He applied to Goucher College with a one-minute video, which featured ERHS’s Rugby team doing their “Raiders!” chant, a trip to the Virginia Mountains near a house from his childhood, and more.

Most applications are done electronically; several colleges allow applications to be submitted through the Common Application (the Common App). The majority of colleges also require a high school transcript along with standardized test scores and essays, but Goucher College does not.

When asked why he applied to college through video, Moran-Kaplan said “it seems like a less stressful way to apply.”

He also said that out of the three colleges he was admitted to, two of them saw him in some “personal capacity,” either by video or by interview.

“With paper, schools can see what your grades are and what you’ve done hobby wise, but they don’t have any feel for who you are as a person,” Moran-Kaplan said. “The regular way of applying to college is in no way easy, student friendly, personal, or fun.”

Another senior, Jacqueline Zecher, said she thinks “high schools don’t explain enough to teach the kids how to write admission essays.” She also said applying through video is “a very good way to show who you are more, it’s a lot easier to show why you should be in a college.”

Guidance Counselor David Heintzelman said college admissions is a “game of numbers,” and said that he thought that including a video is a good idea.

“First they look at your GPA, then your SAT score, then the difficulty of the classes you’ve taken,” Heintzelman said. “Do you think that’s a good indication of someone’s ability and potential? I don’t.”