• Gen Z has found a more authentic resource when researching peers: peer content creators.
• College content creators offer study tips and post snippets of daily school life on TikTok.
• Some peer content creators are also reaping the benefits by racking up thousands of sponsorships.

The summer before his senior year of high school, videos of students waking up in the dorms or riding the college quad started flooding Ryan Fuhrman. Feed TikTok For You.

The algorithm he clearly knew he should look into college—and took that as a cue to get started.

“NYU dorm room,” he typed into the TikTok search bar. In seconds, it could tour of the dormitories from New York University, checking out the bedding and wall art of each student who had chosen to share it.

In a similar manner, he continued judge the quality of food at the University of California, Los Angeles dining halls and feel what a day in the life of a college freshman it might look like the University of Southern California.

Unlike scrolling through a school’s website or flipping through a brochure, TikTok allowed her to see colleges through the eyes of other students.

“It made me think, ‘Wow, this could be my day,'” Fuhrman, 18, told Business Insider.

Fuhrman is not alone. Conformable Google’s internal datanearly 40% of Gen Z prefer searching on TikTok and Instagram over Google Search and Maps, BI reported in July 2022.

When it comes to deciding on a schoolthese TikToks shine a light on parts of university life that previous generations had little access to and often didn’t discover until first year – after the decision on where to go had been made.

Instead of the typical campus tour hosted by one of the college’s brand ambassadors and led along a neat map of the school’s most attractive amenities, Gen Zers have multiple streams through which they can examine the vibe of a campus. And unlike the 15-minute promotional videos produced by schools, much of what appears on social media comes from people they can relate to.

Growing content creators for peers

On October 29, there were 2.3 million TikTok videos under the hashtag “college life.” The hashtag went viral with 30.5 billion views.

The popularity of college content on TikTok has introduced a lot of content creators covering their school life.

From her first day, Helaine Zhaoa Harvard freshman, started posting vlogs about campus life.

In a video posted in September, she shared her morning routine in college. The video shows her getting out of bed, putting on her contact lenses, choosing her clothes, putting on makeup, working out at a gym and eating breakfast. The video has gained over 6 million views.

Zhao, who started posting content in March, has gained more than 92,300 followers on TikTok. And while she is eligible for TikTok Creator Rewards Programwhich allows creators to monetize their content, she has not yet joined. However, she does occasionally sign paid collaborations with study marks ca Notabilitya note taking app. Zhao preferred not to share how much he earns from sponsorships.

She remembers using the app to research colleges when deciding between Stanford, Harvard and Yale.

“It was definitely a very useful tool to experience these campuses without actually going to them in person,” she said, although she eventually visited the schools in person during their admissions days.

A content creator for the college he was pursuing at the time was Elise Pham. Now in her junior year at Harvard, Pham has more than 155,800 followers.

“Being the child of a single immigrant father and a mother who died when I was 9, I didn’t necessarily have a lot of resources and mentorship when it came to the college application process,” Pham, 20, told BI.

She saw the value in providing resources for students who needed college advice. So when he started college, he started posting college admissions videos on TikTok about Harvard to help prospective students.

He then founded the Ultimate Ivy League Guide, a college admissions consulting business that provides online college admissions guides and courses to students. She runs the business while she finishes the last two years of her undergraduate degree and plans to continue working there full-time after graduation.

Pham told BI that while she takes no personal income from the business, she earns a low level six figures per month. “The money is being used to build a program that can make education more accessible to students from all socioeconomic and geographic backgrounds,” she said. Pham provided BI with business earnings documentation.

Similarly, Lillian Zhanggraduate of the University of California Berkeley, began posting content about her college life and internships during her junior year. She was in the midst of a Covid crisis and she decided to cure her boredom by providing useful content to students.

As it happened, some of her UC Berkeley vlogs went viral. In one vlog, which has garnered more than 200,000 views, she wakes up early to go to the gym, has a midterm review at school, then takes a MATCH latte and quesadilla for lunch.

“I think people just want to see what school life was like through my experience,” said Zhang, 24, who has more than 113,100 followers on TikTok.

She added that prospective students have contacted her with questions about the school and internships.

“When I was still at Berkeley, there were people who recognized me from the videos. It was a really great experience hearing how the information we shared helped,” she said.

These days, Zhang works as a product marketing manager at a Big Tech company and mostly posts career and financial advice.

In her first year of receiving income as a content creator, Zhang earned about $47,000, mostly from sponsorships. This year, her income from content creation has been in the low six figures. Zhang provided BI with documentation of her social media earnings.

An authentic first-person perspective

TikTok can be a useful tool for students to earn extra perspective on colleges they are interested.

Lucie Vágnerová, co-founder of Brooklyn-based consulting firm BKT Education, advises her students to use social media on their own time. university research.

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

Students can get a “vibe check” to see if they can relate to other students and appreciate the school’s culture, she added.

At the same time, college content can also change how prospective students view a college at worst, said Greg Kaplan, a college counselor.

“I’ve seen students change their school lists based on what they notice fraternities and sororities and not apply to those schools if they don’t think they’re going to be a good fit,” said Kaplan, whose company, Kaplan Educational Group, provides college application guidance to about 350 high school students annually.

TikTok is useful, but it has limitations

Vágnerová said prospective students should use TikTok with a persevering eye.

“As much as I love seeing what happens with social media creators coming out of campuses, I always tell students, ‘This is one piece of the puzzle; don’t linger too long anywhere,” she said.

“Look for other social media creators. Look for location tags in Instagram stories. You get a comprehensive picture of a campus or academic culture, rather than looking at it through the lens of one person,” she added.

And while TikTok can influence students’ perceptions of a school, other factors students consider before making a decision typically include cost, rankings, and location.

Of the 17 schools he applied to, Fuhrman said the schools he was accepted to included NYU, USC and California State University. When it came to his decision, he settled on the University of California, San Diego because of its reputation, ranking and cost. Fuhrman, who grew up in San Jose, personally visited several schools.

However, he says the TikTok videos gave him confidence in his decision.

In the app, he has a collection of saved videos titled “UCSD.” One video shows the beaches of La Jolla: “That’s what made me fall in love with the school,” he said. Another video he saved shows the modern interior of Franklin Antonio Hall—an engineering facility with an auditorium, 100-seat classrooms, and collaborative student study space. The building opened on campus in 2022.

“I never would have known because every promotional piece for the school just shows a picture of the library,” he said.

“But the school is so much more than that.”

Meanwhile, studying for a degree in structural engineering, Fuhrman has around 3,400 followersalso joined to document her college life on TikTok.

“I think ultimately my goal is to inspire others like me who haven’t had school on their radar,” he said.