Virginia Tech is implementing a new admissions-application process for the next academic year. Snowed under by a record 57,600 first-year applications last year, Tech will be using AI to help sort through all those essays.

States the Virginia Tech news bureau:

The changes include shifting the university’s early admissions application deadline from Nov. 15 to Nov. 1 and integrating a new approach to evaluating applicant essays that pairs human reviewers with an artificial intelligence (AI)-supported model developed by Virginia Tech researchers.

The new review process replaces a system in which each essay was initially scored by two human reviewers with a model that includes one human reviewer and one AI reviewer. 

Said Juan Espinoza, vice provost for enrollment management: “Utilizing AI will enable us to review essays more quickly and consistently, which benefits students by allowing our admissions committee to make admissions decisions earlier.”

Holy smokes. Students are increasingly using AI to write their college essays. Now universities are using AI to evaluate those essays. Where does this end? — JAB