People are charging $3-6 per post on these accounts without having to create any content of their own? Sign me up for business!
TLDR; jump to the takeaway section.
It's the new way for high school seniors to make friends in college before actually setting foot on campus: Instagram class accounts. There are tons of them out there for nearly every college. They often take on usernames like @purdue2028meet or @wvu_2028 and boast hundreds of posts that feature bios of incoming college freshmen.
After continuing to see more of these accounts pop up year after year, I started thinking about what these accounts actually offer students and wondered why so many of them were eager to have themselves posted.
I wanted to learn more about how these accounts worked, from both a business mindset and from a community-building one, so I decided to hop on the bandwagon and create my own!
Phase 1: Setting up the account and getting my first followers.
The first step in my journey to become an anonymous Instagram-class-account holder was to decide which school I'd create an account for. I chose Pennsylvania State University since it's a large, fairly well-known public school on the east coast. I gave my account the username @pennstateco2028 to represent that it was for high school seniors graduating in May 2024.
Great, I have my account! Now what?
-My thoughts immediately after creating @pennstateco2028
I knew I needed to get followers for my account. But specifically, I needed my followers to be high school seniors who were interested in attending Penn State after graduation.
To find them, I ran a search for the largest public high schools in Pennsylvania located near the university. I went to all of the Instagram pages for those high schools and began following anyone that recently liked their posts. You won't believe how many students listed their upcoming high school graduation year in their bios; they weren't difficult to find at all.
What I quickly learned is that Instagram class accounts have been incredibly normalized for these age groups. I didn't have any trouble getting students to accept my follow requests and follow me back.
Once I got at least 30 followers this way, it only kept getting easier.
Since all of the students attended high schools in the same area, many of them were mutual followers of each other. This not only enhanced my account's "credibility" in their community, but it also allowed me to find more high school seniors quicker than when I first started.
It wasn't long before I had a couple hundred followers.
Phase 2: Decorating the page with set-up content.
I noticed that a lot of already-established Instagram class pages had at least one or two posts in the beginning that explained the purpose and process behind the account. I hopped onto Canva and quickly made some story posts of my own that instructed students on how to get themselves posted to my account.
I also included a post on the feed that raised some fun school spirit. Go Nittany Lions! 🐾
At this point, anyone who came across the page would know exactly what it was about, and it wasn't long before I featured the first student on my page.
Phase 3: Receiving DMs and posting bios.
Within the day, I had someone send in their first bio to the account! They DM'ed me with a handful of photos and a short description. I set it up as a post, tagged them in it, and officially had my first student feature on the page.
It's crazy how many students didn't hesitate to DM me their photos and bios. I know these accounts have been normalized, but I'm still a stranger on the Internet to them. You never know who is actually lurking behind one of these accounts.
-My thoughts as I continued to feature more and more posts on my page
After the first one, a few more rolled in within the next couple of days. Eventually, the amount of students DM'ing me slowed. This was not unexpected given the timing of my account's creation. I opened it in the beginning of the fall semester of the school year, so many students were probably still in the process of applying to colleges.
This wasn't a problem for me at all, as I just continued to try and grow the account's following while I waited for more students to send in bios.
Honestly, it was a pretty boring and tedious process. I continued following accounts, and they continued to follow me back. Whenever I made a post here and there, it'd get a decent number of likes. I felt like the account needed to be spiced up a little in order to remain interesting and relevant.
Phase 4: Adding to the college admission hype.
I began creating 'this or that' polls on the account that were relevant to the university. I asked students questions like, "Penn State football or basketball?"
Surprisingly, a lot of students engaged with the story polls!
Unfortunately, this engagement tactic eventually fell off, because I ran out of time to continue making the polls.
The real question: Did I make any money?
Nope, not a single penny. How come? Because I stopped the account before it got any bigger. As I kept up with my own academics, I simply didn't have the time to continue following, posting, following some more, posting some more, and repeating the process until I had thousands of followers like I know some accounts do.
I didn't make any money with my short-lived endeavor starting an Instagram class account, but I don't think the experience was a total dud.
Here were my key takeaways:
Business potential: Although I didn't earn any profit from my efforts, I still found the process to be an incredibly low-stake one. Once the account gets going, it's pretty easy to find students who want to be featured, and I'm sure that a good percentage of them would be willing to pay a few dollars to get their bio up there.
Organic community: A lot of Instagram accounts struggle to find an organically-grown audience, but Instagram class pages are able to accomplish this with ease. The reason for this is because high school seniors seem to expect these accounts to exist for each of the universities they're interested in. Because of their familiarity with these accounts, trust is easily established.
Network opportunity: These accounts operate as hubs to connect students with one another. Once a student gets featured, people may request to follow or even reach out to them as a way to introduce themselves. This is the very reason why any of these accounts even exist. They exist as a way for high schoolers, who often feel unsure and excited about meeting others in college, to find students who are rocking in their same boat. As cheap and easy as these accounts are, they really do offer a legitimate way for students to network with each other.
Whatever your position may be, I vote that you leverage these accounts to achieve your goals. If you're looking to gain more Instagram followers, request to be featured. If you're looking to meet others who are interested in the same college or hobbies as you, start a discussion about it. If you're looking for friends or a roommate, don't hesitate to reach out to someone who's been featured on one of these accounts! The worst they can do is ignore you or say no to whatever you ask.
And if you're looking for an easy side hustle in college, maybe give this one a go. It's low effort, low stakes, and you might be able to make a small buck out of it.
