Some colleges in the United States are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to help evaluate student applications, including essays and personal statements. While students are generally discouraged from using AI chatbots to write their application materials, several schools have started incorporating AI tools into the admissions process.
Juan Espinoza, vice provost for enrollment management at Virginia Tech, explained that AI offers a level of consistency not possible with human readers. “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 said.
This fall, Virginia Tech introduced an AI-powered essay reader with the expectation that it will allow the university to notify students about admissions decisions a month earlier than usual by helping sort through tens of thousands of applications more efficiently. According to Espinoza, the tool can scan approximately 250,000 essays in under an hour—a significant improvement compared to human readers who average two minutes per essay. This could save at least 8,000 hours based on last year’s application volume.
The university clarified that while AI is being used to review transcripts and reduce manual data entry, final admissions decisions remain in human hands. In Virginia Tech’s new system for scoring short-answer essays, one score comes from an AI model trained on past essays and scoring rubrics; another comes from a human reader. If there is a discrepancy greater than two points out of twelve between the scores, a second person reviews the essay.
Other institutions are also experimenting with or implementing similar technology. The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) is launching an AI tool designed to assess “authenticity” in research projects submitted by applicants. Students upload their research and participate in video interviews conducted by an AI chatbot; Caltech faculty then review these interviews for signs of genuine intellectual engagement and passion for their work.
Ashley Pallie, Caltech’s director of admissions, stated: “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.”
The trend remains relatively new and its full extent across higher education is unclear. Ruby Bhattacharya from the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) noted that NACAC updated its ethics guidelines this fall to address artificial intelligence use in admissions practices and urged colleges to ensure transparency and fairness.
Not all responses have been positive. After reports surfaced that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was using AI to analyze applicants’ writing style and grammar, some applicants and parents expressed concern over potential bias or lack of transparency in such evaluations.
Virginia Tech has received inquiries from other colleges interested in its approach but cautious about public reaction. Espinoza said: “The feedback from a lot of colleagues is, ‘You roll this out, we’re watching you, and we’ll see how everyone’s reacting.’”
Elsewhere, Georgia Tech began using an AI tool this fall to process transfer student transcripts automatically—eliminating manual data entry—which aims to speed up credit evaluations for incoming students as described by Richard Clark, executive director of enrollment management at Georgia Tech: “It’s 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 further expansion into high school transcript processing as well as identifying low-income students eligible for federal Pell Grants.
Stony Brook University in New York has adopted similar technologies for reviewing transcripts and testing tools capable of summarizing essays or recommendation letters so counselors can quickly identify key factors affecting applicants’ backgrounds or achievements.
Richard Beatty at Stony Brook highlighted how these summaries help provide context: “Maybe a student was fighting a disease sophomore year. Or maybe a parent passed away, or they’re taking care of siblings at home. All these things matter, and it allows the counselors to look at the transcript differently.”
Emily Pacheco—founder of NACAC’s special interest group on AI—emphasized cooperation between humans and machines: “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… Ten years from now all bets are off—I’m guessing AI will be admitting students.”
###
