Applying to college is daunting. High schoolers today find themselves writing dozens of essays, taking (and retaking) a medley of standardized tests and juggling heavy course loads of advanced classes. Acceptance rates at many elite universities have crept further into the single digits while so-called “hooks” — like starting a nonprofit or becoming a national champion — seem to have become commonplace. In short: The pressure is on.
To cope with such a cutthroat college admissions culture, some have opted to take drastic measures — legal and otherwise. Dozens of affluent parents, including actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, allegedly used their wealth to tilt the scales in favor of their own kids in the Operation Varsity Blues scandal, and both face criminal charges as a result; Huffman was recently sentenced to 14 days in jail. In law-abiding circles, however, affluent students and parents can still choose to pour millions of dollars into the expanding growing (and totally legal) college-consulting industry.
“That’s why they hire us,” Dan Lee, cofounder of Solomon Admissions Consulting, told Teen Vogue. “To get the opinions of the experts who were former admissions officers making decisions at these selective institutions.”
But where do those options leave students who aren’t as well-off financially? In some large public high schools, guidance counselors can seem inaccessible, as a valedictorian in California claimed in a scathing June graduation speech, and the panoply of college admissions books doesn’t simplify things. But Gen Z has adapted. A growing internet trend that started with videos of teens opening their decision letters has morphed into its own cost-effective solution, a free source of advice for under-resourced students and families: the college admissions vlog.
Katherine Waissbluth, a sophomore at Stanford University, gives advice on practically everything related to college admissions on her YouTube channel the Kath Path, where she lends essay tips and reveals which classes she took in high school. With almost 50,000 subscribers, she’s reached a captive audience. Katherine told Teen Vogue she started her channel after taking advice from YouTubers herself while applying to Stanford.
“No one from my school had gone to Stanford before, so I did not feel like I had access to adequate resources from my high school,” she said. “I turned to the internet for help.”
The outpouring of interest she’s received since launching her channel in 2018 has left her “amazed” and “greatly humbled.” She says she’s heard from international students, some of whom never had access to any college admissions resources, who say that her videos gave them the courage to pursue higher education. Katherine said she’s proud to play a role in making college “accessible to everyone.”
“Hearing advice from other students definitely has an advantage over counselors,” Nicolas Chae, a junior at Princeton University, told Teen Vogue. “Mostly because we’ll keep it real with each other and won’t bullsh*t the reality of the situation.”
Nicolas’s YouTube channel, which has more than 80,000 subscribers, highlights his unlikely experience getting off Princeton’s wait list and gives pointers on everything from choosing a college to paying for it. He has even done crossover videos with other college vloggers to compare their experiences of applying and getting in, some of which have included Josh Beasley, a junior at Yale University who told Teen Vogue he values collaborating with other vloggers.
“We’re giving a peek into what it’s like at these schools [and] what the application process is like from someone who’s a student,” Josh said.
But not every viral video is a success story. Hailey Sani, a sophomore at the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB), revealed in a 2018 YouTube video that she had been rejected by her two dream schools: New York University and the University of Southern California. That video now has almost 1 million views. She told Teen Vogue that as the first in her family to go to college, she wanted to share her experience, however devastating, with other first-generation applicants.
“The feedback I received was better than I ever expected,” she said. “My comment section turned into a forum in which hundreds of people were reaching out to each other to give advice and offer help.”
Officials at YouTube say they’ve noticed the demonstrated interest in college admissions content. Each August, for example, the company sees an uptick in freshman advice videos. YouTube also recently partnered with Michelle Obama and the Princeton Review for two separate original series on higher education, according to a spokesperson. Katie Kurtz, director of learning content and partnerships at YouTube, told Teen Vogue that high school and college students are turning to the platform for a number of reasons.
“College prep courses and tutors can be expensive or difficult to attain in certain areas,” she said. “With YouTube, these students can access these resources for free, online, and at their own convenience. This, coupled with the ingrained comfort this generation has turning to online platforms, has helped YouTube evolve into a resource for students during the college admissions process and beyond.”
Joshua Ocampo, a sophomore at Dartmouth College, wants his vlog to stay just that: a resource. He told Teen Vogue that while he does believe teens are more willing to follow the advice of other students, not every case is one-size-fits-all. He encourages his viewers to try and take “bits and pieces” from his personal story rather than finding a “set path to figuring life out.” More than anything, he hopes he can give teens permission to relax during an already stressful time in their lives.
“I’m here to fight the toxicity of the college application process and to help folks survive it,” he said.
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