Generative AI in Higher Education: Evidence from an Elite College
Open accessAbstract
Generative AI is transforming higher education, yet systematic evidence on student adoption remains limited. Using novel survey data from a selective U.S. college, we document over 80 percent of students using AI academically within two years of ChatGPT's release. Adoption varies across disciplines, demographics, and achievement levels, highlighting AI's potential to reshape educational inequalities. Students predominantly use AI for augmenting learning (e.g., explanations, feedback), but also to automate tasks (e.g., essay generation). Positive perceptions of AI's educational benefits strongly predict adoption. Institutional policies can influence usage patterns but risk creating unintended disparate impacts across student groups due to uneven compliance.
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At the time of the experiment, AI adoption at Middlebury exceeded 80 percent.
“At the time of the experiment, AI adoption at Middlebury exceeded 80 percent (Contractor and Reyes, 2025), so our treatment varies AI access among students already familiar with the tool.”
From Experimental Evidence on the Learning Impact of Generative AI (2026) · cites this paper as Contractor and Reyes, 2025
The near-exclusive use of ChatGPT is consistent with surveys of adoption among college students.
“The near-exclusive use of ChatGPT is consistent with surveys of adoption among college students (Hirabayashi et al., 2024; Stöhr et al., 2024; Contractor and Reyes, 2025).”
From Experimental Evidence on the Learning Impact of Generative AI (2026) · cites this paper as Contractor and Reyes, 2025
AI has achieved rapid, widespread adoption in higher education.
“AI has achieved rapid, widespread adoption in higher education. Within two years of ChatGPT's release, over 80% of students were using AI academically [21], and a 2025 survey found that 85% had used AI for coursework in the past year [28].”
From The Due Process Deficit: Auditing AI Governance in U.S. Higher Education (2026) · cites this paper as [21]
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- Authors
- Contractor, Z., & Reyes, G.
- Affiliations
- Middlebury College (US)
- Corresponding author
- Reyes, Germán
- Venue
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2025
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4413287097
- Cited by
- 19
- References
- 42
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 1
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- El Servicio de Difusión de la Creación Intelectual (National University of La Plata) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Econstor (Econstor) (submittedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Artificial Intelligence in Education
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Health Informatics › Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare and Education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Online Learning and Analytics
- Keywords
- generative AI, ChatGPT, higher education, educational inequality, disciplinary differences, student demographics, academic performance, student perceptions of AI, institutional AI policies, indirect discrimination
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