Will Algorithms Change Admissions?

USA Today: “Relax, the robots aren’t coming for college admissions quite yet. Real people will still be deciding on applicants for quite some time, and in all likelihood will always have the final say on admissions. Yet, just as artificial intelligence is in the relatively early stages of impacting practically every business, AI will almost certainly assume a bigger role across college campuses, too, and perhaps help university staffers decide whether you ultimately make the cut.”

“While University of Texas at Austin isn’t currently using or planning to use AI in its admissions process, UT-’s executive director of admissions Miguel Wasielewski told USA TODAY in an emailed statement that AI could become a useful tool. He wrote that, in conjunction with a robust ‘holistic review,’ AI ‘could have potential to reveal additional perspectives that might inform the admissions review process and … could support some of our practices around determining, based on a student’s application materials, what student success interventions might be important for timely graduation’.”

“That holistic review, Wasielewski makes clear, is still a ‘human endeavor,” and it is people, not machines, that will pore through and evaluate an applicant’s written responses to essay and short answer questions, transcripts, test scores and letters of recommendation.”

Facebooktwittergoogle_pluspinterestlinkedinmail