Editor's Note: Think you're smart? That depends on what it means to be smart. And how do you become smart – if you're not there yet? This week, in our special series "Are You Smart?" our Alina Cho takes an in-depth look at all aspects of intelligence.
By Alina Cho, CNN
(CNN) – We all know that the college admissions process is competitive. You have to be smart, have good grades, good SAT scores, and if you're applying to Tufts University – a personal video can help too. It's actually part of the application.
So does a YouTube video measure a different kind of smart? You be the judge.
Tufts University near Boston is now accepting personal videos as part of the application process, among the first in the nation to do so. The videos do not replace essays, grades or SATS, but are meant as a supplement. The videos are not required, but students are getting into it.
Already almost 1,000 students have taken part out of the 15,000 applications submitted. Some on YouTube have been viewed by thousands. The videos demonstrate creativity in animation, wilderness survival skills, and in Rhaina Cohen's case, a twist on a familiar phrase: "walk a mile in my shoes."
"I wasn't trying to come off as, you know, Imelda Marcos, and say I have 3000 shoes,” says Cohen. “I just wanted to show a bit of who I am. I think what the goal is for applications in general is that these are humans looking at files filled with so many papers, and they're trying to discern who are you, would I want to meet you, would I be intrigued by you?"
“You really get to see these applicants in their adolescent best. You see their cleverness and their goofiness. You see who they are as human beings,” says Marilee Jones.
Jones, the former dean of admissions at MIT, calls the personal videos refreshing.
"It's very easy to fall in love with someone in one minute. It's also very easy to get turned off. So what these students are doing by providing these videos this year is a very high-wire act. They're taking huge risk, which is why I love them."
They show a kind of intellectual chutzpah to go along with the other credentials.
Tufts says it's still committed to the essay-writing portion of the application "no matter what." They say "it is important to be able to express yourself elegantly in writing."
The videos are a way to show that the university is media-savvy, too. So much so that the dean of admissions says he plans to put the very best"videos into a "Tufts Idol" contest once the admissions process is over.