Getting to Know Dr. Juan A. Gilbert
Can computer software help college admissions officers create a diverse freshman class?
Dr. Juan A. Gilbert thinks so.
The 37-year-old Auburn University associate professor of computer science and software engineering has developed a program that can sort thousands of student applicants by academic performance, geographic background, socio-economic status, gender, race and other attributes, allowing admissions officers to build a freshman class that is a mosaic of of student types.
“When you do a holistic comparison of applicants, you’re going to be able to get some of everybody into your student pool,” Gilbert says.
The idea for the software came to Gilbert after the 2003 U.S. Supreme Court decisions on affirmative action. Even though the court allowed the race of applicants to be considered, Gilbert feared schools might drop race-conscious affirmative action practices to avert the risk of lawsuits. He recognized that schools could benefit from tools to help them provide holistic evaluations of their applicants.
