How Al is being used in the college admission process

When prospective Caltech students applied in the fall for early admission, some faced a new, technologically advanced step in the selection process at one of the nation's most prestigious universities.

- BY JAWEED KALEEM AND JOCELYN GECKER

High schoolers who submitted research projects appeared on video and were interviewed by an artificial intelligence-powered voice that peppered them with questions about their papers and experiments, akin to a dissertation defense. The video-recorded exchanges were then reviewed by humans-faculty and admissions officers who also evaluated test scores, transcripts and personal statements.

Students applying to college know they can't - or at least shouldn't - use AI to write their college admission essays.

So it might come as a surprise that some schools are using artificial intelligence to read them and are incorporating AI into their own admissions process to conduct interviews and detect fake applications attempting to steal financial aid money.

In some cases, colleges are quietly slipping AI into their evaluation work, while others are touting the technology's potential to speed up their review of applications, cut processing times and perform some tasks better than humans.

"We wanted to bring the student voice back into applications," said Ashley M. Pallie, the dean of undergraduate admissions at Caltech, where VIVA, an AI-assisted technology developed by a company called Initial View, helped screen roughly 10% of recent early applicants.

"It might seem strange to use AI to get more of a human voice, but I think of it as a way to bring more authenticity into the fold," said Pallie, who said the university is planning to expand its use of AI in admissions in 2026.

Colleges stress that they are not relying on AI to make admissions decisions but using it instead to review components of applications, including research projects and transcripts, as well as to eliminate data entry tasks.

"Can you claim this research intellectually?