Academic Highlight Reel

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About

Academic Highlight Reel, also known as Student Highlight Reel, refers to a TikTok trend in which students at high schools and universities record themselves participating in class with overlayed Snapchat text that shows their academic stats, imitating a sports highlight reel for academic prospects. The meme is based on the academic weapon trend that paints caring about school as a masculine and Chad-like need. The trend became prominent in late 2022, specifically in December 2022.

Origin

On December 6th, 2022, TikToker^[1] aranowitzj posted a video in which he was in a finance class giving a mathematics answer to the professor. With Snapchat text, he overlayed his GPA, name, major, height and location. Over the course of three days, the video received roughly 654,500 plays and 100,800 likes (shown below).

@aranowitzj
At the end of the day, it comes down to how badly you want. Evidently, I want it more

♬ original sound – jake

Spread

Later on December 6th, 2022, other TikTokers^[2]^[3] posted their highlight reels but didn't necessarily receive viral engagement. On December 7th, 2022, the Barstool Sports TikTok^[4] account barstoolfinance reposted aranowitzj's TikTok, gaining roughly 216,400 plays and 27,100 likes in two days.

Thereafter, multiple TikTokers posted academic highlight reels and earned virality. For instance, on December 8th, 2022, TikToker^[5] gabewigs posted a highlight reel, gaining roughly 763,400 plays and 107,000 likes in one day (shown below, left). Later on December 8th, TikToker^[6] name_is_brad (known for creating the "academic weapon" trend) stitched gabewigs' TikTok, proclaiming how pleased he was with the new trend. The stitch received roughly 164,600 plays and 26,400 likes in less than a day (shown below, right).