Technology is radically changing how students apply to colleges and how colleges evaluate those students. In the competition for college admissions, digital tools provide both students and colleges more options for individuality to help them make informed decisions. From AI-based insights to skill-based learning platforms, here are ten key trends affecting the world of college admissions.
- AI-Powered Essay Feedback Tools
Artificial intelligence is providing students with writing support-usually free or at low cost. Tools like Grammarly, QuillBot, and GPT-powered tools give students real-time feedback on clarity, tone, structure, grammar, and even originality.
Some applications do one better by providing students guidance relevant to specific college essays and helping them create engaging personal statements. Instead of writing on their own, students receive instant coaching to improve how they communicate and tell stories. This levels the playing field for students who lack private tutors and/or counselors for assistance.
- Predictive Analytics in Application Review
Colleges are increasingly using predictive analytics to evaluate which students are likely to accept offers of admission, be successful while taking courses, and ultimately, graduate on time.
The models evaluate past behaviors including GPA, the students’ test scores, extracurricular involvement, and geolocation. These predictive models help colleges choose applicants that align with their institutional goals and priorities. This doesn’t replace decision-making by humans-it only augments the admissions process.
- Virtual Interviews and Admission Events
Video conferencing applications such as Zoom and Google Meet, and proprietary admissions portals are simplifying interviews, campus tours, and information sessions. Virtual interviews may allow students from underserved or rural areas, or those with no means to travel for an on-location visit, the opportunity to engage with admissions officers.
Virtual interviews also provide colleges with access to applicants from a global pool. They enhance assessments of soft skills such as communication or confidence, and reduce barriers to participating in independent campus visits. Moreover, some colleges now use AI to assess video interviews for indicators of engagement, emotional intelligence, etc. providing fast, first-round review.
- Skills Tracking Apps and Portfolios
Beyond GPAs and stale, standardized SAT scores, a student can demonstrate their abilities through platforms that help them track and display their progress. Skills-based platforms include Notion or GitHub for coders.
Students can represent their projects, certification, or creative endeavors; and admissions teams can understand a student’s full learning abilities.
Each digital artifact resulting from a student-led period of initiative and applied knowledge adds value to an admissions team.
- Digital Credentials and Badges
Micro-credentials offered by platforms such as Coursera, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning, have grown increasingly popular in today’s fast-moving job market and educational environment. Completion of a course in ML, Python programming, graphic design, digital marketing, or data analysis can be added to student applications.
Certifications from these micro-credential platforms are often, but not always, issued by learning institutes and/or industry leaders. They are indicators of real-world skills often not addressed in traditional high school programs. In some instances, micro-credentials could be used to supplement or replace standardized assessments.
- Implementing Machine Learning in Application Sorting
One of the challenges for admissions offices is navigating through a mountain of applications. Machine learning tools can now sort applicants and rank them based on complicated data points. The data may include applicants’ academic background, strength of recommendation letters, extracurricular activity, diversity in geographic background and other classification criteria.
AI can also identify excellent applicants who may have otherwise been missed, and help mitigate unconscious bias. While students will still be admitted or denied by human reviewers, the technology now allows for a quicker and more consistent preliminary approach to large pools of applicants.
- Mobile Apps for Application Management
The admissions process is complex. Platforms such as Common App, Coalition App, and college-specific portals have made mobile versions that allow students to monitor the status of their application, receive reminders, and upload materials from their mobile devices.
Mobile applications help students stay organized, reduce the number of missed deadlines, and most significantly, outsource the mental effort involved in keeping track of multiple, and in some cases, complicated application schedules involving multiple schools.
- Social Media Presence
Students also realize that their online persona can reflect on how admissions officers view them. They are starting to curate digital identities through personal webpages, blogs, and even social media accounts focused on passion projects and challenges.
Some admissions counselors engage in informal searches of an applicant’s digital footprint to get additional context about them. Even a purposeful and positive footprint assists the applicant in supplying evidence of their own personal brand, especially for competitive programs in media, business, or communications.
- AI Matching for College Fit
The days of relying on guess work are long gone. CollegeVine, Niche, and Concourse are AI-driven platforms that comfortably match students with schools fairly objectively based on academic background, interests, financial needs, and career goals.
These systems can analyze the thousands of components students bring to the educational landscape and generate recommendations for well-matched schools, including recommendations that students may have never previously considered.
- Emergence of Flexible and Online Learning Options
Learning is no longer limited to the traditional classroom. Today’s students are taking advantage of digital learning platforms that offer everything from short courses to upskilling programs.
These opportunities make it possible for them to learn at their own pace and to showcase their academic abilities in new ways. For example, obtaining a Google Career Certificate or participating in a Coursera data visualization course illustrates commitment and shows independent learning.
Engaging with these flexible learning opportunities may provide them with even more opportunities for the future, especially students that are taking alternative pathways or entering rapidly evolving fields.
Endnote
The college admissions process is rapidly changing—and that is all positive for the students who will use technology. Whether it’s simply artificial intelligence helping with their essays or putting their skills and talents into a portfolio online, today’s college applicants have more opportunities than ever to navigate their routes and showcase their potential.
For colleges, that means more inclusivity and acceptance of non-traditional markers of excellence. If students become aware of and embrace as many of these opportunities as possible, they can curate their own stories and make better decisions about where they would like to attend school.
