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Ban or Embrace? Colleges Wrestle With A.I.-Generated Admissions Essays.

A.I. chatbots could facilitate plagiarism on college applications or democratize student access to writing help. Or maybe both.

By Natasha Singer

Natasha Singer reports on the ways that tech giants and their tools are reshaping education.

Rick Clark, the executive director of undergraduate admission at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and his staff spent weeks this summer pretending to be high school students using A.I. chatbots to fill out college applications.

The admissions officers each took on a different high school persona: swim team captain, Eagle Scout, musical theater performer. Then they fed personal details about the fictional students into ChatGPT, prompting the A.I. chatbot to produce the kind of extracurricular activity lists and personal essays commonly required on college applications.

Mr. Clark said he wanted to get a handle on how A.I. chatbots might reshape the admissions process this fall — the start of the first full academic year that the tools will be widely available to high school seniors — and come up with guidance for students applying to Georgia Tech.

“Students on some level are going to have access to and use A.I.,” Mr. Clark said. “The big question is: How do we want to direct them, knowing that it’s out there and available to them?”

The easy availability of A.I. chatbots like ChatGPT, which can manufacture humanlike text in response to short prompts, is poised to upend the traditional undergraduate application process at selective colleges — ushering in an era of automated plagiarism or of democratized student access to essay-writing help. Or maybe both.

The digital disruption comes at a turning point for institutions of higher education across the United States. After the Supreme Court ruled in June that race-based university admissions programs were illegal, some selective universities and colleges had hoped to rely more on essay questions — about applicants’ upbringing, identities and communities — to help foster diversity on campus.

The personal essay has long been a staple of the application process at elite colleges, not to mention a bane for generations of high school students. Admissions officers have often employed applicants’ essays as a lens into their unique character, pluck, potential and ability to handle adversity. As a result, some former students say they felt tremendous pressure to develop, or at least concoct, a singular personal writing voice.

But new A.I. tools threaten to recast the college application essay as a kind of generic cake mix, which high school students may simply lard or spice up to reflect their own tastes, interests and experiences — casting doubt on the legitimacy of applicants’ writing samples as authentic, individualized admissions yardsticks.

“It makes me sad,” Lee Coffin , the dean of admissions at Dartmouth College, said during a university podcast this year that touched on A.I.-generated application essays. “The idea that this central component of a story could be manufactured by someone other than the applicant is disheartening.”

Some teachers said they were troubled by the idea of students using A.I. tools to produce college essay themes and texts for deeper reasons: Outsourcing writing to bots could hinder students from developing important critical thinking and storytelling skills.

“Part of the process of the college essay is finding your writing voice through all of that drafting and revising,” said Susan Barber, an Advanced Placement English literature teacher at Midtown High School, a public school in Atlanta. “And I think that’s something that ChatGPT would be robbing them of.”

In August, Ms. Barber assigned her 12th-grade students to write college essays. This week, she held class discussions about ChatGPT, cautioning students that using A.I. chatbots to generate ideas or writing could make their college essays sound too generic. She advised them to focus more on their personal views and voices.

Other educators said they hoped the A.I. tools might have a democratizing effect. Wealthier high school students, these experts noted, often have access to resources — alumni parents, family friends, paid writing coaches — to help them brainstorm, draft and edit their college admissions essays. ChatGPT could play a similar role for students who lack such resources, they said, especially those at large high schools where overworked college counselors have little time for individualized essay coaching.

So far, however, very few U.S. universities have published admissions policies on the use of A.I. tools by applicants.

The University of Michigan Law School recently issued guidelines saying that “applicants ought not use ChatGPT or other artificial intelligence tools as part of their drafting process.” But the law school does allow applicants to ask mentors, friends or other humans “for basic proofreading assistance and general feedback and critiques.”

The Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University has taken the opposite stance. The law school’s website says applicants may use A.I. tools to prepare their application materials as long as they “ use this technology responsibly ” and certify that the information they submit is true.

After experimenting with ChatGPT this summer, the admissions team at Georgia Tech chose a third way. The university’s website recently posted guidelines encouraging high school applicants to use A.I. tools as collaborators to “brainstorm, refine and edit” their ideas. At the same time, the site warned applicants that they should “not copy and paste content you did not create directly into your application.”

Mr. Clark, the Georgia Tech admissions official, said ChatGPT could not compete with live writing coaches or savvy parents in providing feedback to high school students on their personal essays. But he hoped it could help many students get started.

“It’s free, it’s accessible and it’s helpful,” Mr. Clark said. “It’s progress toward equity.”

Several high school seniors said in interviews that they had chosen not to use A.I. tools to help draft their essays — partly because they wanted to tell their own personal stories themselves, and partly because many universities have not taken clear stances on applicants’ use of the chatbots.

“The vagueness and ambiguity is kind of hard for us,” said Kevin Jacob, a senior at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology in the Atlanta area. The public high school has a dedicated writing center where students may get feedback on their college essays.

The Common App, a nonprofit group that runs an online system enabling high school students to apply to many colleges and universities at once, has not taken a public stance on the use of A.I. chatbots. The group requires applicants to certify that their writing — and other material they submit as part of their college applications — is their own work . But the group has not updated the academic integrity policy on its website to include artificial intelligence tools.

“This is the first full application cycle where students have the ability to use ChatGPT, and this technology is constantly changing,” Jenny Rickard, the chief executive of the Common App, said in a statement.

“We’re all learning more about these tools, and it’s important for our member institutions and our K-12 partners and counselors to set reasonable parameters on how they can and can’t be used.”

The New York Times emailed more than a dozen universities and colleges — including large state schools, Ivy League schools and small private colleges — asking about their policies on high school applicants using A.I. tools to draft their admissions essays. The majority did not respond or declined to comment.

