TikTok teens are choosing colleges based on which campus offers the best video background

How did you pick a college: the academics, the cost, the campus? For today’s high schoolers, a new metric has entered the chat—how the college will look on TikTok.

According to Teen Vogue, high school TikTok influencers are increasingly choosing schools based on how they’ll present on social media content. “Part of Morgan McGuire’s calculation as she’s deciding where to go to college is what will look good on TikTok,” writes journalist Fortesa Latifi. “She wants to make sure the campus is pretty and that there are fun events like football games to document in bite-size videos.” For these students who have built followings online, selecting a college is about more than education. It’s a strategic career move.

It’s hardly surprising given how much of teens’ lives are now lived online. TikTok ranks among the most popular social platforms, with Pew Research’s 2023 data revealing it’s the second most-used app among those ages 13 to 17 (YouTube takes the top spot). One in five teens say they’re on TikTok “almost constantly,” with college-related content becoming a major genre on both TikTok and YouTube. On TikTok alone, there are more than 8.3 million posts tagged with #college, alongside thousands more under hashtags like #dorm and #backtoschool. These platforms now serve as unofficial guides to higher education, where creators offer everything from college-decision reveals to insider tips—and make money doing it.

Mia Aston films her days as a film student at New York University for her 10,000-plus TikTok followers, sharing everything from the essays she’s writing to the scenic views on her walks to class. Others such as Elise Pham, a Harvard student with 155,000 TikTok followers, post sponsored “decorate my dorm with me” and “morning routine” videos, featuring such brands as Command and Keurig. According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for a TikTok influencer is more than $130,000. This can be earned through lucrative brand deals, the TikTok shop, or through affiliate marketing. Influencers can also earn money from the TikTok Creator Fund, which offers payouts to creators based on their content’s views and engagement.

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For influencers attending prestigious schools, the college’s name becomes a powerful marketing tool, drawing tens of thousands of curious followers eager to peek behind the gates of the world’s most exclusive institutions.

Honestly, there are worse reasons to base your college decision on.