Three California universities were found to be among the top 10 most “Instagrammable” in the nation, according to a new study.
Analysts at VPNOverview analyzed how many times the nation’s 100 highest rated universities, according to the most recent Forbes’ List of America’s Top Colleges, have been hashtagged on Instagram as of Oct. 16.
Some entries use multiple hashtags due to interchangeable wording differences between them, the study noted.
The school with the most mentions – by a margin of over 735,000 posts – was the University of California, Los Angeles, with more than 1.87 million public posts with the hashtag #ucla.
Coming in at second is Harvard University, whose 1.14 million posts with the hashtag #harvard pales in comparison to UCLA’s social media presence but is the only other school besides UCLA to crack over 1 million posts.
While the drop between second- and third-most-mentioned colleges is not as steep as the drop between UCLA and Harvard, fellow Ivy Leaguer (and Harvard’s hated rival) Yale University rounded out the top three with 573,590 posts featuring the hashtag #yale, the study found.
Spots four and five are occupied by two California schools, University of California, Davis and University of California, Berkeley. Both schools netted over 363,000 posts with hashtags bearing the university’s name.
View the top 25 most “Instagrammable” schools, according to the VPNOverview study, in the table below:
| Rank | University/College | Hashtag | Total number of public posts |
| 1. | University of California, Los Angeles | #ucla | 1,874,172 |
| 2. | Harvard University | #harvard | 1,138,099 |
| 3. | Yale University | #yale | 573,590 |
| 4. | University of California, Davis | #ucdavis | 369,747 |
| 5. | University of California, Berkeley | #ucberkeley | 363,430 |
| 6. | Columbia University | #columbiauniversity | 358,487 |
| 7. | Michigan State University | #michiganstate | 331,291 |
| 8. | Trinity College | #trinitycollege | 327,699 |
| 9. | University of Washington, Seattle | #universityofwashington | 306,135 |
| 10. | University of Florida | #universityofflorida | 280,722 |
| 11. | Georgia Institute of Technology | #georgiatech | 276,473 |
| 12. | Cornell University | #cornelluniversity | 259,478 |
| 13. | University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | #universityofmichigan | 259,478 |
| 14. | Virginia Tech | #virginiatech | 253,090 |
| 15. | Boston University | #bostonuniversity | 245,203 |
| 16. | Brown University | #brownuniversity | 242,671 |
| 17. | University of Wisconsin, Madison | #uwmadison | 231,216 |
| 18. | Duke University | #dukeuniversity | 228,162 |
| 19. | Syracuse University | #syracuseuniversity | 207,186 |
| 20. | Princeton University | #princetonuniversity | 207,072 |
| 21. | University of Pennsylvania | #upenn | 198,997 |
| 22. | Purdue University | #purdueuniversity | 186,613 |
| 23. | Stanford University | #stanforduniversity | 184,497 |
| 24. | University of Texas, Austin | #universityoftexas | 182,283 |
| 25. | Indiana University, Bloomington | #indianauniversity | 180,953 |
After UC-Davis and UC-Berkeley, the next California school posted the most on Instagram is Stanford University, with 184,497 posts featuring #stanforduniversity.
Other California institutions in the top 50 include University of California, Irvine (#29 with 145,554 posts); California State University, Fullerton (#36 with 123,325 posts); California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (#41 with 108,558 posts); University of California, Riverside (#43 with 103,648 posts); and University of Southern California (#50 with 75,606 posts).
A university’s online visual appeal plays an important role in the application process in addition to the school’s academic reputation. Hashtags can also be a crucial part of how an institution reaches students and creates publicity, a spokesman for VPNOverview said.
Next time you go to represent your alma mater on social media, you may want to leave a hashtag in the caption. It could help more than you think.