In a statement sent by email, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at the University of Michigan said the school was “aware of the new technology” but had “not made any changes to our undergraduate application process, including our essay questions .”

Ritika Vakharia, a senior at the Gwinnett School of Mathematics, Science and Technology, said she had tried asking ChatGPT to produce ideas for college admissions essays. But she found the responses too broad and impersonal, even after she gave it details about her extracurricular activities like teaching dance classes to younger students.

Now she said she was working to come up with a more personal college application essay theme.

“I feel a little more pressure to create, like, this super unique, interesting topic,” Ms. Vakharia said, “because a basic one these days could just be generated by ChatGPT.”

Natasha Singer writes about technology, business and society. She is currently reporting on the far-reaching ways that tech companies and their tools are reshaping public schools, higher education and job opportunities. More about Natasha Singer

Can ChatGPT get into Harvard? We tested its admissions essay.

ChatGPT’s release a year ago triggered a wave of panic among educators. Now, universities are in the midst of college application season, concerned that students might use the artificial intelligence tool to forge admissions essays.

But is a chatbot-created essay good enough to fool college admissions counselors?

To find out, The Washington Post asked a prompt engineer — an expert at directing AI chatbots — to create college essays using ChatGPT. The chatbot produced two essays: one responding to a question from the Common Application, which thousands of colleges use for admissions, and one answering a prompt used solely for applicants to Harvard University.

We presented these essays to a former Ivy League college admissions counselor, Adam Nguyen, who previously advised students at Harvard University and read admissions essays at Columbia University. We presented Nguyen with a control: a set of real college admissions essays penned by Jasmine Green, a Post intern who used them to get into Harvard University, where she is currently a senior.

We asked Nguyen to read the essays and spot which ones were produced by AI. The results were illuminating.

Can you figure out which one was written by a human?

Who wrote this?

Since kindergarten, I have evaluated myself from the reflection of my teachers. I was the clever, gifted child. I was a pleasure to have in class. I was driven and tenacious - but lazy? Unmotivated? No instructor had ever directed those harsh words at me. My identity as a stellar student had been stripped of its luster; I was destroyed.

Computer science and college admissions experts say that AI-created essays have some easy tells — helpful for admissions officers who are prepping for an uptick in ChatGPT-written essays.

Responses written by ChatGPT often lack specific details, leading to essays that lack supporting evidence for their points. The writing is trite and uses platitudes to explain situations, rather than delving into the emotional experience of the author. The essays are often repetitive and predictable, leaving readers without surprise or a sense of the writer’s journey. If chatbots produce content on issues of race, sex or socioeconomic status, they often employ stereotypes.

At first, Nguyen was impressed by the AI-generated essays: They were readable and mostly free of grammatical errors. But if he was reviewing the essay as part of an application package, he would’ve stopped reading.

“The essay is such a mediocre essay that it would not help the candidate’s application or chances,” he said in an interview. “In fact, it would probably diminish it.”

Here is how Nguyen evaluated ChatGPT’s essay.

Nguyen said that while AI may be sufficient to use for everyday writing, it is particularly unhelpful in creating college admissions essays. To start, he said, admissions offices are using AI screening tools to filter out computer-generated essays. (This technology can be inaccurate and falsely implicate students, a Post analysis found .)

But more importantly, admissions essays are a unique type of writing, he said. They require students to reflect on their life and craft their experiences into a compelling narrative that quickly provides college admissions counselors with a sense of why that person is unique.

“ChatGPT is not there,” he said.

Nguyen understands why AI might be appealing. College application deadlines often fall around the busiest time of the year, near winter holidays and end-of-semester exams. “Students are overwhelmed,” Nguyen said.

But Nguyen isn’t entirely opposed to using AI in the application process. In his current business, Ivy Link, he helps students craft college applications. For those who are weak in writing, he sometimes suggests they use AI chatbots to start the brainstorming process, he said.

For those who can’t resist the urge to use AI for more than just inspiration, there may be consequences.

“Their essays will be terrible,” he said, “and might not even reflect who they are.”

About this story

Jasmine Green contributed to this report.

The Washington Post worked with Benjamin Breen, an associate professor of history at the University of California in Santa Cruz who studies the impact of technological change, to create the AI-generated essays.

Editing by Karly Domb Sadof, Betty Chavarria and Alexis Sobel Fitts.

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The Impact of AI on College Admissions

What’s covered:, can i use ai to write my college essays, can i use ai to help me with my college essays, can i use ai to write my activities list, will my teachers use ai to write my letters of recommendation, will colleges use ai checkers.

Since late 2022, the prevalence and influence of generative AI technologies have significantly increased across a range of industries, including higher education. The implications of generative AI are particularly complex and multifaceted in the context of college admissions, where the authenticity and uniqueness of student applications are crucial.

Admissions officers’ traditional metrics and methods for assessing applicants’ originality and personal voice are coming under pressure as AI tools get more sophisticated at producing creative content, from essays to artistic works. Over time, educational institutions might need to pivot to new methods to maintain the objectivity and fairness of their selection standards. The role of AI in college admissions will undoubtedly continue to evolve, but some of the most common questions do already have clear answers.

The shortest answer to this would, unsurprisingly, be no. 

The primary objective of a college essay is to present a personal narrative that reflects your identity. Universities need to hear this story from you to fully understand your unique identity, experiences, and points of view. If you use AI to write your college essay, there’s no way to successfully do these things. 

The problem is, AI creates content that may be well-written, but lacks the genuine essence of your voice and life experiences. The technology draws on what’s already out there, and so is intrinsically incapable of capturing and conveying your unique experiences, feelings, and realizations about yourself. Essentially, AI-written college essays by definition lack the human touch and authenticity that define the very best college essays . Remember, these essays are more than just words on a page—they’re your primary opportunity to explain to admissions officers who you are at a fundamental level.

