“I Met Your Children/”

No, this is not a mass hold-up in New Haven.

“And what did you tell them?/ Video killed the radio star.”

Probably no one born after, oh, 1976 would even remember that song by those musical giants, the Buggles.  (Trivial Pursuit fact: first video ever played on MTV.)

As someone who loves Pop Culture, it may seem odd that I don’t have cable or DirecTV anymore. Maybe, but technology such a Hulu allows me to remain plugged in without draining any more than necessary from my Pizza and French Fries Rainy Day Fund.  And like everything else in the world, technology continues to shapes the way college admissions works as well.

This new video, That’s Why I Chose Yale, shot with nearly 200 current Yale students, faculty and alumni (backstory here) will likely resonate well with a sizable percentage of their applicant pool if the popularity of Glee with my own students is any indication. It’s a little cheesy–aren’t all musicals?–but does a remarkable job in just 16 minutes of showing you Yale at its best. For what it’s worth, around the 7:15 mark was my favorite segment. Way better than flipping through another boring brochure that looks like the ten others you received that day. (Though those same boring brochures are often packed with valuable information if you’re seriously considering the school.)

Of course, as every school starts putting together these kinds of videos, they’ll begin to stop feeling fresh but for now, they’re a nice change of pace from what most colleges provide.  But not everyone agrees.  Inside Higher Ed pointed me to this rather snarky take on the whole thing (and not suitable for those with gentler sensibilities) called “That’s Why I Chose” to Ram a Soldering Iron Into My Ears. (IvyGate is an amusing and sometimes petty occasional read, maybe more often if you find delight in seeing everything Ivy League taken down a notch.)

Kids, Science Is Fun!

And for the sake of old-timers like me who remember the days when Final Cut Pro wasn’t on every other Mac’s hard drive, let’s revisit the beauty of the greatest college admissions video ever.  And by that I, of course, mean Appalachian State’s infamous Hot, Hot, Hot.  May you live forever, ASU Video!  Though my wait for Holograms Killed the Video Star continues…