TikTok loves true confessions — colleges admissions officers don’t

Aly Drake says she used TikTok like a diary. When she felt friendless, she’d make a video about it. When she noticed the symptoms of her bipolar disorder or wondered if an ex was still thinking about her, she’d open the app and press record.

It helped that she was “obsessed” with understanding the app’s algorithm and what content performed well, the 19-year-old said. On TikTok, her videos reached people who understood her and what she was going through, she said.

But her videos also reached the coaches of the college water ski program she hoped to join. They sent her an email saying her videos were “too negative,” she said. And she was denied a spot on the team.

“I was just talking about how I feel. It’s supposed to be a good thing to do,” Drake said. “It was pretty shocking to see the consequences of the way you post.”

Drake ended up starting her college application process from scratch. She declined to name the program that denied her to protect her reputation as a current college athlete.

Drake and her peers are in a tough spot. Raised on the internet and isolated by the pandemic, their social lives have played out on apps like TikTok. While corporate social media campaigns “raised awareness” around subjects like mental health and body positivity, young people shared their experiences in droves. But as they hit college or the working world, they’re met with a harsh reality: The standard of professionalism among older generations hasn’t changed, and it doesn’t make room for the type of authenticity social media companies tend to encourage.

The number of college admissions officers who visit applicants’ social profiles has steadily dropped the last three years, from about 1 in 3 in 2020 to 1 in 4 now, according to a survey by educational services company Kaplan. Given the challenges of the pandemic, officers likely want to give students the benefit of the doubt, said Isaac Botier, Kaplan’s executive director of college admissions programs. But the majority still indicate candidates’ social media profiles are fair game during admissions.

Sometimes, the app’s design sets up young people to make videos hiring managers or admissions officers won’t like, said Stephanie Rowe, a 19-year-old computer science student and TikTok user.

When Rowe saw what appeared to be underage girls posting videos of themselves wearing underwear in response to a trending sound, she made a video urging users to think of their digital footprints. It blew up, receiving more than 19 million views, the app shows. The response was mixed, Rowe said. Some chimed in on the importance of digital footprints. Others accused her of slut-shaming, and that criticism hurt, she said.

“That was so not my intention,” she said. “But this disproportionately affects women and I was just talking about the influence downstream.”