Over the next few days, early-action applicants to Virginia Tech will find out whether they’ve been admitted to the school. That’s more than a month sooner than last year — and the university says A.I. is to thank.

Virginia Tech is among the first schools to use A.I. to assess college applications, of which it received 58,000 for the 2026-27 school year.

Previously, essays were reviewed by two human readers, plus a third if the scores differed significantly. This year, each essay got one initial score from an A.I. tool and one from a human, then a third read from a human as needed. The school made the change after three years of testing.