With an acceptance rate of 16% for the 2018-2019 admissions cycle, Choate Rosemary Hall is one of the most selective boarding schools in the United States. As the Choate Admissions Office has the huge responsibility of recruiting talented, diverse students, they use social media as a marketing tool to target their young audience. 

Choate Admissions started their Instagram account in July 2018 and posts about the application process, student testimonials, and general campus life. However, Instagram has recently been overtaken in popularity amongst teens by TikTok, a new social media app, putting much pressure on the office to change their old-fashioned habits.

Choate Admissions made their TikTok in September of this year and has since completely switched to using TikTok as their primary social media. Regarding the office’s decision, Director of Admission Ellie Tist stated, “TikTok allows us to reach many more students than old-fashioned Instagram did. We were noticing a huge decline in our profile visits on Instagram, and with TikTok, our following has skyrocketed.” 

The office posts TikToks on their page daily, including dancing, lip-syncing, and comedy content. They meticulously analyze the current TikTok trends and plan their TikToks for hours in team meetings in an effort to get on the for you page, which is a collection of the trending TikToks at any given time that teens often frequent. Applications for the students to join the team as TikTok youth advisors will be due at the end of the month. 

Many of their TikToks have gone viral, and the admissions team expects increased application numbers this application cycle due to their sensational entry into the world of TikTok. Once, the entire team performed a dance to “Obsessed” by Mariah Carey together in the Colony Hall dance studio and got over a million views. “We literally practiced the Mariah Carey Tiktok for hours during our lunch breaks because that song was trending,” said Mr. Interv Yewer, Assistant Director of Admissions, “and an added bonus of that one was that we could show off the beautiful new facility! I love making TikToks with my team because they are the perfect team bonding activity.” 

Another popular TikTok is flashing a trait that some people have on the screen and then pointing to names of people who have that trait to beats of funky music. Ms. Tist made one of these TikToks, in which he identified the names of people who will get into Choate. To make it, she spent days looking at statistics from previous admissions cycles to narrow it down to her top five names. The caption of the video read: “I hope this TikTok will encourage those named Madison, Mackenleigh, Charlie, Oscar, and Weatherby to apply to Choate! #crankit!”

The rapid success of the Choate Admissions TikTok has not gone unnoticed by the Choate community and even other prep schools. In particular, third formers are disappointed that the account was not in existence when they applied. “It would have made the admissions officers a lot less intimidating during my interview if I had seen them acting like clowns on TikTok. I’m gonna be a Gold Key Leader so I can be in the TikToks one day and go viral!” exclaimed Chizzy Ogbutor ‘23.

Much to the chagrin of the admissions team, Deerfield Academy Admissions recently made a TikTok. “Deerfield is a copycat,” Ms. Tist said grimly, “they’re just worried that all the creatives, the visionaries, the artistic geniuses that make up the wonder of TikTok will all come to Choate. Luckily, their TikToks are simply subpar.”