Furthermore, there’s a chance that AI-generated essays will be detected thanks to colleges’ increasing development of AI detection tools (more on this later), which would likely lead to your application automatically being rejected. Schools expect you to write your essays yourself, and using AI is just as dishonest as having a friend or sibling write your essay for you.

Some colleges have already taken the step of stating explicitly that they expect students to write their essays themselves. The following statement is from Haverford College, just before students enter their supplemental essays on the Common App: 

“Good writing is a process, and there are many resources you might use as you craft your responses, including asking someone you trust to review your work and offer feedback or using generative artificial intelligence to brainstorm your response. But please know that what is most important to us is to hear your voice and ideas. Your voice matters to us, and hearing it in your writing will help us better understand who you are and imagine who you would be at Haverford.”

This statement highlights that while AI may be able to help you with your brainstorming or other elements of your drafting process, the finished product must have the integrity of your own voice/personality. Colleges aren’t trying to be mean; they genuinely seek to understand the unique individual behind your application, and AI, while a helpful tool, cannot possibly convey the depth and authenticity of your personal story. 

In conclusion, even though AI has uses, writing college essays is not one of them. Your essays must accurately reflect who you are, and that is a task only you can complete.

While you shouldn’t use AI to actually write your essay, AI can be a useful tool for preliminary brainstorming or research during your college essay writing process. For example, it can save you time browsing college websites as you prepare to write a “Why School?” essay , by generating lists of programs or clubs that are relevant to your interests at particular colleges. Cross-referencing this information with the official college websites is essential, though, as academic and extracurricular offerings are subject to change. 

Even though AI can be useful in these early phases, it’s crucial to remember that you must be the one to explain how the activities AI told you about align with your past experiences, or how you see yourself using them to fulfill your goals for college. In other words, AI can give you some of the ingredients, but you have to do the cooking.

If you’re looking to generate a rough draft using AI, ChatGPT is one tool you can utilize. The process of incorporating a tool like ChatGPT into your writing process has 5 steps:

1. Brainstorming for Essay Topics

• Initial Ideas: Share with ChatGPT any preliminary ideas or experiences that you would like to discuss in your college essay. These could be noteworthy experiences, accomplishments, or facets of your personality.
• Finding Themes: The core of your essay may be formed by interacting with ChatGPT to find interesting themes or lessons from life in your stories.

2. Structuring Your College Essay

• Creating an Outline: Ask ChatGPT to create a structured outline for you. Make sure it has a logical opening, body paragraphs that explore your experiences or best traits, and a conclusion that connects to your main points.
• Organization: Verify that the outline presents your development or insights in a clear, easy-to-follow way.

3. Customizing to Reflect Your Personal Voice

• Adaptation: Adjust ChatGPT’s suggested phrasings to align with how you yourself would express those ideas, and make sure the details provided about your experiences are both accurate and the best ones to communicate your point.
• Connection to the Prompt: Make sure the ideas are presented in a way that clearly answers the prompt, rather than as a vague narrative that could be responding to anything.

4. Enhancing Authenticity and Creativity

• The Hook: Crafting a vivid, engaging hook is something you’ll likely have to do on your own, as only you have access to your full treasure chest of experiences, and so only you can determine which one would make for the strongest start to your essay.
• Personalization of Goals: Many students have similar goals for college, which is totally normal, but you want to make sure you’re describing them in a way that’s truly unique to you. Being reliant on ChatGPT when you’re spelling out what you want to do in college will likely cause your application to sound the same as everyone else’s.

5. Applying Personal Insight and Ethical Considerations

• True Narrative: As you work towards a final draft, make sure the story is being told in a way that feels authentic to you. ChatGPT will never know all the details of what has happened in your life, nor how your experiences have impacted you. Only you do, so verify that the heart of the story reflects your actual emotions about and reflections on your life.
• Respect for Integrity: Read back over your essay, and honestly ask yourself if you did the bulk of the writing yourself. If the answer is no, you’re unfortunately not done just yet—refer back to the steps above to ensure you’ve done the necessary personalization to your AI-generated rough draft.

Remember that there are other AI tools, like Google’s Bard, emerging in the generative content arena, so these tips for writing a college admissions essay are not just applicable to ChatGPT. Select an AI tool that you are comfortable using, and treat it as an aid for brainstorming and organizing your essay, while still taking the time to describe the distinctive human elements of your story yourself.

Using AI for your activities list in college applications can be beneficial, as this list exists to provide a concise and factual summary of your extracurricular involvement, roles, and accomplishments, rather than the deeper personal reflection of full-length essays. Particularly given the challenge of wrestling with strict character limits, such as 150 characters on the Common App, AI can assist you in creating succinct yet impactful descriptions. 

It’s crucial, however, to ensure that the AI-generated content accurately reflects your experiences and effectively highlights your skills and achievements. So, like with your essays, fact-checking and editing are key steps in this process. While AI can facilitate the drafting of your activities list, it’s important to double check that the final version is an authentic depiction of you extracurricular involvement. Remember, AI doesn’t actually know what you did, only you do.

Given their heavy workloads, some teachers may use AI to help them write recommendation letters. Even before the rise of AI, educators have traditionally relied on rec letter templates for efficiency, as these letters, while personalized, typically have a relatively standardized format. So, writing an initial draft of a rec letter is definitely a suitable task for AI.

Students should, however, have confidence that their teachers will personalize these letters, to ensure that they reflect unique insights into their own abilities and character. Definitely don’t ask your teachers whether they’re going to use AI to write your letter—you may come across as accusatory or even outright rude.

