According to research conducted by the University of Michigan’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, an overwhelming 95% of selective colleges report using a holistic admissions process. This approach moves beyond traditional academic indicators—such as GPA and standardized test scores—to evaluate the full scope of an applicant’s identity, experiences, and potential.
Rather than viewing students merely as data points, holistic review takes into account a wide array of personal and contextual factors. These include extracurricular involvement, leadership roles, community engagement, personal essays, letters of recommendation, and the applicant’s socioeconomic background or life circumstances. The overarching aim is to identify applicants who demonstrate not only intellectual capacity but also the character traits and lived experiences that signal long-term success in college and beyond.
This philosophy stems from the understanding that academic performance alone cannot capture a student’s full potential. A candidate who has thrived despite limited resources, taken initiative in their community, or shown leadership in unconventional settings may bring exceptional value to a college campus. Holistic admissions aims to uncover such stories and assess qualities like resilience, empathy, collaboration, and motivation—traits that often correlate strongly with student persistence, graduation rates, and post-collegiate achievement.
A report by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) supports this emphasis: 70% of admissions officers surveyed indicated that personal attributes are a significant component of their evaluation process. These qualities are not merely seen as bonus points—they are viewed as predictive of whether a student will thrive socially, emotionally, and professionally within a college environment.
The Challenge of Scaling Holistic Evaluation
However, despite the thoughtful intentions behind this model, the practical implementation of holistic admissions is deeply constrained. With application numbers surging—particularly at highly selective institutions—the time available to carefully assess each applicant is shrinking rapidly. On average, admissions officers now spend only six to eight minutes per application. In some cases, entire application packets are reviewed in under five minutes. Personal essays, intended to provide insight into a student’s unique voice and journey, may receive only a brief glance.
This time crunch raises critical concerns about the depth and fairness of the holistic review process. Can personal attributes truly be evaluated in just a few minutes? Is it realistic to expect admissions officers to discern meaningful nuance in thousands of applications during a short decision window?
To further complicate matters, there is limited clarity around how individual colleges define and prioritize specific traits. While commonly cited characteristics such as leadership, intellectual curiosity, and initiative are frequently mentioned, their definitions and applications often vary across institutions—and even among reviewers within the same admissions office. This lack of standardization leaves many students and families feeling unsure of how to effectively showcase their strengths, feeding a growing perception that the admissions process is opaque, unpredictable, and increasingly stressful.
The Human Side of the Admissions Equation
Students from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds may face additional barriers when trying to understand how to present their stories in a way that resonates. Without guidance or access to resources like independent counselors or mentorship programs, they may find it difficult to highlight the very qualities that holistic admissions purports to value.
Despite these limitations, many educators and advocates remain committed to refining holistic admissions. Some institutions have begun investing in reviewer training, more equitable rubrics, and collaborative reading processes to improve consistency. Additionally, innovations in AI-assisted reading tools and data-supported review systems are emerging as ways to make holistic review more scalable and fair—though these technologies bring ethical and logistical questions of their own.
In a system that asks students to bare their motivations, challenges, and dreams, the pressure to "stand out" while also adhering to undefined expectations can be immense. The holistic review process holds great promise, but it also demands thoughtful implementation, transparency, and support—especially as the volume and complexity of applications continue to grow.
Leveraging AI to Enhance Fairness and Consistency in Admissions
As the number of college applications rises dramatically each year, admissions officers face mounting pressure to maintain both efficiency and integrity in their decision-making processes. In response to these challenges, researchers and institutions are increasingly exploring how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support and enhance holistic admissions—especially when it comes to assessing qualitative components like essays and personal statements.
A particularly notable study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania offers promising insight into this intersection of AI and admissions. Researchers applied RoBERTa, a state-of-the-art natural language processing (NLP) model, to evaluate personal essays submitted through the Common Application. Before deploying the model, the research team collaborated with 36 experienced admissions officers, who helped define and label the types of personal traits commonly associated with student success—such as leadership, perseverance, intellectual curiosity, and goal orientation.
