Student Defense sent public records requests to 24 public colleges and universities in the spring of 2026, asking whether their undergraduate admissions offices have policies governing the use of artificial intelligence.
According to the report (PDF File) from the group's SHAPE AI Initiative, not one responding school produced a policy. Twenty of the 24 institutions replied (a list that includes UC Berkeley, UCLA, UT Austin, Ohio State, and Michigan State) even as AI tools spread through the admissions process itself.
Training was just as thin. Zero institutions produced AI training materials specific to admissions staff. One school sent materials aimed only at enrollment management employees, and one disclosed it already uses AI to pull high school course data and recalculate applicant GPAs — a use case admissions offices are adopting faster than applicants realize.
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Why It Matters
Admissions decisions are, in the report's words, "high-stakes, individualized, and legally sensitive." Without office-specific rules, AI can introduce bias, create errors, and skew who gets admitted, with no clear accountability when it does.
Several schools pointed to campus-wide AI policies, but the report says those don't address admissions-specific risks.
The governance gap lands at a bad time: Americans' confidence in higher education has fallen to 38%, with doubts about AI a growing part of the story.
What The Report Recommends
Student Defense (whose chief counsel Dan Zibel spoke with The College Investor about AI in admissions earlier this year) wants every institution to adopt a formal AI policy and training program for admissions staff. Its suggestions include:
- Conduct a written use case analysis and impact assessment before deploying any tool
- Maintain human accountability for admissions decisions
- Be transparent with applicants about the office's use of AI and ban undisclosed use by staff
- Protect student and applicant data, and monitor outcomes for unintended bias
The recommendations build on their Student AI Bill of Rights and its "Dos and Don'ts" reports on application evaluation and recruitment.
How This Connects
The findings match what The College Investor found when it contacted 24 colleges directly about their AI application policies: only one school (an Ivy) reported having a formal AI policy, and 16 never responded at all.
The double standard is hard to miss. Colleges warn applicants about using AI on essays, yet most can't produce a single rule governing their own use of the same technology.
Student Defense says more SHAPE AI papers are coming in the next few months. A July 2026 NASFAA task force report found the same policy gap in financial aid offices, where AI-driven fraud has already cost the aid system over $1 billion.
Families need to continue to watch whether major public universities adopt admissions AI policies before the 2026-27 application cycle opens this fall.
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Editor: Colin Graves
Robert Farrington is the founder of The College Investor and is widely recognized as one of the nation’s leading voices on student loan debt and saving for college. He holds an MBA from UC San Diego Rady School of Management and has spent over 15 years researching, writing, and advising on student loans, 529 plans, financial aid programs, and saving and investing for young professionals.
Robert has been featured in the The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NBC News, and Forbes, where he has been a regular personal finance contributor for over a decade. His work combines both professional expertise and personal experience – he successfully navigated his own student loan repayment journey and has helped thousands of readers do the same.
He is committed to making the intersection of personal finance and education transparent and accessible. You can learn more about Robert on the About Page or on his personal site RobertFarrington.com.