AI is revolutionizing how households strategy the school admissions course of — and never simply by writing software essays.
A brand new survey from training analysis agency EAB discovered that the share of highschool youngsters utilizing AI of their school course of jumped from 26% to 46% simply between this spring and the prior one.
And fogeys are utilizing AI at even increased charges than college students, in keeping with the EAB knowledge. A staggering 57% of oldsters surveyed employed the know-how to assist direct the appliance course of.
However an knowledgeable warns that mom — and LLMs — don’t all the time know greatest.
“With out even their youngsters figuring out … dad and mom are asking ChatGPT or Claude to behave like an all-knowing predictor, like, ‘Give me my baby’s probabilities of moving into this college with this GPA, this ethnicity, these extracurriculars and take a look at scores,’” Chris Rim, CEO and founding father of school admissions consultancy Command Training, instructed The Submit. However, “Admissions is extra of an artwork than a science.”
Over the previous few years, he mentioned that oldsters are exhibiting as much as appointments with him with totally shaped methods that every one sound the identical. As an example, AI will virtually all the time inform the dad and mom of youngsters serious about engineering to hitch the robotics membership — fairly clichéd recommendation in Rim’s opinion.
“I can now inform when dad and mom have used LLMs to arrange for a name with me, as a result of they’re saying precisely the identical factor in the identical order,” he mentioned. “That solely began occurring three or 4 years in the past.”
The largest lure households can fall into is counting on AI steering that makes their applicant sound much less distinctive.
“AI can actually flatten the complete profile,” Rim warned. “It’s not essentially dangerous recommendation, however everybody goes to get it, and also you wish to stand out within the course of.”
This may be very true when it’s employed early in highschool.
“Households will use ChatGPT or LLMs to seek out the best applications to use to and to map out the complete 4 years of highschool,” Rim mentioned. “[AI is] not simply placing the ultimate touches on a university software, however really directing a baby’s highschool profession from the start.”
Nonetheless, AI may be fairly useful when used judiciously.
Rim says he typically hears that college students discovered the proper program and even opened their minds to an surprising college as a result of AI identified an alignment with their pursuits.
One Reddit consumer, a mother or father of a present pupil, reported that they used AI to “provide you with an general software narrative based mostly on a bunch of random ideas and actions” and likewise for analysis earlier than and after school visits.
For instance, they might inform AI, “She favored X about Michigan however didn’t like Y at UVA [or she] favored the campus at Columbia greater than NYU” after which “used that to hone in” on higher matches
Rim additionally suspects that increasingly colleges are utilizing AI to deal with admissions.
In recent times, faculties have labored to extend the variety of candidates with out increasing class measurement, which may make the college appear extra selective by deflating its acceptance price. At NYU, as an illustration, the variety of candidates has doubled since 2015 whereas its admissions price declined by 75%.
However admissions workers aren’t rising in proportion with the variety of candidates, main Rim to consider that admissions committees have to be leaning on AI extra. “It’s not like they’re rising their admissions workers by 5 occasions,” he famous.
Some colleges have admitted to utilizing AI. Virginia Tech shifted from two human readers per software essay to at least one human and one AI analysis within the 2025 admissions cycle. The College of North Carolina at Chapel Hill additionally says that it makes use of AI to supply “knowledge factors” about software essays and transcripts.
For college students navigating the school software course of, with or with out AI, Rim’s recommendation is easy: “It’s much less about optimizing variables and extra about telling a narrative solely you’ll be able to inform.”
