The feature, launched at ApplyBoard’s Top Recruiters Workshop 2025 in Delhi last week, aims to enable recruitment partners to submit student applications more quickly and reliably.
“Once you choose your program and you submit your initial application, in a traditional world, you would have needed to give your documents in and wait for schools, maybe multiple back and forths and weeks to get that feedback and eventually get that offer,” Massi Basiri, co-founder and president of ApplyBoard told The PIE News.
“In our world, where we’ve rolled out Instant Submission, the moment you upload the corresponding document, you instantly get feedback. This feedback can range from the quality of the document to what’s missing, all the way to whether the document meets what the school is looking for.”
With tools like 360 Solutions, which go beyond just the application process, and ApplyProof, a document verification service, ApplyBoard has been developing its approach to how international student enrollments are handled.
More recently, the platform introduced Capio, which is designed as an “end-to-end” system aimed at helping universities manage international student enrollment more efficiently.
According to Sina Meraji, senior director of product development, ApplyBoard, the launch of Instant Submission is built on new technology shaped by years of collaboration with partners and the development of various related products.
“A big portion of the technology is basically the LLM models and machine learning models that we have. And those are the latest – we literally compared the performance of the latest models from different partners we work with and based on the performance have accelerated our updates,” stated Meraji.
The feature is particularly relevant in a market like India – one of ApplyBoard’s largest – where the number of students going abroad has surged significantly over the past decade.
“The level of service expectation once it comes to speed I have never seen in any other market,” stated Basiri.
“So I think it’s bang on for India because they do things with the speed of light and expect things with the speed of light. I don’t think it would have been any better received in any other market than India.”
The reality is that in digital worlds, you can catch fraud or inconsistencies a lot easier
Massi Basiri, ApplyBoard
While the platform helps ApplyBoard’s recruitment partners submit student applications and receive feedback seamlessly, fraudulent applications could pose a significant concern for institutions.
“Fraud becomes a critical point of view from schools because, often, it’s perceived that in a digital world, it’s easier to tamper. But the reality is that in digital worlds, you can catch fraud or inconsistencies a lot easier. Things are sometimes not even detectable with the human eye,” said Basiri.
“There are certain documents that are verifiable, like English scores. In those cases, we check against the source to ensure that the document is authentic. What’s presented on the document is matched against the back-end system of those providers.”
According to Basiri, not all documents come with that capability, so they look into other platforms, like Digilocker in India, to verify documents.
“In the absence of any other source, we use other models, AIs, and tools to look for irregularities and inconsistencies,” he added.
With ApplyBoard’s “Instant Offer” assuring offers to students once they receive feedback on their applications from institutions, Basiri addressed how the organisation can assist students if they don’t hear back from their chosen institution.
“We have multiple sets of schools, those open-minded schools that are more futuristic. They know how technology can accelerate. We work with those close partners and integrate at a greater lens systematically so we can issue those offers on their behalf,” stated Basiri.
“Apart from that, in our system now, we have other AI technology that would actually enable and help the student with things that are not common or things that they’re not familiar with. For example, we have an SOP guide we just launched, which they can use to make it easier for them to understand and create a draft.”
According to Hamed Karimian, senior product manager, ApplyBoard, the platform is looking to improve students’ chances of success by helping filter schools based on their likelihood of acceptance, while also making adjustments to the quality of documents and other application materials.
“First, we filter and sift through the schools where the student has the highest chance and then we help them to write a better SOP, make adjustments to their resume, and make sure that all the documents provided by them are in good quality, giving them a strong chance,” shared Karimian.
“Once we do all of these adjustments with the student, and help submit the application to the school, we have a 95.7% success rate for getting an admission from the schools.”
