Gohar Khan grew up in Connecticut attending a public high school that rarely sent graduates to elite colleges. As a first-generation student whose parents hadn’t navigated American higher education, he had to figure out the admissions game alone. That experience became the foundation for Gohar’s Guide, a YouTube channel he launched to demystify a process that remains opaque for millions of students.
A decade later, the scale is hard to ignore. Khan now counts more than 10 million followers across social media, and he’s parlayed that audience into Next Admit, a consulting firm he cofounded and runs as CEO. The company sells help with essays, applications, and test prep — essentially monetizing the same knowledge he once gave away for free. “I’m on a mission to help students worldwide succeed inside and outside of school,” Khan says.
The trajectory mirrors what’s happened across the creator economy: educational YouTubers build trust through free content, then convert that trust into paid services. What makes Khan’s case notable is the subject matter. College admissions consulting has historically been a boutique industry serving wealthy families who can afford four-figure hourly rates. A creator with 10 million followers can offer scaled-down versions of that advice at price points a broader audience can actually stomach.
Khan frames the work as leveling a playing field that was never level to begin with. “I wanted to demystify the admissions process for a lot of people in the position I was once in,” he says. Whether a consulting business can truly democratize access to elite colleges is an open question — but with 10 million people listening, Khan has at least built the distribution to try.
