ZeeMee: Gee or Woe is Me?

As an active IEC in Virginia, I constantly stalk Twitter and Instagram of the top Virginia colleges to get real-time information about decision release dates and times.  Usually the feeds offer sneaky and non-specific details ("Check in with us later!"). However, imagine my surprise when I saw the February 17 Instagram post above from Mildred Johnson, the Director of Admissions for Virginia Tech. 

While it too offered the expected information ("...all remaining decisions will be posted on the evening of March 17th."), it offered a little extra ditty that literally had me sitting at attention:

​"We will continue working tirelessly, enjoying your essays and ZeeMee pages...."

ZeeMee pages? Wait? Someone's actually reading them?  As I headed next to Twitter, I found this link offering a full article about Virginia Tech's use of Zeemee in college admissions with Johnson saying that ZeeMee helps ensure a "personal and approachable" process during application review. For this application committee, a partnership with #ZeeMee provides a more well-rounded process. 

Panic immediately set in here. While ZeeMee, a multimedia profile where students can post videos and documents supporting their activities, has been around for a while, I had never considered having my students fill out a profile before. Why? Why work hard on another task if no one is going to view it? However, if Virginia Tech, a top 100 National University by US News and World Report, is using ZeeMee, then I owe it to my students to strongly encourage them to consider the site. 

ZeeMee currently partners with a host of universities: Baylor, Elon, Carnegie-Mellon, Wash U. St. Louis, and University of Mary Washington.  With the list growing, ZeeMee is making my list of encouraged tasks for Class of 2018 students.