Don’t Watch that College Decisions Video

Okay, I can’t physically stop you from watching what you want, but I’ll gladly give my two cents on this growing (elitist) college admissions culture on social media. 

Initially, I enjoyed watching college decision and reaction videos. The videos were intense and the payoff for many of these people was amazing to watch. I wanted to replicate these videos, so I vowed to make my own when the time came for me to apply to colleges. As I started applying to schools, I was eager to film this journey. Each time a college sent me a status update, I filmed it. The process was a lot of fun and before I knew it, it was time to edit the video. As I began editing, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Who is this video for?” It’s certainly not for educational purposes. Was it for memories? Kind of, but what’s so important about remembering a college you didn’t end up going to? The more I thought about it, the less eager I was to finish editing. Why post something when there’s nothing good coming out of it? I know that sounds harsh (and it is), but I realized through this process that these videos may be doing more harm than good. 

This revelation made me start looking back at these videos, and I found many commonalities among them. The most common thing many of these people like to do is emphasize the prestigious schools they’re applying to by putting them onto their thumbnails and titles. I’ve also picked up on how some like to state that they’re an “average” student, but be careful on what “average” means in college admissions culture. I could continue on and say all these people are just here to brag and show off, and while I think that’s a little true, I don’t think it’s the full story. I believe social media and its overall emphasis on prestige has pushed students in a direction where if we aren’t getting into a top school, we aren’t enough.

College admissions culture has made waves on other platforms as well. One of the most notable college admissions content I’ve seen has been the Instagram and TikTok accounts whose sole purpose is to get you into a top college. Many of these accounts laser focus on the top 20 schools and pretend that no other school on the planet exists – a college with an acceptance rate over 15%? Never heard of it. These accounts began to pop up on my explore page and after a while, I just began to block them. 

Some Instagram accounts seem to be allergic to acknowledging schools outside of their top 15 bubbles. I recently saw a video ranking the “top universities with the best parties,” and it was just all the Ivy Leagues with a couple more private colleges mixed in. I hit that block button fast after watching that atrocity. 

With all this hating I’ve been doing, you may be wondering if I think all forms of college admissions content are bad. Not at all. Despite some bad apples, there are plenty of people out there who want you to get into YOUR top school, not a top school. Many content creators have your best interest at heart instead of pushing you to change yourself for some institution. With all that said, I’m going to stop being negative and shout out a few excellent college content creators.

The first two are two brothers, Gohar and Mahad Khan. Both went to top colleges (Gohar at MIT and Mahad at Harvard), but it never shies folks away from their content. Quite the opposite. Both focus their content on how to do well on AP tests, general school prep, and more personalized self-care content that many students can learn from. They post on all forms of social media, but are most popular on Tiktok. The final content creator is Karla Mora. Unfamiliar with the name? Well, she is the founder of the the Instagram account called @girlsoncampus. It is singlehandedly the best college account I’ve seen by a landslide. GOC has a wide range of content but their primary focus is on scholarships and internships. They have these fun posts where they’ll ask “Which school would this character go to” and list off 5 schools with their features/perks. Overall, all 3 are fantastic accounts to be following regardless of whether you’re in high school or college. It’s important to mention that they both do post about top schools, but it’s not their main form of content. It shouldn’t be. Because if you try to mold people, you’ll destroy their originality. 

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• academia
• admissions
• college
• prestige
• social media
• university