The rise of TikTok in recent years has been astronomical. What started as a platform known for dance challenges and lip-syncing videos has evolved into a Social Media giant, quickly taking every sector by storm. Although it only launched in 2017, TikTok was the seventh-most downloaded app of the 2010s.
Despite efforts to ban the platform in the United States, the app has quickly amassed over 2.3 billion all-time downloads and a devoted Gen Z user-base, making it the perfect place for Universities all over the US to showcase their facilities, get students talking, and gain the attention of potential new candidates.
With this in mind, we used TikTok data to create a comprehensive list of the most viewed US colleges according to their hashtags on the app, allowing us to find out which colleges in the US are making the biggest impact on TikTok…
25 Most Popular Colleges on TikTok
Taking the top spot for the Most Popular College on TikTok is Harvard, the research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With an overall total of 1,279,500,000 views on videos featuring the hashtags #HarvardUniversity and #Harvard, it is by far the most talked about and referenced educational institution in America on the social platform.
You can also sneak a peek at Harvard’s facilities on the app, with videos featuring Blodgett Pool; gifted to the University and regarded among the finest collegiate swimming facilities in the nation.
The second of only two Ivy League colleges to make the overall Top 10, second place belongs to Pennsylvania State University, whose attributing hashtags have amassed a total of 780,412,200 views on the app. Many students post about the pride they have for the Nittany Lions football team, and what it’s like to train at the sports facilities with a Penn State athlete.
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is number 3 on our list, following closely behind with 781,700,000 views. Named the number one graduate school of education in the nation by ‘U.S. News & World Report’, the students bear no hesitation in commending the university for their sports teams and facilities, and showcasing what it’s like to have a ‘day in the life’ as a student.
Further down the list, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has gained 507,819,600 views on TikTok, while Yale, Kent State, and West Virginia all find themselves among the middle of our table.
With one of the lowest results in the study, Ivy League college, Princeton University, has received a total of 136,500,000 views.
Most Popular Ivy League Colleges on TikTok
It’s no surprise that Harvard University also takes the top spot for the Most Popular Ivy League College on TikTok.
Popular videos include ‘Guess My Major’, a series of short-form clips by creator Shan Rizwan who speaks to students on campus, asking them questions about their major to see if he’s able to guess them with limited information, alongside heartfelt reactions of people finding out whether they got in, and asking students what accreditations they had achieved upon successful entry.
Yale University came in second place, with a total of 383,100,000 views across the hashtags #YaleUniversity and #Yale. Many of the videos on the platform commend the food choices available, with people rating their meals and showing the rest of the world what hospitality at an Ivy League college looks like. Other popular videos include new students moving across the globe to attend the prestigious school, and current students showing what it’s like to study there.
Following closely behind is Stanford University with 269,100,1000 views across videos with corresponding hashtags of people finding out they have been accepted to study at the facilities, alongside clips of their gymnastics team and snippets of students’ personal statements that helped them achieve entry into the college.
With 166,300,000 views on TikTok, Cornell is the fourth Ivy League college on our list. Students on the app give us an inside look at the libraries, show us what a ‘day in the life’ looks like, and showcase the likeliness to Hogwarts Castle.
Princeton University sits in fifth place with 136,500,000 views. The fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States is characterized on TikTok by picturesque views and beautiful architecture.
METHODOLOGY
We used TikTok data to create a comprehensive list of the most viewed US colleges according to their hashtags on the app, to discover which were the most commonly referenced and talked about. We then attributed the two most popular hashtags to each college (e.g. #PennsylvaniaStateUniversity and #PennState), and combined the views of both to result in an overall score for each educational institution.
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