snapchat. colleges have it, too

Ok, I admit it. I love Snapchat. My family communicates more with images, filters, and bitmojis these days than we do with standard texts. Seeing a family members face with unicorn horns or cat ears makes me giggle and honestly, makes me feel connected to my kids who are more often than not hundreds of miles away (except that one that lives across the lake!).

As a college counselor, I love following colleges on Snapchat for many reasons. One, when there are exciting things going on on campus (like IUs Little 500 bike race or Cornell University's Dragon Day) it gives me an opportunity to see how the school showcases campus, traditions, and events. Secondly, on a regular, random day I get a sense of what any given school thinks is important. Is a student showing off the art school or biology lab, is an admission representative giving a tour, is the student government live streaming a meeting? I love seeing what is going on on campus, especially from a student's perspective. Not all schools "do" Snapchat well, but those that do, are really fun.

I'm sharing a list of schools to follow on Snapchat now you because at this time of year I get a lot of questions about the importance of visiting schools. Many students, for many different reasons are unable to visit campus. Whether for financial reasons, vacation timing, or just simply distance. Whatever the reason, visiting campus isn't easy for everyone. Finding ways to interact with the campus with a vehicle like Snapchat can help you get a realtime glimpse into campus life.

And, while I love seeing what is going on on campus via Snapchat, I do not recommend that you interact with campus this way. Many schools "hand over" the snapchat account to admission tour guides, student government reps or the newspaper reporters so you never know who is managing the account for the day. So, if you want to talk to the admissions office, send an email to the admissions representative assigned to your high school.


Here are some of the schools I follow on Snapchat...feel free to leave your favorites in the comments!

1. The University of Alabama at Birmingham: uab.snapdragon
2. The University of Arizona:  UArizona
3. Boston College: wearebc
4. Boston University: BostonU or Boston University Admission: applytobu
5. Clemson University Football: ClemsonFB
6. Colorado State University: Coloradostateu
7. Cornell University: cornelledu
8. Duke University: DukeStudents
9. Georgetown University (D.C): georgetownuniv
10. Indiana University: IU_Bloomington
11. Johns Hopkins University:  JohnsHopkinsU
12. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: mitstudents
13. New York University nyuniversity
14. Northwestern University: NorthwesternU 
15. Northwestern University Athletics: nu_sports
16. Northwestern University Office of Undergraduate Admission: northwesternadm
17. The Ohio State University: theohiostuniv
18. Pennsylvania State University: penn_state
19. Point Park University: pointparku
20. Princeton: princeton_u
    
21. Rice University: RiceUniversity
22. Stanford University: stanford
23. University of Michigan: uofmichigan
24. University of Washington: uwstudentlife
25. Yale University Office of Undergraduate Admissions: yaleadmissions