Overall, teachers and counselors can benefit greatly from tools such as CollegeVine’s AI Rec Letter Assistant , which quickly generates personalized, editable drafts of recommendation letters, tailored to each student using their specific data and adapted to match the educator’s unique writing style. But these tools are just to streamline the letter-writing process—your teachers are going to read them over to make sure they’re also incorporating a personal touch.

There is no one-size-fits-all answer to whether colleges will use AI checkers, because practices for every element of admissions vary by institution, and many are still adapting to the rapidly evolving AI technologies out there. However, while you have no way of knowing for sure whether or not a given college is using AI checking technology, it shouldn’t matter, as you simply shouldn’t use AI to write your essays. 

In addition to all of the reasons given above for why you should write your essays yourself, if you’re unable to personally invest in writing a supplemental essay for a school, you may want to take a step back and ask yourself how genuine your interest really is in that particular institution.

How to Get Feedback on Your Essays

Need some quick feedback on your essays? Consider using CollegeVine’s free AI essay reviewer, Ivy, for ethical AI assistance in refining your essays. Ivy can give you immediate feedback on how to improve the structure and content of your essays. 

However, human feedback is equally important, as AI may not fully comprehend the nuances of your writing. Check out CollegeVine’s Peer Essay Review tool to receive free critiques from other students who can provide valuable feedback on your work. This tool also allows you to improve your own writing skills by reviewing your peers’ essays.

CollegeVine also provides access to college admissions experts for more specialized advice regarding essays. These advisors have a proven track record of assisting students in refining their essays and submitting successful applications to selective universities, and will increase your chances of getting into your dream college by giving you personalized, insightful feedback on your writing.

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The essay you've presented is touching, and it shows a sincere reflection on an individual experience during challenging times. However, there are some areas that could be improved:

1. Clarity and Cohesiveness: Your usage of the 'song' metaphor throughout the essay can be a bit confusing. When reading your essay, clarity is essential. Using a clearer approach to express your thoughts would serve you better. Instead of using a metaphor throughout your essay, use it only in certain parts to create an image or elicit emotion.

2. Set the Stage: While you mention your location change to Australia and your temporary assignment, you don't mention what it is. A sentence or two explaining what this temporary assignment entailed could give more context to your narrative.

3. Specific Examples: You refer to your experiences and lessons learned, such as finding comfort in journal writing and learning guitar. However, it would create a stronger impact if you discuss a specific episode that encapsulates these experiences. For instance, was there a particular entry in your journal that changed your perspective? Did you learn a specific song on the guitar that became your anchor?

4. Concluding Thoughts: Though you conclude with a reflection that you learned to listen to your "slow, warm, and soothing song", the profoundness of this realization might be underplayed. It might be useful to enrich your conclusion by explaining how these experiences will influence your future actions.

5. Word Count: Your essay is concise and does not exceed the recommended word limit. By making these suggested changes, your essay could demonstrate an emotional maturity and self-awareness that will stand out to any admissions committee. The resilience you gained through your experiences will undoubtedly serve you well at Georgetown University.

Great work! Here is some feedback that you would make yoru essay even better. Copy

The essay brims with passion and communicates a clear sense of what inspires the writer, i.e., music. It paints a vivid picture of how playing music exhilarates the writer and the role it plays in their lives. However, parts of the essay can still be improved to emphasize the candidate's qualities and the effects of their inspiration.

1. Informality: The essay is written in a somewhat casual and informal tone. While this makes the essay sound conversational and genuine, an overly casual tone might not be optimal for a college application. For example, phrases like "Hope that helps and brings a smile to your face." may seem too relaxed. Instead, strive for a balance where your unique voice and personality can still shine through, but where your words reflect mature contemplation and seriousness of purpose.

2. Lack of Personal Experiences: The essay mentions the enjoyment derived from playing the piano but lacks specific anecdotes or detailed experiences that would elevate the narrative. Details such as moments when you mastered a difficult piece, or when your music particularly resonated with a listener would make the passion tangible.

3. Non-Expanded Inspiration: While the essay tells us that the writer finds inspiration in music and revered pianists, it would be beneficial to explain how this inspiration influences other aspects of your life. For instance, does music inspire you to study certain subjects, engage in community service, or view the world in a particular way? This would provide a more well-rounded understanding of your inspiration.

4. Connection to Yale: Since this is for a Yale application, consider mentioning how this passion can be further explored at Yale. Maybe there's a specific course or extracurricular activity you’re excited about. This could help display your interest in the university and how smoothly you'd assimilate academically and socially.

5. Ending: The essay concludes on a slightly abrupt note. A concluding paragraph that encapsulates your source of inspiration and briefly hints at your future aspirations or goals, tying your passion for music back to your vision for your time at Yale or your career, would round off the essay well. This ties your inspiration to your future, presenting a holistic view of why your inspiration is crucial to you.

The essay is a good start. It provides a fair representation of your personality, showing a balance between academic and extracurricular interests, as well as a sense of humor. However, several aspects can be improved for more depth and specificity.

1. Show, Don't Tell: You've mentioned your interests, but it's better to offer relevant experiences that visually depict these activities. For example, instead of simply stating your interest in books and soccer, you could relate an incident where knowledge from a novel strategically played a role in a soccer match.

2. Harvard Reference: The mention about choosing Harvard appears generic lacking depth; it can be applied to any highly reputable university. Instead, illustrate distinct aspects of Harvard that specifically align with your interests or goals. For example, maybe there's a professor within your chosen major with whom you would love to work.

3. Anecdotes or Stories: Adding anecdotes or stories about your community work or your struggle with a bag of gummy bears will not only make the essay more engaging, but it will reveal more about your personality and character.

