Yong, who recently graduated from Grenada Hills Charter School in Los Angeles, appears in the video with a large Michigan ‘M’ taped to his collared shirt and skinny black tie.
The lyrics took about 15 minutes to write. Yong had his brother film him on a handheld camera.
In his last attempt to get off the waitlist, Yong sent UM the video, with no other, more traditional materials.
On June 6, Yong received an acceptance eMail from the university—no small feat considering AnnArbor.com reported that the school admitted just 42 out of 4,498 waitlisted students last year.
He posted a screenshot of the eMail to his Tumblr account and then left a comment on his video that received 185 thumbs-ups from his YouTube fans.
“I GOT IN YOU GUYS! Thank you SO much for all of your support, there’s no way this could have happened without you all!”
The video now has 54,675 views and 805 “likes.”
“I honestly did not know how to react. … I’m incredibly thankful and feel very fortunate because I know it wasn’t me who did it,” Yong said. “I’m overwhelmed and just very grateful.”
Yong had not expected to attract such widespread attention, and in fact, had originally posted his video in an unsearchable, “unlisted” setting.
He said he posted the video only on his Tumblr blog, on which he had a “small following of 60 to 70 people,” and his dad sent the link to a couple friends at work and church.
When Yong checked YouTube statistics on where and how often his video had been shared, he was surprised to find that the most views came through Facebook. The odd thing is, “I never even put it up on Facebook,” Yong said.
University of Michigan admissions officials did not respond to questions from eCampus News about Yong’s case.
NACAC board member Jim Miller said he did not see a move toward adding more multimedia to the college applications process—in fact, he said some schools will not review videos.
- The false choice between citizenship and a first job - September 7, 2026
- Can high-tech scale high-touch? - September 4, 2026
- Your institution’s AI strategy needs instructional designers - September 2, 2026