January 19, 2026 Facing tens of thousands of applications from students with near-identical grades, the University of Waterloo in Ontario is adding artificial intelligence and hundreds of alumni to its admissions process for some of its most competitive programs. Applicants will now be required to answer five questions on personal passions, community involvement, experiences with unfair treatment, extracurricular activities and their reasons for choosing Waterloo.
The university has expanded its use of alumni reviewers and introduced AI as a second layer of assessment for its Admission Information Form (AIF), a written component required for select math, engineering and aviation programs where successful applicants often post averages in the mid-to-high 90s.
“The grades are very good. And there’s lots of students with the same grade, same average. So you need another layer, to tell those students apart and make the selection,” André Jardin, associate registrar of undergraduate admissions, said.
After piloting the approach last year, the university is now recruiting alumni volunteers to read and score the forms using a standardized rubric. Reviewers see no identifying information about applicants and are trained to flag responses that may be plagiarized or generated using artificial intelligence.
“It’s all depersonalized,” Jardin explained. “They don’t see anything about the applicant. But they are trained and they apply a rubric, they score it.”
This year, AI will also be used to independently assess the same forms. If the AI score and the human score diverge, a third human reader will review the submission. The final AIF result is then incorporated into the applicant’s overall admissions score.
The university does not disclose how much weight the AIF carries, though officials stress that grades remain the primary factor. Other elements also come into play. Engineering applicants may complete a Kira interview, while math applicants who perform well in Waterloo-run contests can receive a boost.
Waterloo receives between 25,000 and 30,000 applications each year for its most competitive programs. Jardin said the university hopes to enlist around 500 alumni reviewers to help manage the volume. While the scoring rubric remains confidential, Jardin emphasized that applicants do not need to overthink their responses. “Just answer the questions genuinely,” he said.
For Mahoney, the time commitment is worth it. “Knowing that starting as an applicant leads to those people who are crossing the stage with their degrees four or five years later, feeling a part of that process, it’s part of the reason I love being a part of the university.”
