# An Empirical Study of Multi-Agent RAG for Real-World University Admissions Counseling

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.11272 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.11272/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Agentic RAG, agents and memory, one of 15 directions in Retrieval-augmented generation.
- Builds on 5 of its 14 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Jul 2025.

## Placed in

- Retrieval-augmented generation / [Agentic RAG, agents and memory](https://mlsanity.com/rag/agentic-rag-agents-and-memory/)
- LLM agents and tool use / [Educational agents and math problem solving](https://mlsanity.com/agents/educational-agents-and-math-problem-solving/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Retrieval-Augmented Generation for Knowledge-Intensive NLP Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.11401/) (2020)
- [Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10084/) (2019)
- [MPNet: Masked and Permuted Pre-training for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.09297/) (2020)
- [GNN-RAG: Graph Neural Retrieval for Large Language Model Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20139/) (2024)
- [Cross-Data Knowledge Graph Construction for LLM-enabled Educational Question-Answering System: A Case Study at HCMUT](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09296/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [An Empirical Study of Multi-Agent Collaboration for Automated Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29632/) (2026)
- [Beyond Benchmark Scores: How Synthetic and Authentic Query Distributions Diverge in RAG Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.14579/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This paper presents MARAUS (Multi-Agent and Retrieval-Augmented University Admission System), a real-world deployment of a conversational AI platform for higher education admissions counseling in Vietnam. While large language models (LLMs) offer potential for automating advisory tasks, most existing solutions remain limited to prototypes or synthetic benchmarks. MARAUS addresses this gap by combining hybrid retrieval, multi-agent orchestration, and LLM-based generation into a system tailored for real-world university admissions. In collaboration with the University of Transport Technology (UTT) in Hanoi, we conducted a two-phase study involving technical development and real-world evaluation. MARAUS processed over 6,000 actual user interactions, spanning six categories of queries. Results show substantial improvements over LLM-only baselines: on average 92 percent accuracy, hallucination rates reduced from 15 precent to 1.45 percent, and average response times below 4 seconds. The system operated cost-effectively, with a two-week deployment cost of 11.58 USD using GPT-4o mini. This work provides actionable insights for the deployment of agentic RAG systems in low-resource educational settings.