By Kavita Mistry 
Instagram is one of the most used social media platforms globally. It is more than just a place to share photos and videos. Instagram has become a place where people are making strong connections, ultimately leading them to earn money. Moreover, with the addition of a new feature, it has also become a great tool for building connections with fellow students on campus. Following TikTok’s addition of a feature called “Campus Verification,” which lets college students connect from the app, Instagram has also hopped onto this trend and added a new feature called College Class Listings.
Using this feature, students from the same college can find their college mates and connect with them. However, since this is a new feature, not many people know how you take advantage of the Instagram College Class Listings feature. This guide aims to solve that, as we will show you how you can use this feature and connect instantly through Instagram instead of waiting to meet them at the lecture hall. Let’s jump right into it.
What is the Instagram College Class Listings feature?
While this isn’t a groundbreaking feature, as back in our Facebook and Orkut days, we used to send friend requests by manually searching our mates from schools and colleges. Now, what Instagram has done with the College Class Listings feature is that after adding their schools or colleges in their profile, a user will then be able to connect with other confirmed students approved by the college directory. This feature is powered by UNiDAYS, which lets students enter their email address, which will confirm with the appropriate authority and add the student’s status.
After a student has been confirmed by the school or college and added to their directory, they will be able to browse through the list of confirmed students who have been approved by the college itself. This way, students will be able to connect with their friends and build a community to collaborate. This feature is only available in the U.S., and there is no information on whether this feature will be pushed for other countries or not.
How to use the Instagram College Class Listings feature?
- Make sure that you have updated to the latest version of the Instagram app on your Android or iOS device.
- Launch the Instagram app.
- Head to your profile and tap on the Add School button.
- You will be taken through a verification process by the student verification platform UNiDAYS. You have to use your school/college email address to complete the process. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the verification.
- Upon successful verification of your college/school, your college/university will show up as a banner on your profile page. You will have the liberty to choose who can see it: everyone or followers.
- You can then tap on the college/school directory and see a list of all students who have been verified by UNiDAYS and are from your college or university.
- You can follow them or send a message to them.
The Instagram College Class Listings feature makes it easier to find friends or college mates. This negates the need to manually search for the profile and also cross-verify if that profile actually belongs to the person studying in your college or not. Plus, you also get the option to remove the college/school banner from your profile.
Do note that displaying your college or school gives out more information about you, and you can be easily located. If you don’t want to share such detailed information, Instagram has left that up to you to make a decision. Also, if you want to hide your likes and comment activities on Instagram, then check our detailed guide here.
Instagram as a college tool
Instagram has gained a lot of new features lately. Notably, the company introduced a separate Reel and video editing app, called Edits. If you want to check out how to use it, then be sure to read our dedicated guide here. Instagram DM also got updated with longer voice messages, transcription, and other features. Instagram also introduced Blends, which lets you watch Reels with your friends. If you think your Instagram feed is messed up and showing things that are out of your interest, then you can start afresh by resetting your Instagram feed.