College or school-attending students have always pictured worst-case fantasy scenarios involving their favourite celebrities somehow dropping by their place of education in their absence. For some, this nightmare may have come true on October 2. Fortunately not so much for Vinit Satasia, an Indian-origin student currently enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who as a student newspaper put it, “left his evening class $30,000 richer after famous YouTuber MrBeast made an appearance.”
Donaldson started posting videos to social media in 2012, and has since amassed a reported net worth of $2.6 billion, as per Celebrity Net Worth. According to the University of North Carolina’s student newspaper The Daily Tar Heel, the world’s richest and most-subscribed YouTuber Mr Beast (real name – James ‘Jimmy’ Donaldson) visited UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School to film content when Satasia was in his business analytics class.
Its digital article cited Business 410: Business Analytics professor Sajad Modaresi, saying that the popular content creator decided to turn up at that class in particular because it “most aligned with his schedule.”
YouTuber MrBeast continues years-old philanthropic streak at US university
MrBeast walked into the class halfway through a 5 pm class, with Shimul Melwani, associate dean of the undergraduate business program, announcing that a celebrity had dropped by. “We were all like, ‘What celebrities? Maybe Bill Belichick?” Satasia said. And so, began a contest that business class students never saw coming.
The famed YouTuber, renowned for his random charity streak, popped a question consequential to his own popularity and fandom loyalty: Who had been subscribed to his channel the longest? UNC’s Vinit Satasia was quick to announce that he had joined MrBeast’s online fandom when he was still just at 200,000 followers on YouTube. He now boasts a following of over 445 million subscribers on the platform. In response to his answer, the Indian-origin student was ultimately called down to the front of the classroom.
He was then handed a giant coin to flip, with MrBeast telling him, “If it lands on the money symbol, I will give you 30 grand. But if it lands on the tiger symbol, I will split the money with everyone here.” On the flip side, a member of the YouTuber’s team included that if the class won the cash prize instead, Satasia would lose everything.
Thankfully, Satasia didn’t have to face the consequences of a jarring failure as the coin landed on the money symbol. “Well, he won 30 grand,” MrBeast announced as he was being filmed on an iPhone camera. As the final part of the transaction, Vinit was shockingly handed two briefcases filled to the top with cash. The UNC student was left bewildered, considering he would have carry all of that on the bus to his apartment.
In yet another fortunate development for him, Satasia was only made to hold the briefcases for a thumbnail picture for MrBeast’s video. Thereafter, the YouTuber’s team told the student that the amount would be wired to his account within a month.
His reaction to it all: “I was just shocked. That was my reaction — just dumbfounded that this was even happening. It didn’t set in until a few hours later.” Satashi also divulged that he would be using the money for tuition and rent for his final year, in addition to saving up whatever would be left over.
According to local North Carolina news outlet The News&Observer, UNC-Chapel Hill’s in-state tuition costs $7,020. However, it can soar over $27,000 with fee, housing, food, supplies and other expenses included. On the contrary, out-of-state students’ tuition alone this year was estimated as $43,152.
Indian-origin student among many others to have been won MrBeast’s giveaways
Vinit wasn’t the only to be blessed by MrBeast’s generous antics that day. Professor Modaresi was left speechless when the most popular YouTuber in the world gifted him a cash prize of $10,000 too, which he is now planning to use to “bring candy to class for Halloween,” or maybe “something even nicer” for his students.
In an alternate reality, Vinit almost lost out on the staggering cash surprise due to truancy, according to Sana Deshpande, a junior in Vinit’s class. Attributing that day’s relatively lower attendance to it being the first one after a midterm, she said, “If [Satasia] had chosen to skip class that day, can you imagine where his head would’ve been at?”
MrBeast’s North Carolina University antics were characteristic of his past stunts. Back in 2023, he gave an East Carolina University student $20,000 to cover tuition costs after confirming they followed him on YouTube. As per social media footage available on Raleigh Downtown’s Instagram handle, Satasia wasn’t the only student to have won over such a gracious giveaway on university grounds earlier this month either.