NMU is trying a new way to  encourage prospective students to attend the university by holding a YouTube contest.

The contest, called NMUTube, will provide videos that will be shown to students and their families who are looking to come to NMU. They will display what life is like on campus and around the area and will also be on posted YouTube.

Anne Stark, the marketing director at NMU, said this is a great way to show what students are doing to enjoy NMU.

“Our students can tell our story better than anyone else,” Stark said. “Students come up with better stuff than we could have ever imagined.”

This is a good way for students to really see what other students do on campus and around the area, rather than just what they are told happens, Stark said.

The contest will also provide current students with a chance to showcase their talents, Stark said. For some majors, like art and design or film, it will be a great portfolio piece, she said

“The main thing is that we want people to have a blast showing what their NMU adventure is really like,” Stark said. “It’s good to show how much fun our students really have.”

Gerri Daniels, director of admissions at NMU, said that this contest will give some great clips to rotate on the admissions website to give prospective students a fun way to get interested in NMU.

“The idea was, when you have a contest, it creates some excitement, and students are interested in submitting their best work and it gives us a lot to choose from,” Daniels said. “It gives students who are enjoying their time at Northern a chance to share their experiences with a wider audience.”

Cash prizes will be awarded to the winners, prize money will come from the budget of the marketing department. They are taking money they would have paid a video crew to make promotional videos with and putting it toward prize money for this contest instead, Stark said.

There are three video categories for the contest taking place during the fall semester: My NMU Adventure, which is about personal experiences at NMU; It’s Good to Laugh, for the video with the best positive humor; and Northern, Naturally, which is all about showing off the natural environment around NMU.

Videos should fall in one of these three categories in order to be considered.  The deadline is Friday, Dec. 17 by 5 p.m.

There will also be videos accepted in three categories for the winter semester: ‘Cats on the Prowl, which should tell NMU success stories; Filmmaking Talent, to show the best use of creative talent; and Northern, Naturally. The deadline for the winter contest is March 17 by 5 p.m.

There will be six $500 first place prizes, one in each category per semester, as well as second and third place prizes in each category for $250 and $100 respectively. There will also be a $1000 grand prize winner, which will be decided in the spring of 2011.