4. Clearer Transitions: The transitions between different parts of the essay can be smoother and more natural. For instance, you abruptly switch from talking about soccer to Harvard which may confuse readers momentarily. A transitional sentence could mitigate this issue.

5. Values and Character Traits: Try to provide implicit insights into your values or character traits through your experiences and interests. For instance, volunteering indicates a sense of responsibility and commitment to the welfare of others. Your fascination for books could demonstrate intellectual curiosity and open-mindedness.

6. Conclusion: The ending could be more impactful or persuasive. Instead of just hoping for great times at Harvard, you could express enthusiasm about contributing positively to Harvard and its community with your future roommate. Remember, the purpose of this essay is to demonstrate what you would contribute to the Harvard community and how you would engage with your future roommate. Tailoring anecdotes to reveal more about your character and aspirations will allow the essay to resonate better with the committee.

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Educators see a role for ai in college admissions essays, many educators and college faculty are ok with students consulting chatgpt for help on admissions essays, but chatbots can't be a replacement for a student's own voice, subjective experience and thoughts..

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I asked ChatGPT to write college entrance essays. Admissions professionals said they passed for essays written by students but I wouldn't have a chance at any top colleges.

• I asked OpenAI's ChatGPT to write some college admissions essays and sent them to experts to review.
• Both of the experts said the essays seemed like they had been written by a real student.
• However, they said the essays wouldn't have had a shot at highly selective colleges.

ChatGPT can be used for many things: school work , cover letters , and apparently, college admissions essays. 

College essays, sometimes known as personal statements, are a time-consuming but important part of the application process . They are not required for all institutions, but experts say they can make or break a candidate's chances when they are.

The essays are often based on prompts that require students to write about a personal experience, such as:

Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

I asked ChatGPT to whip up a few based on some old questions from the Common App , a widely used application process across the US. In about 10 minutes I had three entrance essays that were ready to use.

At first, the chatbot refused to write a college application essay for me, telling me it was important I wrote from my personal experience. However, after prompting it to write me a "specific example answer" to an essay question with vivid language to illustrate the points, it generated some pretty good text based on made-up personal experiences. 

I sent the results to two admissions professionals to see what they thought. 

The essays seemed like they had been written by real students, experts say

Both of the experts I asked said the essays would pass for a real student. 

Adam Nguyen, founder of tutoring company Ivy Link , previously worked as an admissions reader and interviewer in Columbia's Office of Undergraduate Admission and as an academic advisor at Harvard University. He told Insider: "Having read thousands of essays over the years, I can confidently say that it would be extremely unlikely to ascertain with the naked eye that these essays were AI-generated."

Kevin Wong, Princeton University alumnus and cofounder of tutoring service PrepMaven, which specializes in college admissions, agreed.

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"Without additional tools, I don't think it would be easy to conclude that these essays were AI-generated," he said. "The essays do seem to follow a predictable pattern, but it isn't plainly obvious that they weren't written by a human."

"Plenty of high school writers struggle with basic prose, grammar, and structure, and the AI essays do not seem to have any difficulty with these basic but important areas," he added.

Nguyen also praised the grammar and structure of the essays, and said that they also directly addressed the questions.

"There were some attempts to provide examples and evidence to support the writer's thesis or position. The essays are in the first-person narrative format, which is how these essays should be written," he said.

Wong thought the essays may even have been successful at some colleges. "Assuming these essays weren't flagged as AI-generated, I think they could pass muster at some colleges. I know that students have been admitted to colleges after submitting essays lower in quality than these," he said. 

OpenAI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

They weren't good enough for top colleges

Nguyen said I wouldn't be able to apply to any of the top 50 colleges in the US using the AI-generated essays.

"These essays are exemplary of what a very mediocre, perhaps even a middle school, student would produce," Nguyen said. "If I were to assign a grade, the essays would get a grade of B or lower."

Wong also said the essays wouldn't stack up at "highly selective" colleges . "Admissions officers are looking for genuine emotion, careful introspection, and personal growth," he said. "The ChatGPT essays express insight and reflection mostly through superficial and cliched statements that anyone could write."

Nguyen said the writing in the essays was fluffy, trite, lacked specific details, and was overly predictable.

"There's no element of surprise, and the reader knows how the essay is going to end. These essays shouldn't end on a neat note, as if the student has it all figured out, and life is perfect," he said. 

"With all three, I would scrap 80-90% and start over," he said.

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.

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Is AI Affecting College Admissions?

AI can help schools automate and expedite parts of the admissions process, experts say.

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Some admissions professionals – roughly two-thirds, according to the Intelligent survey – have concerns about the ethical ramifications of using AI.

As artificial intelligence has become increasingly prevalent, so have discussions about its place in higher education. A growing number of college professors say they're embracing tools like ChatGPT in their classrooms, and many admissions offices are incorporating some form of AI in the decision-making process, a trend that many say will grow in the coming years.

Fifty percent of higher education admissions offices are using AI, according to a September 2023 survey by Intelligent, an online magazine focused on higher education. That number is expected to rise to more than 80% in 2024, according to the survey, which polled nearly 400 education professionals in both K-12 and higher education.

The idea of AI being used in college admissions may conjure anxiety among prospective college applicants and their families, experts say, particularly since 87% of survey respondents whose schools currently use AI – including both colleges and K-12 schools – said it is "sometimes" or "always" used to make final decisions on applicants.

But experts say its use may not be as ominous as it sounds on the surface, and it doesn't mean the human element will be completely replaced.

"When people hear this, they freak out,” says Rick Clark, assistant vice provost and executive director of undergraduate admission at Georgia Institute of Technology . “They saw that study come out and they think all of a sudden Yale is not going to have humans making decisions anymore. That is just completely false."

