Nearly half of American high school students are now using artificial intelligence tools to guide their college searches, and AI is increasingly influencing which schools they consider — and which ones they cross off their lists — according to a new national survey released Tuesday by EAB, a Washington-based education research and consulting company.
"AI has, in a matter of months, moved from the margins to the mainstream of how teenagers explore colleges," said Madeleine Rhyneer, EAB's vice president of consulting services and dean of enrollment management. "AI is now shaping first impressions, helping families narrow their options, and influencing real enrollment decisions — often before a college ever has direct contact with a prospective applicant."
The findings land at a moment of significant uncertainty for higher education, where institutions are already battling declining birth rates, affordability concerns, and intensifying skepticism about the value of a four-year degree. AI, the survey suggests, is accelerating all of those pressures simultaneously.
Students described using AI in ways that once would have required a human counselor, college adviser, or parent. Sixty-two percent of AI users said they turned to the tools to find schools that match their academic profile and personal preferences. Nearly half used AI to research application requirements or discover schools they hadn't previously considered. One in four reported having an ongoing conversation with an AI tool about their college search, a dynamic the report describes as AI functioning as "a surrogate for real-world advisors."
Students' own words in the survey capture just how embedded the tools have become. "I explained that I want to stay in state, do not want to spend a lot on college, and want to prioritize my studies," one student wrote. "It confirmed that [school] is the right fit." Another noted: "It's nice how it synthesizes results into one cohesive answer instead of Googling something and searching for a while through different websites."
The shift is reshaping how students first encounter institutions. Rather than starting with a college's website or a counselor's recommendation, students are increasingly filtering their earliest impressions through AI-generated summaries which are drawn from a wide range of sources that colleges may not fully control.
