Thursday, October 1, 2026
Oceanside High School incoming senior Jack DeVivo has turned his interest in researching colleges into a global effort to help students navigate the often overwhelming college admissions process.
DeVivo, 17, of Oceanside, launched his TikTok account, College.Reviews, three months ago, to share information and statistics about colleges and universities across the country. He now has nearly 4,000 followers, with his account projected to surpass that mark, and his videos have accumulated roughly 4.4 million views.
His most popular video, an overview of New York University, has been viewed about 240,000 times.
But the account has evolved into more than a collection of college statistics. DeVivo now offers free college consulting to students around the world, helping them develop college lists, review application essays, evaluate their prospective choices’ extracurricular activities and better understand the admissions process. He has already helped more than 100 students from 25 countries on five continents.
“I really feel like I can make an impact by helping people,” DeVivo said.
The idea grew from his own interest in college and his plans to study finance and accounting. He has spent years, he said, teaching himself about universities and their programs.
DeVivo also noticed that many of his classmates were unsure about how to begin the college search. “A lot of them are confused and don't really know the process,” he said. “They're kind of scared and don’t know where to get started.”
DeVivo decided to use the knowledge he had accumulated to create a resource for students. His first video, posted May 24, featured the University of Virginia. Initially he posted once a day, but by early June he had increased his output to two posts a day.
Each video typically consists of an eight-slide breakdown of a university, including its location, acceptance rate, average GPA and test scores, the cost of tuition, top programs and majors, and a fun fact. The final slide provides a more detailed analysis and an overall grade on a 1-to-10 scale.
To build an audience, DeVivo initially focused on well-known universities, including Virginia, Georgetown, the University of Michigan and NYU. As his audience grew, students began contacting him directly for personalized advice.
One of the first requests came from a student in Nigeria, who wanted to apply to universities in Britain. “I had no idea how to do it at first,” DeVivo said. “So I did my own research, made an account myself, and then I kind of walked the student through the process.”
Since then, his international reach has continued to grow. Students he has helped have come from countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Lebanon, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and the United Arab Emirates.
Many are looking for universities that offer significant financial aid, DeVivo said.
He uses college research, available data and artificial intelligence tools to organize information and develop potential school lists. One of the most important lessons he shares with students involves extracurricular activities, encouraging them to turn their interests into meaningful projects that demonstrate initiative and impact.
“I'm a huge extracurricular person,” he said. “I always encourage students: Start a passion project.” Students sometimes list hobbies such as cooking or going to the gym as extracurricular activities, but he encourages them to take those interests a step further.
“It could be an extracurricular if you start posting on social media, you start making cookbooks, you start making an informational account on cooking,” he said. “Turning your hobbies into a helpful service is the best you can do for yourself and your college application.”
The experience has also influenced DeVito’s own college search. He is looking for a university where he can study finance and have access to internships.
Still, he remains focused on helping students who may not otherwise have access to college consulting. “If I can help students just as much, if not more, than something that charges for their services, I feel like I'm doing a good deed in the world,” DeVivo said. “Especially for students that don't know where to get started.”
What began as a way to share college information has become a resource for students thousands of miles from Oceanside — and a project DeVivo hopes to continue building as he prepares for his own college career.
