The Gaokao is over, and 12.9 million candidates now face the next big hurdle: filing their college applications. This year, the game has changed. The Ministry of Education's "Sunshine Volunteer" system has completed its upgrade, with a built-in AI assistant "Zhihui Xiaozhao" — enter your score and rank, and in a few seconds it produces a reference application plan sorted into "reach, match, and safety" tiers — completely free.

What "Sunshine Volunteer" Is

"Sunshine Volunteer" is the application-filing information service system on the Ministry of Education's "Sunshine Gaokao" platform, first opened for free in June 2024 and upgraded a second time this year.

Access address: https://gaokao.chsi.com.cn/

The system covers regular undergraduate and vocational-college admissions batches across all 31 provinces, regions, and municipalities, with data reported directly by universities and verified centrally by the government, spanning 883 majors and information on over a thousand universities.

The homepage of the Ministry of Education's "Sunshine Gaokao" platform; "Sunshine Volunteer" on the right side of the navigation bar is the entry to the application-filing system.

Core Features

The "Zhihui Xiaozhao" AI Assistant

An AI assistant online 24 hours a day, ready to answer specific questions at any time — the admission rules of parallel applications, application advice for a particular score band, and more.

Eight Employment Indicators

This year the system debuts 8 employment-status indicators, viewable by opening any target major:

• Average salary
• Salary satisfaction
• Job stability
• Major-to-job match rate
• And more employment-overview data

Behind the data are three official data systems: the CHSI survey, graduate tracking surveys, and national employment monitoring.

How to Use It

1. Open https://gaokao.chsi.com.cn/ and find the "Sunshine Volunteer" entry
2. Enter your Gaokao score and provincial rank
3. Check the major directions that interest you
4. The system automatically generates a reference application plan sorted into "reach, match, and safety" tiers
5. Ask "Zhihui Xiaozhao" whenever you have questions

Tip: What the AI provides is only a "reference plan," not an actual admission result. The system simulates and filters based on data from previous years; whether you are ultimately admitted still has to be confirmed in your province's official system. Be sure to file your application as required in your home province's official system.

A Change Worth Watching: Majors Are Being Adjusted Fast

According to Ministry of Education data, during the "14th Five-Year" period, universities nationwide revoked or suspended 12,200 undergraduate program offerings and added 10,200 — a cumulative adjustment rate above 30%.

The most-revoked majors cluster in public administration, information management and information systems, and product design — exactly the directions AI can replace at scale. The additions are almost entirely directions the AI industry urgently needs: 2024 saw 91 new artificial-intelligence program offerings, the most of any major; and the 2026 edition of the catalog added 38 new majors, including embodied intelligence and brain-computer science and technology.

The upshot: what you face is no longer a fixed list of majors but one that changes every year. When choosing a major, look beyond employment data to the field's future adaptability.