How AI Is Being Used in Admissions

In most admissions offices where it's being used, AI is an efficiency tool to automate certain aspects of the admissions process and help lighten the load for admissions officers, particularly those at schools that receive a high volume of applications.

The most common uses are to review recommendation letters and transcripts, according to the survey; more than 70% of respondents said they use AI for such tasks. Sixty-one percent said they use it to communicate with applicants through some form of chatbot or automated messaging; 60% said they use it to review personal essays and 50% reported using it to conduct interviews .

That schools use AI to make "final" admissions decisions may be misleading, experts say. Highly selective schools, with acceptance rates often below 10%, require nuanced application evaluation and final decisions made by humans. That won't change even as the use of AI in college admissions grows, experts say.

But schools that have historically made decisions using a formula or rubric, where they’re pulling data to analyze standardized test scores and GPAs to see if students fit within the school's admissions criteria, have begun using AI to make some of those initial screening decisions to eliminate applications that automatically don't qualify.

The process was already "very algorithmic" when done by humans, but now AI allows it to be automated, says Diane Gayeski, a professor of strategic communication at Ithaca College in New York and a higher education adviser for Intelligent. This frees up admissions counselors to focus more on other aspects of admissions like scholarships and financial aid , which can be especially beneficial at schools with a smaller admissions staff, Clark says.

"If you can have an AI model run through and then a human just sort of spot checks it, and it can go ahead and make those decisions, that’s just going to let your team focus on what’s viable or important,” Clark says.

For example, since 2008, Rutgers University—New Brunswick in New Jersey has used a self-reported academic record system, where applicants enter their grades and the system recalculates an academic GPA, meaning it removes any "nonacademic" courses such as certain electives. Additionally, Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and honors grades are weighted.

The system uses this information, along with SAT and ACT scores, to create an academic profile of an applicant that allows admissions counselors to predict whether they'd be successful at the school.

Rutgers—New Brunswick has received more than 60,000 applications for fall 2024 admission, a record high, says Courtney McAnuff, vice chancellor for enrollment management. The school's academic record system saves admissions officers a lot of time, as they ask only for official transcripts of the roughly 7,700 students who are admitted based on their self-reported data.

"It saves us about 400,000 transactions because we’re not getting transcripts, either digitally or through the mail," McAnuff says. "We don’t have to file or image those transcripts. We don’t have to acknowledge the 50,000 people that called and asked if we got their transcript.”

They typically see fewer than 10 cases each year where self-reported data doesn't match the official school transcript, in which cases admissions or scholarship decisions are void .

How AI Will Be Used in Future College Admissions

Clark says in the future he can see more schools going to a similar model as Rutgers, but potentially figuring out ways for high schools to input official transcript data, which the AI application would then analyze according that university's specific rubric.

“If a school uploads a transcript and you’ve got AI that can go in and do that for you, it takes work off of the students and is theoretically more accurate, because it’s coming from the school and the transcript is being calculated by AI through that same mechanism,” he says.

Similarly, schools may begin using AI to scrape information from a transcript to identify an applicant’s grades in certain disciplines. This can be especially valuable if students identify the discipline they plan to study or are applying to a certain school, such as engineering . Some AI tools can make it easier for admissions officers to locate and sort grades in specific courses without having to repeatedly refer to the transcript.

"That’s where, I think, absolutely in the year ahead, there’s going to be solutions for eliminating the need for human touch on that kind of thing," Clark says. "None of that really needs to be done by a human going forward because that’s what AI is skilled at. Training it to locate and populate those type of fields is where it will become, very soon, part of our review process but not a decision-making process."

While there may be some concern about AI being used in college admissions, 56% of those already using it and 38% of those who plan to use it said they think AI can help reduce bias in the admissions process. Gayeski says she hopes more good will come from it than bad.

"The process of AI is kind of illuminating," she says, "because if it makes people actually define their criteria better and if it could make it more transparent to the public, I think that would be helpful."

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, how do colleges detect ai in essays.

Hey all, I've heard that some students might use AI to write their essays for college applications. How do colleges go about detecting the use of AI in these essays, and what steps might they take to prevent it?

Colleges are aware of the possibility of students using AI-generated content in their essays and have developed strategies to identify such submissions. Here are some ways colleges may detect AI-generated essays:

1. Writing style inconsistencies: Admissions officers read thousands of essays and are skilled at recognizing inconsistencies in writing style. If a student's AI-generated essay doesn't match the writing style found in other parts of their application, this can raise suspicion.

2. Overuse of complex vocabulary and convoluted sentence structures: AI-generated content can sometimes produce unconventional sentence structures and use sophisticated vocabulary, which might seem out of place in a high school student's essay. This can also be a red flag for admissions officers.

3. Unnatural flow or coherence problems: Although AI models are getting better at generating coherent content, they can still struggle with maintaining a logical flow or connecting ideas in a natural way. When an essay seems disjointed or illogical, it may signal the use of AI.

4. Overgeneralized or inconsistent content: AI might generate statements that lack concrete examples or provide little insight into the student's personal experiences. Additionally, AI-generated essays could contain information or perspectives inconsistent with the student's background or other parts of their application.

5. Plagiarism-detection tools: Though AI-generated content may not always be considered plagiarism, colleges often use plagiarism-detection software to scan essays. Some of these tools can now identify potential AI-generated content by detecting language patterns and other linguistic features commonly found in such text.

In addition to these detection methods, colleges emphasize the importance of personal, authentic essays in the application process. Guidelines and recommendations from colleges typically encourage students to write about their unique experiences, feelings, and aspirations. When students are transparent and genuinely express themselves, it not only minimizes the chances of AI detection but also helps their applications stand out to admissions officers.

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11 Best AI Tools for College Admissions

The AI revolution has impacted every industry, including education. AI-powered tools are accessible and user-friendly, making them valuable resources for everyone from experienced professionals to high school students applying to college.

