The Rise of College Decision TikTok

TikTok is not only wildly entertaining, but it’s grabbing teens’ attention with more than #pranks and #DanceTok videos. American youth (ages 10-19) are spending an average of 87 minutes a day on the platform and currently account for 25% of TikTok’s users. This year, the college-acceptance genre has officially gone viral. The question is: do these uplifting video-reveals inspire teens to work hard and follow their college dreams, or do these private-moment-made-public TikToks just ratchet up the stress around college admissions? And what about the sub-genre of college-rejection TikToks, where students show themselves with faces buried in their hands, statistics flashing across the video, including where they have been waitlisted and rejected? Are these #collegerejection TikToks cathartic or concerning?

Entertainment is by far the most popular category of TikTok content, and many teens scroll through college acceptance and college rejection TikToks the way they consume most content on the platform: casually. TikToks that take a positive approach to college rejection (“Rejection is Redirection!” one enthused) have even inspired commenters to praise the creators’ confidence and resilience. But the closer teens get to finding out their own college decisions, the more intense the subject becomes, and the more it may impact their sense of personal worth.

Dr. Madeleine Vieira, a clinical child psychologist in London told “In The Know by Yahoo,” “The sharing of college admissions videos on TikTok, where high school students reveal their rejections or waitlist status, can lead to a sense of competition and comparison among teenagers. It can be difficult for young people to recognize that college admissions decisions are often arbitrary and subjective, and that rejection or waitlist status does not necessarily reflect their worth as individuals.”

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COLLEGE DECISION TIKTOK

While the TikTok hashtag #collegerejection has 65.1 million views, #collegeeacceptance (not to be mistaken for the less popular #collegeacceptance) has 54.8 million views. In “The Particular Misery of College Admissions TikTok” (The New Yorker, March 28, 2023), Jay Caspian Kang makes the point that negative messages have more viral power than positive ones. While rejection TikToks can have a humorous flavor, Kang finds the level of anxiety the videos manifest to be disturbing. A 2023 University of Minnesota study of TikTok’s impact on users’ mental health provides insight into why college rejection videos are so addictive. “These platforms provide a lot of social value to people in validating their experiences and making people feel less alone,” Stevie Chancellor, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota, said. But “the runaway train” effect means that the more negative content a user scrolls, the more TikTok’s algorithm feeds similar videos to that user. The result of this saturation can be harmful.

If wallowing in videos about other students’ rejections may well do more harm than good to a viewer’s well-being, what about those entertaining videos where anxious students check their portals and shriek in surprise and joy, their dream coming true before their eyes? Aren’t those … well, inspiring? A “College Decision Reaction 2022 (Ivy League)” TikTok garnered reactions like, “What a sweet family,” and “Bruhh [sic] this is free therapy.” But other comments struck a common note: resentment. Where one viewer finds pleasure in another’s happiness and good fortune, another is provoked to poke holes in it by pointing out the unfairness of the admissions process itself. Los Angeles high school student Zach Gottlieb, who created a popular online wellness community (“Talk With Zach”), points out another problematic issue: “kids get the impression that everyone else is getting acceptances, which leaves many of them feeling even more alone—and more unworthy” (“Stop Sharing Viral College-Acceptance Videos,” The Atlantic, March 29, 2023).

College-decision TikToks have the power to both motivate and demotivate, comfort and distress—the key for teens is to consume these messages in moderation, particularly during the most intense weeks in March when admissions anxiety peaks for applicants. And by all means stay away from the “Help Me Choose a College” sub-genre of TikToks, where students claim they’ll attend a school based on responses to their videos—TikTok is NOT the new college counselor.

What can actually help? Our team of senior admissions experts and educators have a deep knowledge of the ever-changing admissions landscape and will help you develop a personalized strategy tailored to the current admissions environment. By making the process more transparent, we make it less stressful.

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Dr. Tina Brooks

Senior Private Counselor at Top Tier Admissions

Tina joins Top Tier Admissions after five years serving as Associate Dean of Admissions at Pomona College. Her career in higher education has included extensive experience as both a faculty member and admissions professional. Tina worked as Assistant Director of Admission and Transfer Coordinator at Scripps College before joining Pomona College, where she oversaw all communications and directed transfer admissions, in addition to her role evaluating first-year applicants in the admissions office. As a professional writer and editor, she has published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Fodor’s guide to Los Angeles, and many college alumni magazines. Having served as a mentor for Scholar Match, a scholarship evaluator for the Davidson Institute for Talent Development, and an interviewer for the Gates Scholarship and the Posse Foundation, Tina loves working directly with students on their writing, academic and outcomes goals. She holds a B.A. in English with Honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.

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