Seven Tips To Make Your Brown University Admissions Video Memorable

A few years ago, Brown University transitioned away from offering alumni interviews to all their applicants and took a more innovative approach: allowing applicants to submit a two-minute introduction video as an optional component of their application.

The video allows prospective students to showcase their personalities, interests, and other details as an addition to their application. This provides applicants the chance to come alive off the page as admission officers can attach a face to the application. For the most part, the video introduction is unstructured, which can be intimidating. The video could be about anything: a day in your life, things that make you happy, or even a discussion of how your life relates to your favorite movie. Because of these loose requirements, students shouldn’t take this to mean they can put minimal thought into the optional video introduction.

Here are seven tips to make a memorable Brown University admissions video.

Tip 1: Begin Early

Crafting a well-thought-out video requires time and planning. Depending on the creative direction of the video, you might include childhood videos, pictures of extracurricular activities, or scenes from various aspects of your life. Digging through your video or photo archives might take a few days or even weeks, necessitating assistance from friends or family to help you find the best media to use.

Drafting a script beforehand allows you to maximize the allotted two minutes to impress the admission officers. Treat the video introduction with the same level of consideration as your essays; you will likely need to go through several drafts before you are satisfied with the result.

Tip 2: Follow The Instructions

Each video should be no more than two minutes and begin with “Hi, my name is (insert name) from (high school)”. From there, you have total creative freedom with what content you want to cover in your video.

Brown also recommends creating your video in landscape orientation, as the admission officers will be viewing the videos on a desktop computer.

Tip 3: Highlight Your Top Selling Points

Identify your unique qualities and passions that will be appreciated by the admissions officers. Diversify from what you have already included in your supplemental essays or personal statement—Brown University wants you to “tell us more about yourself beyond the information you provided in your application.” If you have already told them about the non-profit you have started or the research you spent two summers doing, you don’t need to reiterate it here unless you are adding significantly more details.

Instead of repeating, think about what else might be worthwhile to mention. Do you have hobbies that are unique? What about your personality would make you a stand-out applicant? By considering these questions and more, you can create a video that helps to enhance your application.

Tip 4: Show Why Brown

Brown also says this video is a “helpful way to see why you are interested in attending Brown.” Make the video about something more than you by showing the admission officers how you might fit on campus as a first-year student. At Moon Prep, we’ve seen students do this in creative and memorable ways. A few students found clubs they would like to join and photoshopped themselves into a group photo of the participants. Others have found research labs in their area of interest and talked about how they would contribute to the lab. Try to add a new dimension to it to underscore your passion for the school.

Tip 5: Be Authentic

Ultimately, Brown University values genuine individuals. Be yourself, and don’t try to make your video portray you as someone you are not. If you have a creative idea, run with it! But if your idea is more straightforward, that is okay to do as well. However, no matter what your idea is, try to be engaging.

As you film your video, engage with the camera. Even if you use a voiceover, speak directly to the admission officers during some parts of the videos to establish a connection with them.

Tip 6: Formatting Matters

While Brown isn’t expecting you to submit a video akin to something Wes Anderson or Steven Speilberg would produce, they expect you to put some thought and care into your video. Filming yourself talking at your desk might not be the most engaging format. Instead, try to add another element like pictures or videos or you can actively show them different locations that are important to you.

Filming on the phone (in landscape mode) is fine, as long as the lightning and sound quality are good enough to understand what is happening in the video. If you are worried about the quality of your audio, consider adding closed captioning. While Brown isn’t evaluating you on video or production quality, you should be dynamic to be more memorable.

Tip 7: Preview Your Video Before Submitting

Before hitting submit, make sure to preview your video. One year, we had a Moon Prep student whose video inadvertently cut off 20 seconds into the recording. Because he didn’t preview it before submitting it, he didn’t catch the mistake, and all his hard work and effort were wasted. Taking a few minutes to preview and review your video submission one final time can help catch any technology glitches or errors.

How To Submit Your Video

After you have applied to Brown University, you will receive a link to your Brown Applicant Portal. There, you will have the option to submit the video. The video should be received one week after the application deadline. For Early Decision applicants, that deadline was November 8, 2023, and for regular decision applications, the application video should be sent by January 10, 2024.

Is The Video Really Optional?

While Brown University says that submitting the video is optional, competitive applicants shouldn’t consider it optional. More than 50,649 students applied to Brown University in 2022-23, and just 2,562 gained acceptance, so you should take advantage of every opportunity to stand out to the admission officers. This is especially true for students applying to competitive programs at Brown, like the Program in Liberal Medical Education. The program has just a 3.5% acceptance rate, so anything extra can help.

By creating a curated video, you can be confident you have put your best effort into getting accepted into one of the top schools in the country.