• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it

2

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI

3

Current price of oil as of July 6, 2026

1

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it

2

Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI

3

Current price of oil as of July 6, 2026
Successivy league schools

A 22-year-old TikToker accepted by MIT, Yale, and Stanford is making six figures helping kids get into their dream colleges

By
Amiah Taylor
Amiah Taylor
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Amiah Taylor
Amiah Taylor
Down Arrow Button Icon
May 5, 2022, 5:10 PM ET
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

For TikToker Gohar Khan—a 22 year old MIT grad—creating educational content geared towards college bound students came naturally.

Khan brainstormed tips and tricks that he wished would have been available when he was in high school. On TikTok as @goharsguide, Khan has 1.7 million loyal followers. He creates videos instructing academically-minded students on how to do their homework faster, ace essays, improve memorization and hack multiple choice tests. 

Khan’s most high traffic video received over 6.9 million views and is a part of his “How to Find the Motivation for School” series. The four-part mini series details how to use techniques such as positive visualization, aggressive accountability group chats, and locating the “minimum viable step,” to get assignments completed.

Between his income as a TikTok creator and sponsored brand deals from Dell, Pearson, and more, Khan is easily netting a six figure salary, which Fortune independently confirmed using financial documents.

Here’s how he did it.

Dove into business and technology at an early age

Khan has always been above-average at learning new skills, which his parents could vouch for as he began creating websites at age 11. 

“Really my journey within the creator economy, as they call it now, started when I was like, 10,” Khan told Fortune. “That’s when I made my first YouTube channel then I made my first blog. And I became very quickly obsessed with coding.” 

Khan quickly also became “obsessed” with graphic design, and social media editing and development, and worked tirelessly to refine his skills in both middle school and high school. He was already showing entrepreneurial acumen at a young age as he dove into the world of online advertising. Khan was making “a couple hundred if not a couple thousand,” monthly from putting ads on his homemade websites at ages 11 and 12. 

“My parents, every step of the way, were questioning what was going on,” Khan told Fortune. “I was just like, ‘oh, I need your tax information. So I can put it into Google Adsense.’ And I was 12 or 13 when I was doing that, and they were like ‘oh, what do you need this for?’ They asked, ‘why do you need my credit card info for this?’ and I was like, ‘just trust me.’ And so that’s really like the origin story of my interest in business.” 

Created credibility as a model student

At Khan’s small Title I high school in Seymour, Connecticut, he achieved a 98.5 GPA on a 100-point scale and unsurprisingly, was a valedictorian. Because of his academic success, Khan had the “surreal experience,” of being accepted to six Ivy League schools—Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Dartmouth, and Cornell—as well as Stanford and MIT.

Khan ultimately chose to go to MIT because of the school’s great computer science program and because he was offered a full ride scholarship to attend. As a student that was accepted to eight of the most prestigious colleges in the country, Khan built a solid foundation for being able to offer educational tips and advice to others looking to follow in his footsteps. 

Launched a TikTok

In June of 2020, Khan posted his first TikTok video, and was just creating “random” content that included memes for entertainment. Eventually, he mentioned in one of his videos that he graduated from MIT and the questions began to pour in. Commenters asked how he got in and wanted admissions tips to improve their chances. 

“It had always been in the back of my mind that I wanted to start a business about college admissions or just kind of give advice about college admissions,” Khan told Fortune. “So I saw that as the perfect entry point.”

With each video where Khan posted tips, the number of comments and questions grew, creating a “snowball effect.” From June to September of 2020, his account grew from zero to 30,000 followers. 

When Khan returned to MIT in the fall, he shifted his video style from portraying himself to doing narrated tabletop-style videos with DIY paper cut-outs, which is now a signature component of his content. 

“Once I adapted that new style it allowed my account to go from 30,000 to 100,000, within roughly a week,” Khan told Fortune. “Then it was up to half a million by the end of 2020. And now it’s around 1.7 million.”

From there, Khan was able to leverage his growing audience to interested brands who were willing to pay for sponsored posts. In 2021, Khan made well into six figures from brand deals as he partnered with top companies like AT&T and his dream brand, Grammarly.