The model was first trained using over 3,000 hand-coded essays, then scaled to analyze more than 306,000 anonymized student essays. Remarkably, the AI-generated evaluations aligned closely with human assessments, suggesting that with proper training and ethical oversight, AI can be a reliable tool for identifying core character attributes in large applicant pools.
AI’s Role in Scaling Holistic Review
The traditional holistic review process hinges on subjective human judgment, which can vary greatly between reviewers and be influenced by unconscious bias or fatigue. AI offers a potential remedy by providing consistency, scalability, and structural objectivity. Unlike human readers, AI systems do not tire or fluctuate emotionally from one file to the next. This allows for more uniform application of criteria across thousands of submissions.
For example, an AI model trained to recognize narratives of resilience, community leadership, or intrinsic motivation can flag essays that demonstrate those traits with a high level of accuracy. Admissions teams can then focus their time and attention on the most compelling candidates, supported by a pre-screening system that highlights key qualitative signals.
This doesn't mean AI is replacing human judgment—it’s supplementing it. By handling the initial triage or supporting evaluations with trait detection, AI allows admissions professionals to dig deeper into contextual factors and nuanced decision-making without sacrificing efficiency.
Benefits: Reducing Bias, Improving Access
One of AI’s most powerful promises is the potential to reduce individual reviewer bias. While no AI model is entirely free from the influence of its training data, aggregating input from dozens of experienced admissions officers can help smooth out individual discrepancies, leading to a more institutionally consistent and fair evaluation process.
In practice, this may benefit students from underrepresented or non-traditional backgrounds. AI can detect excellence in narratives that might otherwise be overlooked due to unconscious bias, unfamiliar phrasing, or unconventional experiences. It can also help highlight applicants whose stories reveal strengths of character—even if they lack the polished presentation often associated with more resourced students.
Additionally, AI systems can improve application processing speed, freeing up human reviewers to spend more time on nuanced judgment calls and allowing for greater access and responsiveness in the admissions cycle.
Challenges and Ethical Considerations
Despite these potential benefits, the integration of AI into college admissions raises serious ethical questions. One major concern is that AI systems trained on past admissions data may unintentionally reinforce historical inequities. For example, if the original data overrepresents students from certain geographic or socioeconomic backgrounds, the AI may internalize and replicate that imbalance.
To avoid these pitfalls, institutions must ensure that AI models are:
- Transparent: The logic behind the model’s evaluations must be explainable to human users.
- Auditable: Regular assessments are needed to verify that the model performs equitably across demographics.
- Flexible: Models should evolve as admissions criteria and institutional values change.
Moreover, AI still struggles to fully grasp contextual nuance. A personal story of overcoming cultural or financial barriers may resonate with a human reviewer, but an AI—without careful training and safeguards—may fail to weigh those experiences appropriately. For this reason, experts emphasize that AI should not replace human readers but serve as a complementary tool in a larger system grounded in empathy and context-sensitive evaluation.
What Personal Qualities Really Matter in College Admissions?
In the increasingly competitive landscape of college admissions, especially at selective institutions, academic excellence alone is no longer sufficient. Admissions officers are tasked with building diverse and dynamic incoming classes, and they rely heavily on a student’s personal qualities to evaluate potential for contribution and success. A recent study from the University of Pennsylvania sheds important light on the key traits that admissions teams prioritize when evaluating applicants holistically.
These attributes, when conveyed authentically in personal essays and recommendations, can make a significant difference in a student’s admissions outcome. Below are seven personal traits most closely associated with academic and personal success in college—and how students can effectively demonstrate them.
1. Prosocial Purpose: A Drive to Help Others
What it is: A consistent commitment to contributing positively to others or improving community conditions.
Why it matters: Colleges value students who demonstrate empathy, civic responsibility, and a willingness to serve. These individuals often enhance campus culture by participating in service initiatives, peer mentorship, or community outreach.
