From the first read to the reviewer's queue, every step Alethia takes is written down. This is what happens to one application.
Alethia reads the entire file, not keywords: activity lists, honors, essays, résumés, recommendation letters. Every statement that could be true or false becomes a claim, typed by what it asserts: a role, an award, a scale, a publication, a period of work.
Activities · as submitted
President of the Robotics Club for two years, where I led a team of fourteen to a regional final. In 2025 I placed first at the State Science & Engineering Fair for a study on nitrate runoff, which led to asummer research assistantship in a university biology lab. I also co-founded a nonprofit that has tutored more than 200 students andco-authored a peer-reviewed journal article on our findings.
Illustrative excerpt
For each claim, agents look where a true claim would leave a trace: competition archives, registries, journal indexes, league records, organization pages, news. Every source consulted is logged with what it returned, including the ones that returned nothing.
Evidence trail · claim 02
1st place, State Science & Engineering Fair, 2025
Illustrative record
Some claims only a person can confirm. Alethia writes to the references the applicant listed, follows up once if there is no reply, and reads what comes back. A reply is evidence only after it is checked: the sender's domain, the role they describe, and whether what they say matches what the applicant said.
Outreach · sent
Dear Dr. Adeyemi, an applicant to Westbrook University has listed you as a reference for a summer research assistantship in your laboratory (June to August 2025). Could you confirm the role and dates, or let us know if this is not accurate? Replying to this message is sufficient.
Office of Admissions, via Alethia
Reply · received
Yes, I can confirm. The applicant worked in my lab for nine weeks last summer on the stream ecology survey, supervised by my postdoc. Happy to say more if useful.
Every claim ends in one of three outcomes. None of them is a verdict on the applicant. Each carries its evidence, and each can be reopened by a reader.
| Outcome | What it means | What your team does |
|---|---|---|
| Verified | Public record or a verified reply confirms the claim as written. | Nothing. The evidence is attached to the file for anyone who wants it. |
| Needs review | Something confirmed, something could not be. Sources disagree, scale is unknowable, or a reply came from the wrong place. | A reader opens the evidence, decides, and records the decision. |
| Not verified | Public record contradicts the claim, or a claim that should leave a trace left none. | A reader confirms the finding and may ask the applicant for documentation. |
Who ran it, when, which source, what it returned, who reviewed it, and what they decided. The record travels with the file and can be produced if a decision is ever questioned.
Bring a handful of applications from a past cycle. We will run them and show you every outcome, every source, and every reply.