Is College a Scam? Tik-Tok Content and Postsecondary Planning

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Sunday 9:45 am
  In Poster Session: Inquiry in the Social Contexts of Education

Abstract

College enrollment dropped 8.43% from 2010 to 2024 (Hanson, 2025), with disproportionately steep declines among male (National Center for Education Statistics, 2025), White (Fry, 2023), and low-income students (Cahalan et al., 2024). By performing a digital discourse analysis of 175 TikTok videos collected using Pyktok (Freelon, 2022/2025), we investigated the portrayal of college and the identities of creators in TikTok videos using the #collegeisascam tag. We inductively coded our sample to classify creators’ arguments into eight overarching categories and coded creators’ race, gender, age, and educational status. Our linear regression revealed White creators were statistically significantly more likely than non-White creators to spread negative discourse about higher education.

Authors

• Katherine Pedersen, University of Pennsylvania

• Cameron Moy, University of Pennsylvania