AI (Artificial Intelligence) concept. Deep learning. GUI (Graphical User Interface).

How Colleges Use AI in Admissions

82% of colleges say they’ll use AI in admission in 2024. That number is only expected to grow.

US News recently looked at the use of AI in college admissions, where it’s being used, and schools plan to use it in the future.

AI MOST COMMONLY USED TO REVIEW RECOMMENDATION LETTERS AND TRANSCRIPTS

For most colleges, the extent of AI-use in admissions is limited to reviewing recommendation letters and transcripts. More than 70% of respondents say they use AI for automating such tasks.

Historically, schools have made decisions using a formula or rubric with a calculated consideration of an applicant’s test scores and GPA. With AI tools, however, colleges are increasingly beginning to automate the initial screening process.

“If you can have an AI model run through and then a human just sort of spot checks it, and it can go ahead and make those decisions, that’s just going to let your team focus on what’s viable or important,” Rick Clark, assistant vice provost and executive director of undergraduate admission at Georgia Institute of Technology, says.

At Rutgers University—New Brunswick, applicants use a self-reported academic record system where they enter their grades and an automated system recalculates an academic GPA. Once the system receives the required info (grades, test scores etc.), it creates an academic profile of the applicant for admissions officers to review. With more than 60,000 applications for fall 2024 admission, Rutgers officials say the automated record system saves them a lot of time and effort.

“It saves us about 400,000 transactions because we’re not getting transcripts, either digitally or through the mail,” Courtney McAnuff, vice chancellor for enrollment management, says. “We don’t have to file or image those transcripts. We don’t have to acknowledge the 50,000 people that called and asked if we got their transcript.”

THE FUTURE OF AI IN ADMISSIONS

Colleges are looking for ways to increase the use of AI in admissions and optimize efficiencies wherever possible. One potential option is using AI to remove information from a transcript in order to identify an applicant’s grades in certain disciplines. This can be helpful when students specify the discipline they intend to study or when they apply to a specific school, such as engineering. AI can help admissions officers locate and sort grades for specific courses without having to manually refer back to a physical transcript.

“That’s where, I think, absolutely in the year ahead, there’s going to be solutions for eliminating the need for human touch on that kind of thing,” Clark says. “None of that really needs to be done by a human going forward because that’s what AI is skilled at. Training it to locate and populate those type of fields is where it will become, very soon, part of our review process but not a decision-making process.”

Sources: US News, Intelligent

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