CampusReel – The Future of College Search?

People and community define the college experience. Everyone agrees on this, yet college search seems to overlook these important variables – the process is dominated by rankings, test scores, and acceptance rates.

Before CampusReel, it was impossible to understand these less tangible qualities, such as community, vibe and campus atmosphere, without visiting a campus in person. Even if you have the time and money to take a college tour, this too is a marketing opportunity for colleges to put forth their own narratives.

By hosting a growing library of 17,000 student-generated videos from more than 350 colleges and universities, CampusReel is reimagining how students and their families search and apply to schools. CampusReel enables any applicant to deeply experience a college campus and its community from the comfort of their living room. Want to check out gameday at University of Florida, a camping trip at the University of Wyoming, or sit in on a lecture at UCLA? CampusReel has all that content and more. While other platforms rely mostly on data and statistics to describe a college, CampusReel turns current students into storytellers and empowers them to tell their school’s story by crowdsourcing authentic video content.

CampusReel provides its users with what they need and value most – honest and authentic insight into daily life on hundreds of college campuses. The platform also capitalizes on the rapidly growing trend of video consumption. By 2020, 80% of internet consumption is expected to be video – that ratio is likely even steeper for Gen Z college searchers who have grown up with video based sites like YouTube. The company is clearly filling a void in the college search and selection marketplace.

Although CampusReel’s content is student-created, all videos are approved before they are published live on the platform. The company states, “We are a resource for college searchers. CampusReel is not a free-for-all video uploading site. That being said, we encourage any student to upload content that wants to convey important information about their school.”

In addition to serving videos on its own site, CampusReel is also developing a growing number of partner sites who use its API to provide their users with video content.