How to show it: Rather than simply listing volunteer hours, describe the motivation behind your service. For example, a student who noticed a literacy gap in their community and started tutoring middle school students is demonstrating prosocial purpose grounded in observation, initiative, and sustained action.
2. Leadership: Taking Initiative and Inspiring Change
What it is: The ability to organize, motivate, and guide others toward a goal. Leadership includes formal roles but also informal actions.
Why it matters: Leadership reflects initiative, responsibility, and the capacity to impact others—traits colleges look for in student government members, club leaders, and community builders.
How to show it: Go beyond holding a title. Detail a time you led a group through a challenging decision or inspired others to join a cause. Example: Starting a sustainability initiative at your school or revamping a student club to increase participation.
3. Learning: Curiosity and a Love of Growth
What it is: A hunger for knowledge and a willingness to step outside one’s comfort zone to gain new understanding.
Why it matters: Students who are motivated by curiosity are more likely to engage deeply with their coursework, pursue independent research, and contribute to vibrant intellectual communities on campus.
How to show it: Reflect on moments when your desire to learn led to self-initiated exploration. For instance, teaching yourself a new programming language to develop an app or reading philosophy books outside of class purely out of interest.
4. Goal Pursuit: Commitment to Long-Term Aspirations
What it is: The ability to set clear objectives and persist in achieving them, even in the face of setbacks.
Why it matters: Colleges want students who are motivated, organized, and determined—traits that suggest a strong work ethic and ability to follow through on responsibilities.
How to show it: Frame your experiences as part of a larger journey. Example: After sustaining a sports injury, you worked for months to regain strength and qualified for a major competition, reflecting grit and goal orientation.
5. Intrinsic Motivation: Passion for the Sake of Passion
What it is: A genuine, internal drive to pursue interests without the need for recognition or reward.
Why it matters: Students who are intrinsically motivated are more likely to remain engaged in their studies and activities throughout college. They do things because they find them meaningful, not because they are expected to.
How to show it: Discuss how you lose track of time while composing music, writing short stories, or solving math problems—not because of a prize, but because you love the process.
6. Teamwork: Collaborating and Contributing to Group Success
What it is: A capacity for communication, empathy, and collaboration in group settings.
Why it matters: College is inherently collaborative—students will participate in group projects, residence life, and student organizations. Those who work well with others strengthen the entire learning environment.
How to show it: Share how you facilitated effective group dynamics during a Model UN delegation, science fair project, or sports team event. Highlight your role in listening, resolving conflict, or uplifting others.
7. Perseverance: Resilience in the Face of Adversity
What it is: The ability to endure setbacks and continue moving forward.
Why it matters: Academic and personal challenges are inevitable. Colleges value students who can manage failure, adapt, and grow stronger from hardship.
How to show it: Instead of declaring yourself “resilient,” tell a story of how you rebounded from an academic misstep, a family hardship, or a failed project. Example: Rebuilding your GPA after a difficult semester or re-entering a math competition after a major loss.
Avoiding the Pitfalls of Performative Essays
While it’s helpful to understand what admissions officers are looking for, students should avoid writing essays that feel forced or overly strategic. Simply peppering your personal statement with buzzwords like “leadership” or “resilience” won’t create impact—especially as colleges begin using AI tools that analyze essays for authenticity and depth, not keyword repetition.
This is where Campbell’s Law becomes relevant: the more a measure becomes a target, the more it ceases to be a good measure. In other words, if students aim only to demonstrate specific traits, they risk producing essays that are formulaic and superficial.
Instead, students should focus on genuine storytelling—sharing experiences that shaped them and lessons they learned. Reflective, emotionally intelligent writing resonates with both human and AI readers. It builds a layered narrative that not only reveals key traits but also demonstrates maturity and self-awareness.
Example: Rather than saying “I am a determined student,” describe the moment you stayed late at school for weeks to troubleshoot a robotics project that kept malfunctioning. Detail your frustration, your breakthroughs, and how you grew from the experience. That level of reflection and specificity turns a claim into a compelling story.
