College-bound Gen Zers are choosing schools based on how they’ll look on TikTok

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

Generation Z bases their decision regarding higher education on how well it can be documented on social media platforms like TikTok.

Morgan McGuire, a content creator who works at the college, told Teen Vogue that when choosing a university, she considers its massive audience of nearly 770,000 people, taking into account the campus aesthetic and extracurricular activities.

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

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

Tayjay Jackson, an 18-year-old with over 78,000 followers on the app, has also built her entire schedule around creating online content.

“I literally woke up at 4:00 every day to make a couple TikToks before I left for school,” she told Teen Vogue about her school routine. “If you really want to become an influencer or whatever, it takes consistency.”

A recent survey of Gen Z found that 57% of the younger generation aspire to become influencers, pursuing a full-time career that will allow them to pay their bills or pay their tuition.

Teen Vogue reports that by 2024, McGuire had earned $81,000 from both brand deals and TikTok’s Creator Fund, which she uses to invest in a retirement fund and pay for her education.

Creator Peyton Mikolajek, now a freshman at Johns Hopkins University, received $7,000 for just one sponsored video as a high school senior, which industry insiders say is not uncommon.

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

College-age influencers across the country are dominating TikTok, regularly posting dorm decorating content or sharing daily life videos of going to class, doing schoolwork, or just having fun on campus.

The TikTok tag #collegelife has a staggering 2.3 million posts and more than 30 billion views, and the type of content that’s being poured out of campuses across the country is helping prospective students make decisions about where to apply and attend, several told Business Insider students.

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

“It’s definitely been a very useful tool to get to know these campuses without having to visit them in person,” content creator and Harvard freshman Helaine Zhao, who posts college-specific content, told Insider.

“Vignettes from student life can be particularly useful for potential applicants to test their mood,” added BKT Education co-founder Lucy Vagnerova.

“You might see a clip of a cafeteria, people kicking a soccer ball around the yard, or even the stress of studying in the library,” she told Insider. “Just real things that a college website won’t necessarily tell you.”