New River Valley Times

‘Day-in-the-Life’ Videos Add Impact for UVA Admissions

For many prospective University of Virginia students, the college search process involves all the usual avenues: the official website, a visit to Grounds, and maybe a brochure or two that show up in the mailbox.

But there’s another source that high school students are increasingly seeking when they want a less glossy peek inside life at UVA, a backdoor channel not sanctioned by administrators that reveals what it’s really like to be a Cavalier: YouTube.

Dillen Chung is among a growing and unofficial group of students bringing viewers along on digital journeys into UVA. She uploads her video dispatches from Grounds under the YouTube handle @dillenn.

“I moved to Virginia in the middle of high school,” said Chung, now a second-year psychology major who has 1,500 YouTube followers. “During that transition, I was having a hard time, so I turned to YouTube as an outlet and a way to express myself.”

While the University’s admissions materials and guided tours of Grounds are generally curated and scripted, YouTubers offer more of an unfiltered and authentic view of Wahoo life, often through “day-in-the-life” videos.

Chung’s expertise as a video blogger – or vlogger – began in eighth grade, when she taught herself the ropes of video production and editing, posting her videos to a private YouTube channel. Her now-public channel features short films, vacation montages and vlogs of her life on Grounds. A four-minute retrospective of her first year at UVA has more than 1,700 views.

“I really liked editing, just putting the pieces together and watching the final product come to life,” Chung said. “I just fell in love with that process.”

Her look at move-in day as a second-year student generated comments like, “You make UVA look so lovely. I’m obsessed with this video,” and “Bro, you make me so excited to go back to college.”

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