Campus Vloggers: Explore IIT Bombay, SRCC, NMIMS through students’ YouTube channels

NEW DELHI: The pandemic’s disruption of mainstream education gave students time to explore other interests. Using that slowing of pace, a host of young students across campuses turned YouTube vloggers, chronicling their college lives, activities on campus, disseminating knowledge about their successes and helping other students. Here are three from private and public institutions in Mumbai and Delhi.

Eknoor Singh | IIT Bombay

Eknoor Singh, BTech student at IIT Bombay
In October 2020, as Covid forced an entire generation online, there was a sharp increase in YouTubers. An alumna of Gurugram’s Delhi Public School, Eknoor Singh is a star vlogger from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay where he is a BTech student of mechanical engineering.

Singh was always passionate about creating videos and editing. Classes he took while still in school came handy during the COVID-19 lockdown. “I started content creation because I had the flavour of video-making and I enjoyed doing that in my free time,” said Singh.

He added: “During my Joint Entrance Exam (JEE Main, JEE Advanced) preparation in 2020, which was quite a stressful time, I explored the world of online education and mentorship. I learnt that there is a huge chunk of people looking for mentorship and that’s what my content caters to. In my initial days, I talked about the challenges I faced which helped shape my preparation.”

Singh believes that YouTube has huge potential for those preparing for JEE. “My main motivation to start this channel was to help students looking for tips and inspiration
while preparing.”

Singh’s strategy has been to stay connected with his viewers, mostly students. “Since 2020, students preparing for JEE have been going through uncertainties of dates, examinations and others. Also, interacting with viewers and getting to know their real-life problems is the core area I focus on,” Singh said.

He has also featured the vibrant cultural life on the IIT Bombay campus. “Recently, after two years, IIT-B’s cultural fest happened which had celebrities and other renowned personalities visiting. I covered the event on my channel. It is about timing, reaching the place at the correct time because so much is going around on the campus. I try to plan my content and videos,” he explained. Plus, there’s interest. People want to know about food being served in the mess, life on campus, and events, he said. Singh’s hostel 16 “mess tour” on the day biryani and chilli chicken were served has 44,000 views. In it his peers review the special meals. He also covers cultural and sports events.

But the experience is not always pleasant. “As a content creator, you get every kind of criticism. Positive criticism is good because it helps you learn and create better content. But there is outright hate as well.” Singh has had to get used to trolling and hate in the comments section. “Initially, it looks rosy but as soon as you get some traction, trolls and hatred become part of the game, and you have to deal with it.”

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The vlog is also a personal diary through which Singh “document[s] memories of [his] college”. He said: “I didn’t start the channel to pursue a career in this. But currently, I find the channel is a journal of thoughts that also helps people.”

When he moves on from IIT Bombay in the next two years, Singh wants the YouTube channel to be a record of his journey. He believes the content will remain relevant, relatable. Singh believes in learning constantly which has helped him do different things in the channel.

Ananya Gupta | SRCC

Ananya Gupta, B.Com Hons student at SRCC, Delhi UniversityAnanya Gupta’s YouTube vlogging journey began with the lockdown as well. Pursuing a B.Com Hons at Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce, Gupta, 19, has created a name for herself on the video-sharing site. “Because of the lockdown, I had a lot of free time at hand and there wasn’t much to do, honestly. But a major factor that pushed me towards YouTubing was the knack for being outspoken in general. Through the channel, I have built a strong community of people who genuinely appreciate the videos and find them helpful,” she said.

But it was during the second lockdown, in 2021, that Gupta started building the channel seriously. “I was always interested in editing and making aesthetic videos. With lockdown, I got the opportunity to explore YouTube as a platform. I started when I was in Class 12. I realised that most of the student YouTubers lacked the point of value addition in their videos. Even though students vlogged about things, the audience look for value-addition. I thought I could bring something new to the table and help students to perform better,” she said.

“On YouTube, it’s more about posting consistently,” she explained. “My videos have the right balance of entertainment with value addition and learning. Also, because SRCC is the best commerce college in India and my audience is student-oriented, I got more students coming on my channel to know about campus life, etc. It’s like helping the students understand if they want to do this, or how college life is, and accordingly, they can make choices. Overall, my college videos serve as a motivation for most students because students across the country want to go to the best colleges of Delhi University.” Gupta’s campus videos cover life at SRCC, campus tour, college vlogs, and more. In one of her videos of her first day at SRCC, Gupta described how the college administration had arranged a buffet for freshers and how her classes went. It has around 90,000 views.

At present, Gupta is juggling offline classes with content creation. “It’s a hassle to travel and attend offline classes, work on the channel and manage everything. Also, SRCC as a college gives a lot of exposure and opportunities in terms of being a part of different societies and other activities,” she said.

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Gupta intends to be an entrepreneur. “Having a YouTube channel is a sort of entrepreneurship in itself,” she said. She hasn’t planned too far ahead but is sure the channel will continue.

Gupta’s core learning until now has been in making interesting content. Also, she added, “I learnt that if you are passionate about something you will automatically make time for it and excel in it. It’s about consistency in anything you do.”

Harshit Chauhan | NMIMS

Harshit Chahuan, BBA Student at NMIMS, MumbaiHarshit Chauhan’s YouTube channel predates Covid but it saw viewer numbers rise during the pandemic. Chauhan, a student at Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS), is from Delhi. “Around two years ago, I used to make content on fashion. But Covid gave a boom to my channel. Currently, with 1,22,000 followers, my channel got traction after I got admission in NMIMS, one of the top business management colleges. Next, several people from my school were seeking my help with admission in the college. This made me realise that there is a gap that I can fill through my videos,” he said.

His video on his first day at NMIMS after the lockdown has around 40,000 views.

There is a process to starting and maintaining a channel. It takes time to create a niche, learning video-editing, he said. However, he notes that no one needs a course that can teach what practical hands-on learning can. For Chauhan, the biggest challenge was to manage college while maintaining a channel. While learning from constructive criticism, Chauhan has learning to ignore the trolls. Positive feedback has made him confident.

Chauhan focuses on creating a mix of educational and fun videos. “I try to create content on educational trends with a bit of college fun. For instance, college admission has started, so now I am making videos on how students can get admission into the best universities and colleges. The majority of my time goes into creating a video including the narration, points to be covered.”

Initially, Chauhan treated video-making as a hobby, now he sees the potential. “However, now I can see the growth in this area. I might take this up full-time if it gives me a good return on investment. As social media platforms are quite dynamic, monetisation comes only after a point and depends on the niche, and the kind of content you create,” he said.

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From next year, Chauhan plans to pursue higher studies in a foreign university where he can create more vlogs. Chauhan would advise those starting a channel to have strategies in place because consistency is the key to growth on YouTube.