As a student, using AI-powered tools can help you in numerous ways. You can upskill yourself, build new skills, produce high-quality school work throughout the year, and, importantly, optimize the college application process for yourself. These tools can assist you with brainstorming essay topics, practicing sample interview questions, and studying for tests.

In this blog, we'll highlight some of the best AI tools for high school students applying to college. Some of these tools are also helpful for education by and large. However, it's important to note that these tools should be used as a starting point or inspiration, rather than a replacement for your own work. Use these tools creatively to add value to your work and save time!

College Application Strategy

1. admityogi.

AdmitYogi lets you read through the successful college applications of past applicants. They use an AI-powered recommendation algorithm to match you with a similar profile student at your dream school, with the same demographics, stats, and majors. From there, you can read the essays and activities that got them in and get inspired to overcome writer’s block or build your own admission profile.

You can learn more about the tool and how to use it to the fullest here .

An AdmitYogi profile looks something like this -

Pricing : You can try out the tool for free and view one student profile, but to view 5 profiles or more, you may have to opt for plans that start at $10/profile - a price much lower than other profile comparison tools available for high school students.

Interview Prep + General Research

An incredibly versatile tool, ChatGPT can be used to assist you in your college admissions journey in several ways. You can feed as detailed or general prompts as you prefer , and receive answers almost instantly.

Here are a few ways you can make the most out of ChatGPT 's Natural Language Processing model for your college admissions -

Generate prompts and outlines for your essays, and provide inspiration for your letters of motivation.

You can ask ChatGPT to pose an interviewer from a certain university, interviewing you for, say, a Business degree. You can practice your responses and ask ChatGPT for feedback.

Note that you should avoid over-rehearsing your answers since it can lead to a dip in authenticity and flow. However, simply preparing yourself with a few pointers for basic questions is a good idea!

Here is an example of the sort of help ChatGPT could give you for writing a diversity essay. You can get ideas on what sort of clubs exist, then ask follow-up questions on each and even request for a good outline.

Note that you should not fully and blindly rely on ChatGPT for your writing/research , as it claims to have limited knowledge of events after 2021, so it's a good idea to keep cross-checking with official websites and stats.

Pricing : Free of cost

Test prep: standardized tests or otherwise

The SAT, IELTS, and TOEFL are just a few test scores that are required for a successful application to many American universities, as well as prestigious universities abroad. Test prep from external organizations and centers can be quite expensive. You can consider using the following tools to help you prepare better (and often, faster) for standardized tests, as well as exams and tests at school.

For visual learners, flashcards are a powerful learning tool, and Quetab provides you with AI-powered flashcards to help you learn concepts faster. You can enter the words, concepts, or prompts that you need to study and memorize and enter it, and Quetab's AI program will create flashcards almost instantly.

Quetab is incredibly beginner-friendly and clutter-free , ensuring you don't run into any ads or other distractions while studying.

Additionally, Quetab also helps you with summarizing a large piece of text, forming questions from given content, as well as generating keywords.

Note : Quetab flashcards can be used to memorize vocabulary for language proficiency tests, formulas for math and quantitative aptitude tests, as well as other subject-specific concepts that you may need to memorize.

Pricing : You can avail of Quetab's services completely free of cost.

4. Lumos Learning for SAT

Lumos Learning is an AI-powered tool for SAT practice . SAT prep involves learning quantitative as well as logical and language-based skills. Lumos Learning allows you to take mock tests and assess the topics you need to put in a little extra effort towards, and the topics you can refine further for a perfect score.

You can keep track of your scores over time, take a look at the topics you need help with, and access tutorials for the same on Lumos.

Note : Lumos has lots of informational blogs on SAT prep that you can take a look at before diving into your test prep.

Pricing : Lumos Learning has paid plans, which you can check out here.

5. Mathia by Carnegie Learning

Mathia is an AI-powered math learning platform for students. Using Mathia to learn tricky concepts in high school and middle school math has led to double growth in students' performance on standardized tests.

The tool uses adaptive learning technology and data from your assessments and tests to identify areas where you are struggling and provides personalized practice to help you improve. You can use Mathia to create a self-paced, personalized tutoring system, along with 1:1 guidance.

Pricing : Mathia offers pricing plans per unit per year, more details of which you can check here.

Essays and Writing Assignments

6. grammarly.

Grammarly is an effective AI-powered typing assistant that helps you strengthen grammar , tone, and writing style, as well as grammatical and syntax errors. You can use Grammarly to grammar-check and correct emails, SOPs, and personal essays , as well as help, phrase your interview answers during prep better.

Grammarly also offers plagiarism-checking services that you can consider using for your research before and after joining college.

However, it's important to use Grammarly selectively and not become overly dependent on it. While it can be a helpful resource, you won't have it for tests, so it's essential to develop your writing skills as well. With that said, Grammarly can be an excellent tool to help you improve your writing and avoid common mistakes.

Pricing : While the Premium version is priced a bit higher, the free version is a highly intuitive and robust tool that serves as an AI editor for all your content on the go.

Here’s an example of Grammarly’s editing process -

If you're looking for a tool that can help you effectively brainstorm, outline, and revise your supplemental essays with AI, check out Sups ! This is pretty solid tool for high schoolers just starting out with their college applications, and want to opt in for an accessible, online, and private college admissions tutor available 24/7.

Sups tells how to improve your college application essays based on what admissions officers are looking for (without writing your essays for you).  All of the advice uses information on your background, making the feedback hyper-personal and tailored to your unique story. The tool also lets you add your college list and view all the required supplements in one place.

You can learn more about the tool and try it out for yourself here .

Brainstorming essay ideas with Sups looks something like this .  

