College-going Gen Zs are choosing a school based on how it will look on TikTok

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

Gen Z bases their higher education decision on how well they can be documented on social media platforms like TikTok.

Morgan McGuire, a college-related content creatorhe said Teen Vogue that she considers its whopping nearly 770,000 when choosing a university, considering campus aesthetics and extracurriculars.

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

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

Tyjai Jackson — an 18-year-old who boasts more than 78,000 followers on the app — has built her entire schedule around creating content online.

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

A recent survey of Gen Zers showed that 57% of the younger generation aspire to be influencersa full-time career that can pay the bills—or the tuition.

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

Creative Peyton Mikolayekwho 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 experts.

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

College-aged influencers across the country are dominating TikTok, regularly posting home decor or everyday video sharing which involves going to classes, completing school work or just having fun on campus.

TikTok tag #college has an astounding 2.3 million posts and over 30 billion views, and the kind of content produced from campuses across the country informs prospective students’ decisions about where to apply and get hired, more students said Business Insider.

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

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

Vignettes of campus life can be particularly useful for potential 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 if it’s stressful studying in the library,” she told Insider. “Just real life stuff that the college website won’t necessarily tell you.”