Colleges are Ramping Up the Use of Artificial Intelligence in College Admissions

When one of your students has a question about a College they typically will go to that College’s website to get more information. Did you know that many Colleges are using AI for their chat when students have questions?

Artificial intelligence, or AI, is being used to shoot off these seemingly personal responses and deliver pre-written information through chatbots and text personas meant to mimic human banter. It can help a university or college by boosting early deposit rates while cutting down on expensive and time-consuming calls for stretched admissions staffs.

AI has long been quietly embedding itself into higher education in ways like these, often to save money — a need that’s been heightened by pandemic-related budget squeezes.

Now, simple AI-driven tools like these chatbots, plagiarism-detecting software and apps to check spelling and grammar are being joined by new, more powerful – and controversial – applications that answer academic questions, grade assignments, recommend classes and even teach.

The newest can evaluate and score applicants’ personality traits and perceived motivation, and colleges increasingly are using these tools to make admissions and financial aid decisions.

As the presence of this technology on campus grows, so do concerns about it. In at least one case, a seemingly promising use of AI in admissions decisions was halted because, by using algorithms to score applicants based on historical precedence, it perpetuated bias. So the next time your students are chatting online to get more information about a College they should be aware that they may not be chatting with a live person.

Here is a link to the complete story that the Hechinger Report compiled (as published in USA Today) – https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2021/04/26/ai-infiltrating-college-admissions-teaching-grading/7348128002/