Viral Trends

College-bound Gen Z is choosing a school based on how it will look on TikTok

By
Brooke Kato
Published Nov. 1, 2024, 1:38 p.m. ET

There are so many reasons for choosing where to attend college, but for the TikTok generation, the deciding factor is how aesthetically pleasing campus life will be.

Gen Z is basing its decision for higher education based on how well it can be documented on social media platforms like TikTok.

A college student taking a selfie with a front camera while wearing headphones and sitting on a bed
College-bound teens are looking for inspiration on TikTok to decide on where to apply for school — and one of the deciding factors for some is how good it will look on social media. cherryandbees – stock.adobe.com

Morgan McGuire, a college-bound content creator, told Teen Vogue that she’s considering her behemoth following of nearly 770,000 when choosing a university, taking the campus aesthetics and extracurriculars into consideration.

She admitted that she often prioritizes TikTok content over everything else — even sleep.

“I feel like doing my content … it just feels more important because I care about that more,” the high school senior said.

Tyjai Jackson — an 18-year-old who boasts over 78,000 followers on the app — has also crafted her entire schedule around making online content.

“I would literally wake up at 4:00 AM every single day just to make a couple of TikToks before I had to leave for school,” she told Teen Vogue of her high school routine. “If you really want to be an influencer or whatever, it takes consistency.”

College students walking on the quad lawn of the University of Illinois campus in Urbana, Illinois
How campus life can be documented — and how fun it looks — is playing a role in students’ college decisions. Leigh Trail – stock.adobe.com

A recent survey of Gen Zers revealed that 57% of the young generation aspire to be influencers, a full-time career that can pay their bills — or tuition.

So far in 2024, Teen Vogue reported, McGuire has raked in $81,000 from both brand deals and the Creator Fund on TikTok, which she is using to invest in a retirement fund and pay for her education.

Creator Peyton Mikolayek, who is now a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, received $7,000 for just one sponsored video as a high school senior, a phenomenon that is not uncommon, according to industry insiders.

Max Elk, a senior talent manager at Grail Talent, told Teen Vogue that high schoolers can make “incredible” money from social media “because they have something these brands want”: a platform with a colossal following.

Happy female student walking alone in a university hallway, ready for learning and study
Content creators who are also college-bound have to worry about both academics and their income, meaning they’re considering how campus life can be documented on their platform. K. A./peopleimages.com – stock.adobe.com

College-aged influencers around the country are dominating TikTok, regularly posting dorm decorating content or sharing day-in-the-life videos that involve going to class, completing school work or just having fun on campus.

The TikTok tag #collegelife has a staggering 2.3 million posts and over 30 billion views, and the kind of content being churned out of campuses across the nation is informing prospective students’ decisions about where to apply and commit, multiple students told Business Insider.

College advisor Greg Kaplan told the outlet that he’s seen students completely change where they want to apply for higher education solely based on what they see on social media from their favorite creators who attend those schools.

“It was definitely a very helpful tool to get to experience these campuses without actually going to them in person,” content creator and Harvard freshman Helaine Zhao, who posts college-specific content, told Insider.

College female teenagers sitting on a bed, using a mobile phone in a dormitory, with boxes around
Other prospective students are looking to college content creators to decide whether a university is somewhere they’d fit in. cherryandbees – stock.adobe.com

The vignettes of campus life can be particularly helpful for prospective applicants to get a “vibe check,” added BKT Education co-founder Lucie Vágnerová.

“You might see a snippet from the cafeteria, people kicking a soccer ball around the quad, or even whether it’s stressful to study in the library,” she told Insider. “Just real-life stuff that a college website won’t necessarily tell you.”