Math department looks to YouTube for free advertising
By Matt Hellman
Reporter
The Baylor Admissions department recently posted a YouTube video which features two students reflecting on life as math majors as part of a new video series to present the majors offered at Baylor.
The video project is intended to provide a better a look into every major based on current student perspectives, master’s candidate and video producer Bailey Eubanks said.
The videos are aimed at students considering Baylor, Karen Rudolph, assistant director of admissions communications, said.
“We wanted to show prospective students how Baylor students are able to interact with faculty and do research, and thought that a fun way to do this would be through short videos,” Rudolph said.
The video offers an 18-second introduction for the entire series with the question of “What will you become?” followed by student interviews of Baylor and their opinion of their major.
“We’d like to make additional videos in the future,” Rudolph said. “Right now, our time and our resources are limited. We would want to focus on the departments that make the largest impact on our enrollment goals for the university.”
Eubanks said eventually the videos will be posted on Baylor’s website.
“The project is just beginning, and once we get about three or four more done, people will probably start seeing the videos show up on the admissions website,” Eubanks said. “This is just one of possibly many to come.”
Baylor’s math department also features the video on their website, using it to increase awareness of the department.
“I went and met with the admissions department in the fall, looking for ways to promote mathematics and to increase the number of majors in our department,” Dr. Lance Littlejohn, professor and chair of the department of mathematics, said. “They suggested making a promo video starring some of our math majors. I gave them a few students to contact and they took the rest from there. I think they did a terrific job of making the video and in giving our programs exposure.”
Littlejohn said he was pleased with the way the students represented Baylor and their majors, and he believes having the video on the math web page will help prospective students understand what Baylor’s math department is actually about.
“Without any input or prompting from me or other faculty, both [Monument, Colo., junior] Dana Bomgaars and [Saint Johns, Penn., junior] Adam Telatovich said, straight from their hearts, what they thought of our department’s programs,” said. “That’s the best possible advertising that I could ever expect.”