“So I remember for the longest time I was trying to work with Grammarly given my focus on essay writing, both in the business and in my videos,” Khan told Fortune. “And I was able to work with them last year towards the end, which I thought was great.” 

Now that Khan has gotten his “white whale,” he no longer has an ideal brand but is currently working on private projects with a few new companies. 

Co-founded his own business

Khan founded Next Admit, a college admissions counseling company, with his younger brother—a current junior at Harvard— in 2019. But they launched the business in Oct. 2020. His inspiration came from going through the admissions process alone as a first-generation student. Khan wanted to offer college counseling services that were accessible versus the unaffordable packages he encountered when he was a junior in high school.

 “When I looked for counseling options, I found that most of them were very expensive, and were charging, you know, upwards of thousands of dollars for all in one counseling packages,” Khan told Fortune. “And so I had the idea to really create a company that was more targeted towards the students themselves, and also offered both an affordable and a very pleasant user experience. And I think with those two things combined, this is where the inception for Next Admit came from.” 

Next Admit offers four key services—essay reviews, college application reviews, consultation calls and writing sessions. But essay reviews are the lifeblood of the business, as they make up around 80% of the incoming orders, according to Khan.

“I think my view is simply to make the most of what’s around me,” Khan told Fortune. “I’m just gonna give this my absolute all and see what comes my way.”

Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you.

About the Author
By Amiah Taylor
Instagram iconLinkedIn iconTwitter icon
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Success

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Success

Scott Wu, in front of a blue background, sits in a gray chair and speaks to a person out of frame.
AIProductivity
Cognition CEO says tech companies got ‘carried away’ with token leaderboards and should measure employees on output instead
By Sasha RogelbergJuly 7, 2026
2 hours ago
Bill Holland gesturing
SuccessCareers
He went from working in a factory to being rich enough to retire at 32—but 3 decades later, this millionaire still works and takes public transport
By Preston ForeJuly 7, 2026
4 hours ago
Tech worker walks to office
SuccessJobs
AI start-ups are snubbing entry-level talent in favor of Silicon Valley men with top degrees, research shows
By Emma BurleighJuly 7, 2026
4 hours ago
bernie
PoliticsBook Excerpt
Bernie Sanders told me exactly why he had to run. The Democratic Party still isn’t listening
By Tad DevineJuly 7, 2026
8 hours ago
heat
Commentaryclimate change
McKinsey Global Institute: Climate planning has prioritized floods. Heat demands equal attention
By Sylvain Johansson, Mekala Krishnan, Kanmani Chockalingam and Annabel FarrJuly 7, 2026
9 hours ago
j
CommentaryEducation
AI didn’t break higher education—It exposed the credential trap
By Jason BenedictJuly 7, 2026
10 hours ago

Most Popular

Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it
Success
Ex-PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi worked from midnight until 5 a.m. as a receptionist to pay for her Yale degree—and she says ‘respect went up’ because of it
By Preston ForeJuly 6, 2026
1 day ago
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI
AI
Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary says if he were 25 today, he'd chase these two booming opportunities in the world of AI
By Marco Quiroz-GutierrezJuly 5, 2026
2 days ago
Current price of oil as of July 6, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of July 6, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJuly 6, 2026
1 day ago
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
Success
Even as Elon Musk calls philanthropy ‘very hard,’ everyday Americans gave a record $617 billion—despite feeling the squeeze over the cost of living
By Preston ForeJuly 4, 2026
4 days ago
The man who ran Bernie's campaign says Democrats are still making the same mistakes with Democratic Socialists, and they should laud Mamdani's win
Politics
The man who ran Bernie's campaign says Democrats are still making the same mistakes with Democratic Socialists, and they should laud Mamdani's win
By Catherina GioinoJuly 6, 2026
22 hours ago
China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
Asia
China’s birth rate just hit its lowest point since 1949—and Trip.com cofounder James Liang thinks that’s a threat to innovation
By Nicholas GordonJuly 7, 2026
13 hours ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.