#361 How AI is Reshaping Education and College Admissions

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:00)
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation. Before we dive in, I wanted to personally thank you for listening. Many of the ideas we discuss on this show inspired my new book, AI Augmented Teams. If you're looking for practical ways to combine human expertise and AI to achieve better outcomes, I think you'll find it valuable. Learn more at paidar.ai/books.
That is P-A-I-D-A-R dot A-I slash books. Now, let's get started with the show.

**Shellee Howard** (0:31)
Critical thinkers, make sure that AI is doing what AI should be doing, correct?

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (0:40)
You hit it right on the nose.
Welcome to Embracing Digital Transformation, where we explore how people process policy and technology drive effective change. This is Dr. Darren, chief enterprise architect, educator, author, and most importantly, your host. On this episode, How AI is Reshaping Education and College Admissions with Shellee Howard, College Admissions Expert, Founder and CEO of College Ready. Shellee, welcome to the show.

**Shellee Howard** (1:25)
Thank you so much for having me.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (1:28)
Hey, and I'm sorry, we had a little pre-meeting before the show because I lost my notes that we talked, but now it was like, oh yeah, I remember our previous conversation. I'm really excited about the topic today on AI and education, what's happening.
I can teach, I can talk about it from the teaching side of things. You can talk about it from the other side of things, the parents and the students. So interesting times. But before we drive into that, everyone that listens to my show knows that I only have superheroes on the show, and every superhero has a background or an origin story. So Shellee, what's your origin story?

**Shellee Howard** (2:10)
It's so fun to share.
I grew up in Southern California. I was born to two entrepreneurs, and I really didn't even know if college was something I wanted to do. I just thought I would do what my parents did. And it really wasn't until my senior year in high school, and I sat, brought my parents down, and I said, hey, I think we need to have a talk. And they're like, what? And I'm like, yeah, the counselor came in today and wanted to head count how many people are applying to college.
And house divided. One parent said, absolutely, you're going. There's no doubt you need more time to grow up. You need to learn on somebody else's dollar and then go start your own business. And the other parent said, absolutely not. You need to do what I did, and you need to just get out there and get started, and you'll figure it out.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (3:02)
Get some grit. Yeah.

**Shellee Howard** (3:03)
Yeah, for sure. And so I remember like looking at both of them like ping pong, like what, what, what do you mean? And we came to a compromise. I was going to apply to two schools, and if I got in, we would make that decision. So we kind of just like kind of pushed it aside or prolonged it a little bit. And so my big genius plan is I was going to apply to San Diego State, and so I can surf, or I was going to go to University of Colorado Boulder so I could snow ski.
And so I was truly looking for a really cool vacation spot that I was going to learn. And scary to me, I got in to both of them, and then I sent my parents back down, and I'm like, now what do we do? My dad said, I'll make it real easy for you. You go to San Diego, you get your car, and I pay. You go to Colorado, I wish you well. Please write and visit when you can.
And in other words, we're not paying out-of-state tuition. It's basically what he said. Yeah, of course.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (4:03)
That's what it was. Yeah.

**Shellee Howard** (4:06)
And so at that moment, I realized, wow, did I not prepare for this time in life. I absolutely, I loved high school. I had a great experience. I had part-time jobs. I knew what I wanted to do. Like I had all that figured out, but I didn't think of the middle plan between high school and becoming a millionaire. That was kind of the empty area for me.
So long story short.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (4:32)
That's a big empty area there, Shellee.

**Shellee Howard** (4:35)
Yeah, that's what the superhero is there.

**Dr. Darren Pulsipher** (4:38)
Yeah, that's right.

**Shellee Howard** (4:41)
So I did, I went off to San Diego State and I had an amazing experience. My father was wise. He said, I will pay for the first four years. After that is all yours. So I did summer school and winter session and I graduated in four years.