AI in Education: Transforming College Admissions with Niche

“Getting into college is easy.”

This isn’t a sentence you’ll hear said often. Each year, millions of US college applicants struggle through a stressful and daunting admissions process.

College admissions is a notoriously inefficient marketplace:

Students scramble to find colleges that align with their goals (often defaulting to well-known colleges) only to then navigate applications, tests, interviews, and deadlines (not to mention financial aid).

Colleges then distill volumes of applicant information into consequential “yes or no” decisions on who meets their academic and other standards and, hopefully, fits into their community.

Luke Skurman, CEO of Niche.com, says it doesn’t need to be this way.  Luke is a friend and an innovator I deeply admire.(Full disclosure: I serve on Niche’s Board and am so enthusiastic about what they do that I’m also a personal investor.)

Niche is pioneering Direct Admissions – a program that is ushering in a future where a streamlined, transparent, and personalized pathway connects students with their ideal colleges — before the student has ever applied to these colleges!

Graduating high school seniors create profiles on Niche.com showcasing their academic achievements, interests, and other information across nearly 40 different dimensions.  Over 50 percent of college-bound students do so each year on Niche.

Colleges who partner with the Niche Direct Admissions program establish specific acceptance criteria based on their needs and preferences. The Niche.com engine automatically identifies when a student's profile aligns with a college's criteria — and presents the student an immediate admission offer, often accompanied by a scholarship. The average scholarship awarded through the program for the upcoming academic year is $18,500.

Since launching Direct Admissions two years ago, Niche has ramped up in size and scale. Today, the program has over 90 colleges participating and has delivered at least one Direct Admissions offer to nearly 850,000 prospective students. In the very near future, graduating high school seniors could rely on Niche’s algorithms to guide them through the entire admission and enrollment process to help them land at the right college.  The future that Luke Skurman imagines is one where AI and algorithms will facilitate near perfect optimization of supply and demand for college admissions – removing friction and stress on both sides!

Three points from a recent conversation we had stood out as relevant across industries and align to my prior article about implementing AI (link here).

1. Disruption Through Agility and Technology:

Few things get me more excited than finding ways to transform old ways of doing things. Niche showcases the expansive potential of AI to invigorate sectors stuck in time-honored methods. It’s not just about implementing technology; it’s about imagining a better way of doing things and blending a tech-savvy team with the ability to iterate rapidly to discover ways to break the barriers of how things are traditionally done. This approach has allowed Niche to revolutionize the admissions landscape in merely two cycles, demonstrating remarkable scalability and impact.

2. Data Foundations are Critical

Previous attempts to streamline admissions, like the Common App, pale in comparison to Niche Direct Admissions. Niche’s deep data foundation, built on two decades of accumulated experience with colleges and admissions, enables it to make precise matches and extend immediate admission and scholarship offers. None of this would have been possible without the data.

3. Keep Humans In-the-Loop

Despite the efficiency gains from automation, human oversight remains central. Offers are conditional until verified by college admissions staff, ensuring that the process, while expedited, retains its integrity, and remains tailored to individual needs.

A Beacon for All Industries

Niche's breakthrough in admissions is a clarion call to all sectors, demonstrating that with the right vision and technology, transformative change is not only possible but already happening. As we look to the future, let's draw inspiration from such innovations and consider how we might apply similar principles to transform our own fields.

This adaptation of the college admissions process serves as a model for how industries can respond to technological advances with visionary leadership and a commitment to improving human-centric services.