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In a significant shift in college admissions processes, universities across the United States are increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence to evaluate student applications, despite discouraging applicants from using the same technology to craft their submissions.
While colleges maintain that human reviewers still make final admissions decisions, AI tools are now helping institutions screen applications, analyze essays, and verify the authenticity of student work. This technological adoption comes as admissions offices face mounting application volumes and tighter timelines.
Virginia Tech is at the forefront of this transition, implementing an AI-powered essay reader this fall to help process its record 57,622 applications for just 7,000 freshman seats. Juan Espinoza, vice provost for enrollment management, highlights the tool’s consistency as a key advantage.
“Humans get tired; some days are better than others. The AI does not get tired. It doesn’t get grumpy. It doesn’t have a bad day. The AI is consistent,” Espinoza explains.
The technology is expected to deliver admissions decisions a month earlier than usual, by late January. Virginia Tech’s AI system can review approximately 250,000 essays in under an hour – a task that would require about 8,000 human hours based on the typical two-minute review time per essay.
Espinoza emphasizes that Virginia Tech developed its AI reader over three years and uses it only to confirm human readers’ essay scores. Each applicant essay receives both an AI and human evaluation, with a second human reviewer stepping in if scores differ significantly.
Meanwhile, the California Institute of Technology is deploying AI to assess the authenticity of research projects submitted by applicants. The system interviews students via video about their work, which faculty later review.
“It’s a gauge of authenticity. Can you claim this research intellectually? Is there a level of joy around your project? That passion is important to us,” says Ashley Pallie, Caltech’s admissions director.
Despite potential benefits, colleges implementing AI face potential backlash. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill encountered significant criticism after its student newspaper revealed the school was using AI to evaluate essays. UNC later clarified on its website that while it uses AI for data points about application essays and transcripts, “every application is evaluated comprehensively by extensively trained human application evaluators.”
Georgia Tech is taking a different approach, using AI to review college transcripts of transfer students. This automation eliminates manual data entry, allowing faster notification about transfer credits and reducing uncertainty for applicants. Richard Clark, the school’s executive director of enrollment management, calls the previous manual process “one more layer of delay and stress and inevitable errors. AI is going to kill that, which I’m so excited about.”
The school plans to expand this service to all high school transcripts and is exploring AI tools to identify low-income students eligible for federal Pell Grants who may have missed their eligibility.
Stony Brook University in New York is similarly using AI for transcript reviews and testing tools that summarize essays and recommendation letters to highlight key considerations for admissions officers. Richard Beatty, senior associate provost for enrollment management, notes how AI can flag important contextual information about applicants, such as personal hardships that might explain transcript anomalies.
The National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) has responded to this trend by updating its ethics guide to include guidance on AI use. The organization urges colleges to ensure their AI applications “align with our shared values of transparency, integrity, fairness and respect for student dignity.”
Emily Pacheco, founder of NACAC’s special interest group for AI and admission, believes the future lies in human-AI collaboration. “Humans and AI working together — that is the key right now. Every step along the way can be greatly improved: transcript reading, essay reviews, telling us things we might be missing about the students,” says Pacheco, who previously worked in admissions at Loyola University Chicago.
Looking further ahead, Pacheco offers a bold prediction: “Ten years from now, all bets are off. I’m guessing AI will be admitting students.”
As colleges navigate this technological transition, they’re balancing efficiency gains against concerns about fairness and transparency, all while ironically asking students to certify they haven’t used AI unethically in their own application materials.
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8 Comments
While AI can boost efficiency, I worry it may disadvantage applicants who don’t fit neatly into data models. Colleges should be transparent about their use of AI and ensure it doesn’t introduce unfair biases into the process.
The use of AI in college admissions is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it can bring consistency and speed. But on the other, there are concerns about algorithmic biases and the loss of the human touch. Careful implementation will be crucial.
Well said. Colleges will need to strike a delicate balance, leveraging AI strategically while maintaining a holistic, personalized approach to evaluating applicants. Transparency around their methods will be important.
Interesting to see colleges leverage AI for essay evaluation. Consistency could be helpful, but I hope they don’t lose the personal touch. Writing is a core part of the application – AI should supplement, not replace, human review.
Agreed. Admissions decisions shouldn’t be made by algorithms alone. AI can assist, but human judgment is essential to capture the full depth and nuance of applicants’ experiences and potential.
While I understand the appeal of using AI to streamline admissions, I worry this could lead to over-reliance on algorithms and miss important nuances in applicants’ essays. Admissions should balance tech tools with thoughtful human review.
That’s a fair point. AI can introduce biases and lack the contextual understanding that human readers bring. Finding the right balance will be key to ensuring a fair and holistic admissions process.
I’m curious to see how effective AI will be at evaluating the nuances of college application essays. While it may improve efficiency, I hope colleges don’t lose sight of the value of human insight and empathy in this process.