stuffy old people.</p>
<p>I will agree, as well, on the point that 95% of people don’t choose Yale; Yale chooses them with it’s miniscule admissions rate. They could have used the word “love” instead of “chose,” and that would have worked equally as well.</p>
<p>It’s being noticed:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/01/19/yale-musical-causes-stir-blog-o-sphere/[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/01/19/yale-musical-causes-stir-blog-o-sphere/</a></p>
<p>Apparently the fact that the video is supposed to look over-the-top and over-produced (and fun because of it) goes right by those sophisticated cynics at gawker.com.</p>
<p>Also noticed elsewhere:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/01/18/crimson-comments-yales-sun-drenched-musical/[/url]”>http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2010/01/18/crimson-comments-yales-sun-drenched-musical/</a></p>
<p>Working too hard? The whole tone is that the participants could put this together on any three weekends using the spare talent in the student body. (I know it took more planning and work than that, but it is seems almost effortlessly realized.)</p>
<p>Effortless…because they are all beasts.</p>
<p>I think it’s deliberately campy, and is a little bit self-mocking, while still clearly showing why the people involved love Yale. To me, that’s quintessentially Yale.</p>
<p>About the Harvard video–when my son and I visited last year, they showed this in the holding pen before the info session, and people were watching it like it was some kind of holy utterance (we were shushed by people who wanted to hear every word). When the video started showing how many books, etc., Harvard has, our reaction was “Oh, brother.” That video is quintessially Harvard. You can like both, but I think they really do capture something different about the two schools.</p>
<p>uhhhhh that was kind of embarrassing…and I was thinking about applying to yale.</p>