It’s almost March, which means we’re reaching the time of year when seniors across the globe hear back from their college applications. Over the past decade, Google Trends has reported an annual spike in March to April for the phrase “college decision reaction.” I will admit that I, too, have given in to this obsession over the college application process, and my YouTube feed becomes filled with these videos each year. However, these videos, and our society’s growing obsession with them, are damaging and are undoubtedly fostering unrealistic expectations in high schoolers around the world.
Especially in Silicon Valley, where we are surrounded by big tech companies whose figureheads are from some of the most prestigious schools in the world, there is the expectation that high school students not only go to college, but also attend an elite one. When I went to YouTube and searched for college decision reaction videos, the results that came up all had roughly the same keywords in their titles: “dream school,” “Ivies,” “T20s” (top 20s), “UCs,” etc.
Setting aside the fact that college tuition growth rates have massively outpaced salaries and inflation, the expectation to attend a prestigious university is also unreasonable. As people apply to more and more colleges and universities, it is inevitable that they will receive rejections. Not every school has the resources to admit a large student body and therefore cannot accept all of its hundreds of thousands of applicants. The publicization of college applications through social media creates a feedback loop where people apply to more schools, receive more rejections, and apply to more out of fear of receiving more rejections.
These videos that capture our attention each year feature people who apply to Ivy League universities, T20s, and other prestigious schools and ultimately get into these elite universities. You don’t see the people who only apply to state schools and go to a local university. You don’t see the people who choose to go to community college, whether it be for academic or financial reasons. You see the people who apply to the top universities in the nation and get into the top universities in the nation. These schools have acceptance rates around 5-10%, but these videos make it seem like this is a feat possible for every student.
I remember my friends and I watching these videos as far back as middle school and thinking, surely we could do that. Decent GPA, decent SAT score, and a sport? Of course we’re on par with these students. It wasn’t until I reached high school that I realized that this would be a much more difficult feat than I had previously thought possible.
College decision reaction videos breed in students the expectation that they will be accepted to and attend an elite university. They ignore the reality that these schools simply cannot take every applicant, and some students just may not have access to the tools necessary to attend these schools.
In recent years, these videos have started to become more realistic—or maybe that’s just the ones that have been curated for my viewing algorithm. Nicole Laeno, a dancer with a large following who always dreamt of going to UCLA, got rejected in 2024. Instead, she is attending San Diego State University today. With numerous achievements and great qualities, she seemed like the perfect T20 candidate. But, as will be the case for many high school seniors, being the perfect applicant on paper won’t always yield a dream school acceptance.
As the next decision cycle rolls around, there will no doubt be another spike in these videos’ views. Yet, seniors (and other students who will soon also go through this process) must remember that these videos only showcase a select range of students who are unrepresentative of the general population.
