As part of its commitment to increasing transfer student enrollment, the University of Georgia is updating its process to help students determine their status faster.
Increasing the number of transfer students is a key priority in the University of Georgia’s Strategic Enrollment Management Plan 2024-2028. About 95% of transfer students are Georgia residents, and these students are twice as likely to be first-generation students. Over the next few years, UGA hopes to enroll one transfer student for every two first-year students.
“Most transfer students who apply to UGA are enrolled in other Georgia colleges and universities, or another school in the SEC,” said Vice Provost of Enrollment Management Andy Borst. “These students are highly determined, strong applicants, who recognize UGA for its strong academics and opportunities and want to complete their education here in Athens. We want these students to have the best experience at UGA, and that begins with their transfer process.”
To help meet this goal, UGA’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions began looking into new methods to speed up the processing of transcripts. Sometimes determining which classes can be transferred to UGA is quick and easy, but some transcripts can be quite complex. According to Senior Associate Director of Admissions Seth Filkins, the University of Georgia receives about 25,000 transcripts with hundreds of thousands of courses to translate each year, and the number of transfer applicants is increasing.
After researching potential solutions, the Office of Admissions selected a program that uses artificial intelligence, intelligent character recognition and machine learning to rapidly scan transcripts and accurately translate transcript data into UGA’s student information system. The team implemented this tool in late March, and it has already shown its effectiveness by allowing the admissions team to process transcripts twice as fast.
Filkins ensured that the Office of Admissions will continue to review 100% of the incoming transcripts and double-check the work completed by this program. This AI tool is not designed for and will not be used for reviewing any other application materials, such as essays and letters of recommendation, which will always be read and reviewed by humans.
“This tool is simply here for support,” Filkins said. “It will enable a quicker turnaround time and allow our team to focus on responding to students’ unique questions and situations.”
As the Office of Admissions continues to utilize and monitor this tool, the next phase will be to integrate an AI chatbot platform for students. This chatbot will accompany UGA’s Transfer Equivalency Search and guide students to upload their own course information to see how it translates to UGA. This will help students quickly see their progress before starting an application or waiting for their transcript to transfer between institutions.
“Transfer students are an important part of the UGA community,” Borst said. “And this new tool will help us improve their transition to the university.”
