College Guide Network (CGN), an information resource hub for counselors and students, held a virtual roundtable last week to introduce AVA, the latest artificial intelligence-powered college counseling assistant.
Thousands of people took part in the demonstrations, many of whom identified themselves in sidebar chats as high school counselors or independent admissions consultants. Before long, the chat started to be flooded with questions and concerns.
Brennan Barnard, director of college counseling at Kern Lab School and moderator of the roundtable, seemed pleased with the turnout, but a little concerned.
“This speaks to a moment of great potential,” he said. “And I think, certainly, there's some trepidation. But I'm really hopeful myself.”
Students have been using ChatGPT and other generative AI tools to write essays for more than a year, and while the trend is alarming, there seems to be little to stop it. Even some college admissions offices are beginning to use AI, albeit reluctantly, to reduce their workload.
AVA, which will be piloted this fall, is a state-of-the-art AI counseling tool aimed at replicating the work of high school counselors and private admissions consultants. Proponents of the technology say it will ease the burden on overworked counselors and give students 24/7 access to expertise and information during a stressful application cycle. Critics worry it will be seen as a cheaper alternative to high-impact counseling for students who need the human touch most.
Ángel Pérez, president of the National Association of College Admission Counselors (NACAC), partnered with CGN in launching AVA, lending the organization's considerable influence to the project. He spoke at the roundtable about his NACAC's role in engaging admissions professionals to help train the bots.
“I think a lot of our members are scratching their heads about this issue. The truth is, we need to work on this technology. It's already here,” he said. Inside higher education. “While it is true that we are stepping into uncharted territory, I would rather our profession be involved in informing the evolution of this technology. Another person with profit-driven and less-than-ideal motivations will be doing this work.”
Katie Cameron, a high school counselor and deputy executive director of the Nebraska School Counselor Association, attended the roundtable out of curiosity. She is responsible for her 300 students and the idea of using her AVA to better serve her students intrigued her.
“As counselors, we do more than just prepare for college,” she said. “I like the idea, especially since it saves me time on simple tasks.”
Expectations of fairness and ethical concerns
CGN CEO John Carson first began building a college advice resource for students and their families in 2019. At that time, he had the “terrible experience” of helping his son apply to college.
“We were flying without instruments,” he told attendees during a virtual roundtable. “There was a grotesque inequity: back doors, back doors, expensive consultants. It was hard to get the advice we needed…It was like there was an expectation that our 17-year-old would do well in this solo.” ”
AVA's aim is to “democratize advice”, he said.
Currently, students in well-resourced public high schools and private boarding schools often receive help from counselors who serve only a few dozen students, while students in cash-strapped public schools are less fortunate to You can schedule one appointment for. Carson argued that AI chatbots can serve families with limited access to counseling services and help close the huge equity gap in college counseling.
AVA is also trained in multiple languages, and Carson said they will start with 10 or 20 options, making AVA a game-changer for immigrant families who may struggle with language barriers during the application process. There is a possibility that
Loyle Johnson, an associate professor at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, said tools like AVA can be difficult to bring to under-resourced high schools, especially when districts offer them as free resources for families. said it sees potential benefits.
But he also cautioned against trusting AI with blanket advice and sensitivity to students' lived identities.
“When you try to make these tools colorblind, you often end up showing some kind of racial bias,” he says. “They need to be trained in racial sensitivity, which is a very difficult job.”
Most of all, Johnson worries that AI chatbots could exacerbate existing disparities in college counseling. This is especially true when students who are less involved in the admissions process are routinely redirected to bots, while higher-income and highly motivated students can receive more intensive human advice. .
“The students that AI counselors serve are also the ones who most need close, situational advice,” he said. “There's so much danger and so much promise here.”
Businesses also have ethical concerns. A frequently asked question at the CGN roundtable was about student data privacy, which organizers seemed to be proactive about addressing. Fundamental concepts regarding the place of AI in the admissions process are also hotly debated.
NACAC has partnered with several universities to establish an AI Ethics Committee, which Perez said will address ethical questions such as “Should counselors use AI to write letters of recommendation?” Then he said. (His answer: “It already does!”) and “Should he use AI to help students outline their admissions essays?”
Carson said CGN is recruiting counselors to help further develop AVA through practice. The nonprofit hopes to build a “community of practice” with volunteers who will test the tool and provide feedback.
“We don't have all the answers, and this is the best way to build something that people feel they can trust,” he told the roundtable. “Because this is for those people.”
More than just a chatbot?
Carson pointed out that AVA is not a replacement for a counselor. This is not intended to create a personalized list of universities or to reassure first-year students that they belong in the lecture room. That's human work, he said, and no amount of well-trained AI can replicate it.
However, AVA can help answer basic questions about financial aid and application requirements, as well as help students find appropriate framing devices for their essays. In that sense, AVA is like a streamlined, authoritative resource for frequently asked questions, a way to get students on the path to college and free up counselors' time, Barnard said. I did.
On CGN's website, AVA is called “the first and only AI counseling assistant for students and families.” But there's also Ivy, an inclusive and generative AI counselor from education consulting and technology company CollegeVine.
Vinay Bhaskara, co-founder of CollegeVine, made a clear and important distinction between AVA and Ivy. AVA is essentially a “chatbot with expertise,” a feature he said he doesn't intend to downplay, while Ivy is “personalized counseling.” system. “
At the roundtable, Carson said AVA is trained on the knowledge of hundreds of experts across 110 topics in college admissions. Ivy was developed with input from admissions experts, but was primarily inspired by his CollegeVine profiles of individual student members, Bhaskara said. It records student interests and aspirations while tracking deadlines and to-do lists during the application cycle. Ivy is also trained to be conversationally smart. Remember previous discussions with students and bring up topics as needed.
Inside higher education A private demonstration of Ivy took place last fall. Based on demos of both AVA and Ivy, this reporter can say that that distinction appears to be accurate.
“because [Ivy] Because it’s integrated into the network, we can get to know our users better,” Bhaskara said. “It's completely different from ChatGPT. It offers something unique.”
That something is very similar to what a human counselor would offer. That means personalized service, emotionally intelligent advice, and a trusting relationship that deepens over time. Like Carson, Bhaskara maintains that his tools are meant to help counselors, not replace them. But he said it's not a bad thing that AI can replicate the most important parts of a job.
“AI has to be part of the future of this field,” he said. “This system has been asking for increased capacity for 20 years. But it won't be solved with chatbots. It will be with comprehensive tools like ours.”
Cameron, a counselor from Nebraska, tried out Ivy last fall after receiving an ad in her inbox during a particularly busy application season. She said she faced dozens of requests for letters of recommendation, and it often took her an hour to write one. Ivy cut it down to just a few minutes, she said.
But Cameron isn't too worried about losing jobs to AI, and neither are the members of the Nebraska Counseling Association, which she oversees. Anything to reduce counselors' workload and help students is worth trying, she said.
The rest is just static.