When SESP freshman Lily Katz saw that there was an option to submit a video on her Northwestern application, she texted her friends asking what she should make the video about. Joking, they suggested, “You should do it about being short.” 

Although it was a joke, Katz decided that was exactly what she would do. 

Katz positioned her camera to show her doorframe for scale and made a video about how, although she is 4-foot-8, she has a big personality and about what she has learned about navigating the world as a short person. 

For the 2024-25 college application cycle, NU implemented a new optional video supplemental. The videos, submitted through Glimpse video, can range from 60 to 90 seconds, are filmed within the platform with no opportunity to edit and are meant to add a “candid voice” to the application.

In the first year of Glimpse video submissions, less than 10% of applicants chose to share a Glimpse video as part of their application, according to Dean of Undergraduate Admissions Liz Kinsley. 

While alumni interviews are no longer part of the application process as of October 2024, the optional videos allow the admissions team to get to know applicants better, one of the associate directors of admissions, Emma Bausch, wrote in an email. 

Kinsley clarified to The Daily that these videos are not meant to replace alumni interviews. 

“Glimpse videos shouldn’t be seen as a replacement for the discontinued alumni interviews — The timing just worked out that we decided to accept Glimpse submissions shortly after we shifted our alumni conversations,” Kinsley wrote in an email.

The Undergraduate Admissions website also clarifies that students who do not submit the video are not at a disadvantage in the review process.

In a webinar collaborating with Glimpse, Bausch provided guidance to prospective students. 

“It’s a chance for us to learn about you. Optional Glimpse videos allow you to share what matters to you — especially if you feel it does not otherwise come through in the rest of your application,” Bausch said.

Katz said she decided to submit the video because she applied without test scores and wanted to enhance any other aspects of her application she could. 

Communication freshman Henry Gutkin decided to use the video as an opportunity to showcase his portfolio, as he was applying as a film major. He filmed a musical he was working on, showing concept art and a cut of a song that he wrote for it. 

“I think it gives the school a taste of who you are as a person, beyond what is on your resume, what’s in your college essays,” Gutkin said. “I also think having a way to connect someone to their face and things that they’re actually saying versus writing is helpful.”

Similarly, Communication freshman Ashika Agrawal used his video to show off his art portfolio, which he had been compiling since 11th grade. 

He said his experience with film was mainly animation and art, so he wanted to show that side of him since there isn’t a place in the NU application to upload a portfolio. 

Agrawal said he struggled to stay within the 90-second time limit and had to re-film multiple times, but felt that it was important to submit as part of his early decision application. 

“In the grand scheme of things, I don’t think it was the most important part, but if there’s a piece of your application that you really want to highlight or that you haven’t actually been given the chance to show, I think the video is a great place to do it,” Agrawal said.

Katz offered similar advice to prospective students. If you’re comfortable in front of the camera, she said, it only takes a few minutes, and there is no harm in adding something extra to your application. 

She also emphasized that if a student doesn’t want to submit a video, it is not consequential enough to stress over. 

“Pick something that you like, is true to yourself and reveals something about yourself… connecting it in some way to something that you’d bring to a school like this,” Katz said. 

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— Northwestern discontinues alumni interviews for undergraduate applicants 

— Expectations vs. reality: Class of 2029 early decision admits reflect on first weeks at Northwestern