3 uncomfortable truths about AI in college search

A student asks ChatGPT for a list of colleges that fit their budget, major, and preferred campus vibe.

Another asks AI to compare two schools side by side.

A third uses it to decide which colleges are worth keeping on their list.

None of those students has filled out an inquiry form, spoken to a counselor, or opened your emails—but they are already forming opinions and making decisions about your school.

That is the shift enrollment leaders need to pay attention to. AI is not just helping students search faster; it is also shaping what they believe, what they notice, and what they rule out before institutions ever get a chance to enter the conversation. 

Here are three uncomfortable truths about how AI has changed college search that enrollment leaders must incorporate into their strategy. 

1. Students form opinions about your institution before you ever see them in your funnel.

For many enrollment teams, the working assumption is still that influence begins when a student lands on the website, opens an email, or engages with a campaign.

That is no longer true.

Students are using AI early in their search process in a variety of ways. Among students who use AI in college search, 62% use it to find schools that are a good fit, 48% use it to discover unfamiliar institutions, and 48% use it to research application requirements. 

This is not lightweight information gathering; AI is affecting real decisions. More than half of students say AI has made their search easier. One in four says they have an ongoing conversation with AI about their college search. Thirty-four percent say AI-supported research increased their interest in a school, while 18% say AI results led them to remove a school from consideration. 

Why this matters: By the time a student enters your funnel, they may already have a working perception of your institution. Their early impressions are often shaped somewhere your team is not actively managing. It’s important to find ways to communicate with students and families early to build affinity.

2. You are not competing only with other institutions. You are competing with how AI interprets you.

Students are not always reading your message as you wrote it. They are now often reading a compressed, altered, AI-generated version of it.

That version pulls from your website, third-party search platforms, online commentary, and other public-facing sources. Brand perception is now formed not just by official messages and platforms, but by how AI interprets and summarizes a wide range of digital content about an institution. That changes the nature of competition.

Your value proposition must be clear enough, consistent enough, and structured enough to survive interpretation by systems you do not control. Additionally, your website needs to be optimized for human readers and machine readers alike. 

Students’ own responses show why this matters. In free-response answers, they described asking AI to:

• recommend colleges based on cost, major, and career goals 
• compare schools side by side 
• assess school fit and student life 
• answer questions they could not easily find on college websites 
• synthesize scattered information into one clear response 

One student said AI helps because it gives them “a direct answer.” Another appreciated that it “synthesizes results into one cohesive answer” instead of requiring them to search across multiple websites. 

Why this matters: Students increasingly value clarity, speed, and synthesis. If your website buries key information, uses vague messaging, or leaves gaps for third parties to fill, AI may flatten your nuance at exactly the moment it matters most for college searchers.

3. More information is not leading to better-informed decisions

It is easy to assume AI will make students better consumers because it gives them faster access to more information, but that is not the full story. The bigger issue is that students aren’t verifying what AI tells them before acting on it.

Among students who have used AI for college search, only 29.4% of our survey respondents said they always fact-check results using a second source. Everyone else does so less consistently, including 34.4% who do so most of the time, 22.5% sometimes, 8.8% occasionally, and 4.9% never.

That nuance matters. Students aren’t fact-checking as a default habit; they are more likely to verify AI output when something feels off or when the stakes are obvious. Nearly half say they check when accuracy matters for the task, and 47.3% do so when the results do not seem right.

Neglecting a fact check creates real risk in college search. Students may move forward with information that sounds credible and complete before they pause to confirm whether it is actually correct. And by the time they do, their perception of your school may already be formed.

Why this matters: More information does not automatically produce better-informed decisions. If students don’t verify information with a secondary source, AI may erroneously sway decision-making.

What enrollment leaders should do now

The point is not that enrollment leaders need to panic; it is that they need to adjust how they’re thinking about and responding to AI-mediated college search.

Our insight paper points to several practical implications that feel especially urgent now:

Final thoughts

AI is not waiting for enrollment strategy to catch up. Students are already using it to shortcut discovery, compare options, and form opinions or make judgments. They are moving faster, asking different questions, and relying on systems that interpret institutional information for them. 

That means the uncomfortable truths here are also strategic truths:

• influence starts earlier than many teams think 
• differentiation now depends on interpretation, not just messaging 
• faster decisions do not always mean better decisions 

AI has already changed the landscape of college search. The institutions that will succeed are the ones that recognize this and respond by making their digital presence clearer, more accurate, and harder to misread.

Madeleine Rhyneer

Vice President of Consulting Services and Dean of Enrollment Management

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