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Colleges Are Automating Admissions, but Their Most Time-Consuming Work Is Still Manual — And Costly

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Colleges Are Automating Admissions, but Their Most Time-Consuming Work Is Still Manual — And Costly

Colleges have embraced admissions automation, yet their most time-consuming tasks remain largely manual.

Higher education has invested in digital transformation for years. Colleges have adopted student information systems, customer relationship management platforms, online application portals and increasingly sophisticated communication tools. Yet many admissions teams still face significant operational challenges.

EDMO’s The State of Automation in Admissions Report 2026 offers a closer look at that contradiction. Our online survey of 40 higher education leaders at U.S. colleges and universities examined enrollment priorities, automation maturity, processing workloads, artificial intelligence and student communication.

The findings reveal an interesting divide. While 80% of respondents reported automating CRM and data synchronization and 75% reported automating student communication, only 12.5% reported automating transcript and credit evaluation. Identity and fraud checks were automated by just 17.5%.

These findings suggest that institutions have made considerable progress in automating routine administrative activities. However, some of the processes that require the most staff effort remain largely manual.

For business leaders beyond higher education, the distinction is important: introducing automation is not the same as removing the bottlenecks that constrain an organization.

Among surveyed leaders, 70% identified staffing and workload as a major admissions challenge. Data silos and system integration followed at 50%, while 47.5% cited transcript and credit evaluation.

These pressures become easier to understand when looking at the processes that remain manual. Nearly two-thirds of respondents identified transcript and credit evaluation as largely manual. Document intake and indexing, along with identity and fraud checks, were each cited by 52.5%.



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