Parents have so many questions about college admissions. It’s a maze and can be frustrating.

Understanding how college admissions works can help you navigate the college application journey. Knowledge is power and knowing the new trends in college admissions gives you power during the college prep process.

Here are five college admissions trends from College Data that give insight into the admissions landscape this year.

Colleges look for alternatives to the application essay.

With 1 in 5 teens admitting to using ChatGPT to complete schoolwork, college admissions officers are becoming more vigilant about Artificial Intelligence (AI)-assisted essays. As a result, many colleges are looking at alternative ways for students to express their unique voices in their applications, and to ensure that those voices are authentic.

Students might see additional application requirements this year, such as portfolios of creative or academic work, interviews, and examples of graded class assignments. Some colleges have even requested past writing samples with teacher feedback.

Students also might see new requirements for videos and interviews, like the optional “video introductions” that colleges like Bowdoin, Brown and the University of Chicago have offered for some time. 

Some students can now use video recording technology, such as InitialView’s Glimpse, to create and send video-recorded personal statements to colleges. Several colleges host these platforms on their admission websites and invite students to record themselves, sometimes answering randomly presented questions on-the-spot.  

To help students prepare for their moment in the spotlight, some admissions counselors now include on-camera interviewing as part of their college prep offerings.

Even with these new options, it’s unlikely that the traditional written personal essay will go away for good.

Colleges and students struggle with AI.

As AI becomes more widely used, colleges and students are experiencing the promises and pitfalls of this emerging technology. Some college programs have added AI policies to their applications defining when and how AI can or can’t be used and these guidelines will probably be added to college applications.

Meanwhile, college counselors are encouraging students to be careful about how and when they use AI to apply to college. Many agree that using it for research and college list-building is fine but using it for any part of the essay-writing process is not.

Colleges have been using AI to recruit students and even evaluate applications for some time. According to one survey, 50% of college admissions departments are using AI, mostly to review letters of recommendation, assess transcripts, and to communicate with applicants via chatbots or automated messages. The larger the school, the more likely the admissions professionals are to use AI. In addition, 85% of survey respondents said they use AI to be more efficient; 70% said they use it to make more informed decisions; and 56% said they use it to eliminate bias.

There’s no evidence, however, that colleges are currently using AI to make their final admissions decisions. The future, however, might be another story.

Test score submissions are declining.

According to the Common Application’s January 2024 report, just 4% of its member colleges required test scores in the 2023-2024 application season, down from 5% in 2021-2022 and down from 55% in 2019-2020.

At the end of the 2022-2023 application season, the number of students choosing not to submit test scores was just slightly higher than students who did submit them. However, in 2023-2024, for the first time since the boom in test-optional policies began, significantly more students (12%) chose not to report test scores. As stated in the Common App report, this trend could accelerate in coming years.

Direct admission is gaining traction.

Imagine getting an offer of admission from a college without filling out an application or writing a single essay? With direct admissions, this might be a reality for you. Direct admissions is an alternative application pathway in which colleges send non-binding admission offers directly to qualified students. Students don’t need to submit applications, pay fees, or wait to find out if they are admitted. Instead, a college reaches out to them with an admission offer before they even apply.

The states of Texas and Georgia have been operating direct admissions programs for some time, offering automatic admission to their state’s public university systems to students who meet certain thresholds for GPA or class rank.

In the wake of the Supreme Court decision banning the use of race in college admissions, some colleges are turning to direct admissions to meet their enrollment goals and increase diversity on campus, and some are partnering with direct admissions platforms that connect the schools with students who meet their admission criteria.

In the Fall of 2023, the Common Application launched its direct admissions program, which helps 70 participating colleges connect with low income and first-generation students. From the Common App portal alone, more than 300,000 students received direct offers of admission.

Legacy preference admissions are in decline.

Legacy admissions, which gives an admission advantage to students related to an alumnus, has long been criticized for being elitist and unfair, privileging mostly white, wealthy students. In a move to make their admissions policies more transparent and equitable, several colleges ended their legacy admissions policies, including Wesleyan, Virginia Tech, Occidental College, Johns Hopkins and Carnegie Mellon.

At the same time, state and federal lawmakers have written bills banning the practice, and in January, the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into the University of Pennsylvania’s legacy admissions policy for possible violation of the Civil Rights Act. Given these actions, it won’t be surprising if more colleges end legacy admissions this year.