The Future of Admissions: Integrating AI with Human Insight
As college admissions offices adapt to rising application volumes and increasing demands for fairness, Artificial Intelligence (AI) will likely play a growing role in shaping how applicants are reviewed. However, it’s crucial to recognize that AI—no matter how advanced—cannot and should not replace human judgment.
While AI is effective at identifying patterns, recognizing textual signals of personal traits, and maintaining consistency across large datasets, it lacks the human capacity for empathetic interpretation. Admissions decisions require an understanding of context: the challenges a student has overcome, the resources they’ve had access to, the cultural frameworks they navigate, and the ways they’ve demonstrated growth and resilience in their unique circumstances. These are elements that go beyond data and require discernment rooted in human experience.
A Hybrid Model: The Best of Both Worlds
The most promising path forward is a hybrid model, in which AI and human reviewers work in tandem. In this structure, AI can assist with the initial screening of applications, flagging essays that demonstrate high levels of key personal traits like perseverance, leadership, or intrinsic motivation. It can help admissions offices efficiently manage growing applicant pools while ensuring that no file is overlooked due to time constraints.
From there, trained admissions professionals step in to interpret those AI-identified strengths within the broader narrative of each student’s journey. This combination enables institutions to streamline their processes without sacrificing the nuanced, student-centered evaluation that holistic admissions demand.
This approach also holds promise for improving equity in admissions. By using AI to create a more standardized baseline—and allowing human reviewers to contextualize those findings—colleges may better balance consistency with individualized consideration.
What This Means for Students: Crafting Reflective, Purposeful Applications
For students preparing their college applications in this evolving landscape, one key takeaway stands out: the importance of authentic, reflective storytelling has never been greater. As AI tools grow more sophisticated at identifying tone, structure, and thematic development in essays, students must focus not on gaming the system, but on genuinely articulating their growth, values, and motivations.
Understanding what personal qualities admissions officers value—such as resilience, curiosity, teamwork, and purpose—is helpful. But the real power lies in demonstrating these traits through lived experience and meaningful reflection, not by simply naming them.
Students should ask themselves:
- What moments of challenge have shaped who I am?
- What motivates me to pursue my goals?
- How have I contributed to my community?
- What setbacks have I faced, and how did I respond?
These questions help guide the type of writing that stands out not only to human readers, but also in a system that may involve AI-assisted review.
How Mentorship and Project-Based Learning Can Prepare Students
As the admissions process evolves, students can position themselves for success by investing in opportunities that support both self-discovery and academic growth. Whether through school writing workshops, independent research, or structured mentorship programs, students benefit from spaces that encourage critical thinking, goal-setting, and personal reflection.
Programs like Nova Scholar Education—which offers students the chance to pursue original research or creative projects under the guidance of mentors from Stanford, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and MIT—are particularly impactful. These programs do more than bolster college applications; they help students clarify their passions, strengthen their writing, and cultivate the executive functioning and self-awareness necessary for academic success.
With offerings like Nova Fundamentals (for middle schoolers), Nova Research (for students exploring independent inquiry), and Nova Patent (for those developing innovative projects), Nova Scholar provides a framework for intellectual exploration and personal growth that aligns with what colleges increasingly value: thoughtful, engaged, and self-motivated students.
Final Thoughts: Thriving in a Human + AI Admissions Era
The future of college admissions won’t be defined by AI alone—it will be shaped by the thoughtful integration of technology and human empathy. Students who understand how to tell their stories with clarity, authenticity, and purpose will be best positioned to stand out in this hybrid admissions landscape.
By focusing on intentional writing, meaningful experiences, and mentorship-based learning, today’s applicants can rise to meet the moment. The process may be changing, but the core truth remains: colleges want to admit people, not profiles—and those who lead with honesty, insight, and depth will always leave a lasting impression.
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