New AI College Admissions Counselor Gives Students Affordable Advice
Credit: The Apply Genius logo. Photo courtesy of Apply Genius.- The nationwide counselor-to-student ratio is 1-to-385, and nearly a quarter of all public schools have no counselor. Apply Genius looks to fill that gap.
- Apply Genius is an AI college admissions consultant available from the App Store for $9.99 a month, which is less than the thousands of dollars many students spend on an independent consultant.
- Apply Genius makes a student profile of your college goals to give you personalized answers to your questions or a catalog of 100-plus premade questions.
If you’re looking for professional college advice and don’t have access to a counselor, don’t know where to start, or what you need to know, you can try an artificial intelligence (AI) consultant from your phone.
A team of recent Harvard and Johns Hopkins graduates are expanding access to college admissions consulting through an AI-driven mobile app, a more affordable option for many.
Apply Genius, an AI college admissions consultant, answers prospective college students’ questions about applying to a college that a conventional college admissions counselor or hired college admissions consultant would answer.
Co-founder Michael Pankowski announced Apply Genius’ launch in early August. He told BestColleges that the team created the AI admissions consultant to level the playing field so that the best students can get into top schools — not just the ones who can afford to pay thousands for the right college advice.
Student access to counselors is also scarce. Nationwide, there’s one counselor for every 385 students, and nearly a quarter of all public schools don’t even have a counselor.
The app’s founders — Pankowski, Anthony Colarusso, and Sean Darcy — all got into selective universities after graduating from public schools.
We were inspired to create Apply Genius because, as three public school graduates, we understood that schools often don’t have the resources to give each student the personalized help they need to navigate the complex world of college admissions,
Pankowski told BestColleges.
Lots of these students are talented and incredibly hard workers, but they just don’t know how to navigate the college admissions process.
The app, available from the App Store, is free to start. It allows you to ask a limited number of questions. Once the free period ends, you can pay for the unlimited access plan for $9.99 a month.
The app creates a profile of over 30 data points by asking you questions that a college consultant would typically ask, like what your dream schools are, what you want to major in, and what extracurriculars you do.
With that information, the AI consultant then gives you personalized advice that matches your admissions goals.
If you don’t know what to ask, Apply Genius comes with a Guided Chat with over 100 essential questions to ask a college admissions counselor, such as: How do I craft a compelling college essay that stands out?
and What are some creative ways to showcase my talents and interests in my application?
The company also warns against using ChatGPT for college admissions guidance since it is trained on internet data that may often contain unsound, unclear, and out-of-date advice.
According to Pankowski, Apply Genius uses ethnographic research. This includes in-depth conversations with students admitted to the nation’s top universities and insights from the time the Apply Genius team spends advising their personal network on college admissions. They also frequently update the app with the latest advising standards.
Our app aims to fill this gap by giving every student top-notch college consulting in their pocket — at a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring a live college consultant,
Pankowski said.