Pricing : Y ou can start with a free plan for one college application. If you decide to use Sups for more college applications, plans start at $9 / month — a pretty great price to start with!

8. MoonBeam

College applications require lots of long-form content, ranging from essays, and cover letters, as well as letters of motivation. This can be a daunting task. MoonBeam is an AI tool that you can use for personalized feedback and data-driven writing assistance for long-form content.

You can use MoonBeam to generate an essay outline from a short prompt, create presentation outlines and content from your notes, or feed in a detailed prompt and generate a rough draft of your statement of purpose.

MoonBeam is a highly versatile writing tool and has been praised for its intuitive and unique content, so we recommend you give it a go for your next college application.

Pricing : MoonBeam offers free plans with a word limit and limited features, but as a student, the free plan is budget-friendly and efficient.

Designing high-quality documents, organizing information, and gathering resources

If you're applying to universities for a major that requires a portfolio/resume as part of your application, ensure that your material is visually rich and engaging. A seasoned admissions officer will take no more than a couple of minutes to review your entire application, and ensuring that your material stands out is of utmost importance.

Canva is a popular design tool that can be used to design your portfolios, research proposals and papers, essays, book reviews/blogs, as well as your student resumes. Additionally, you can also use Canva as a multipurpose design and editing tool for your school presentations or design-based submissions.

Canva recently dropped an update that now enables it to edit/create designs based on the prompt given , thanks to a deep AI integration.

Here’s a template that you can use for your student resume -

Note : Canva is also a great tool for group presentations and projects!

Pricing : Canva has a pretty huge library of templates and elements that you can use for free as a student, so we recommend you start from there and consider buying a Premium plan if necessary at later stages of your academic journey.

10. Otter.ai

If you're attending study groups, important presentations at school, as well as meetings with your academic counselor/mentor, having a transcribing too l is a lot more efficient than manually typing out all that was said at these meetings.

Otter.ai can be used as an extension on your browser , and captures slides displayed in meetings, quick meeting summaries, as well as live notes.

As an example, you can use Otter.ai to record any important tips and information from your meeting with your academic counselor and have it ready for review while applying to your dream schools. It also helps you be more mentally present during your meetings (because you are not the one making the notes).

Here’s what Otter.ai would do in a minute when instructed to take notes and screenshots of the content shared in the meeting -

Note : Here’s a blog by the Otter team about the various ways you can use Otter.ai to the fullest as a student.

Pricing: Otter.ai has a free plan for students and beginners, as well as paid plans that start at $8.33/month.

Using AI tools in the right way can be a game changer for you. These tools can enhance your academic and extracurricular performance, elevate the quality of your research or schoolwork, and streamline the college admission process. You can save time and effort, allowing you to explore new opportunities and embrace fresh challenges.

If you are interested in doing university-level research in a subject of your choice, then you could consider applying to the Lumiere Research Scholar Program , a selective online high school program for students that I founded with researchers at Harvard and Oxford. Last year, we had over 2100 students apply for 500 spots in the program! You can find the application form here.

Stephen is one of the founders of Lumiere and a Harvard College graduate. He founded Lumiere as a Ph.D. student at Harvard Business School. Lumiere is a selective research program where students work 1-1 with a research mentor to develop an independent research paper.

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Friday, April 12

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Admitted students talk role of ChatGPT in essays amid changing admissions policies

Princeton admitted students to the Class of 2028 on Dec. 14 as part of its Single Choice Early Action round.

Louisa gheorghita / the daily princetonian.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is receiving a growing focus at Princeton, serving as the subject of the Class of 2028 Pre-Read and spurring the creation of the Princeton Language and Intelligence Initiative (PLI) in September 2023. ChatGPT’s growing popularity has recently sparked conversation about its place in the classroom and whether it can be accurately detected .

Questions about the role of AI in essay writing and the weight essays should hold in the admissions process remain, during an admissions cycle already upturned by the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action. These concerns have already resulted in Duke University’s decision to abandon the practice of scoring applicant essays.

The newly admitted Class of 2028 is the first Princeton class to have access to this controversial technology during the admissions process. The Daily Princetonian spoke to admits on their perspective on the usage of generative AI during the college application process, and a professor with expertise in the field.

All three incoming members of the Class of 2028 interviewed by the ‘Prince’ said that they had not used any form of AI in their essays, though one student experimented with AI during the essay-writing process.

They expressed that they felt the personal focus of the essay made it an ill-fit for AI assistance. 

“I don’t really know what it would help with because you’re supposed to write about yourself, and it doesn’t know anything about you,” Jacob Emerson ’28 said.

Jamie Creasi ’28 expressed a similar sentiment. “There’s no way for it to communicate the challenges I’ve experienced, or what kind of life I have,” she said.

Hemant Sharma ’28 described his experience with attempting to use AI. He found that his essay “lost its emotional touch” so he ended up reverting to his old essay. “[ChatGPT] just made everything worse,” he said.

The University shares this position. In a written statement to the ‘Prince,’ University Spokesperson Jennifer Morrill wrote, “An essay generated by an AI platform is unlikely to be as rich and nuanced as a student’s own words.”

The ‘Prince’ spoke with Associate Professor of Computer Science Arvind Narayanan about ChatGPT's writing abilities. Professor Narayanan said that while AI may be capable of writing a passable essay, it likely would not be any easier than writing an essay without AI assistance. 

Professor Narayanan said, “If the use of AI assistance causes [the college admissions essay] to matter even less, I see it as an entirely positive development,” finding the essay to be “an exercise in performative authenticity.” 

The new admits differed in opinion about regulating generative AI use in the college admissions process. Creasi likened the usage of ChatGPT to a calculator which helps conduct simple calculations in order to allow a focus on more complex tasks. 

“At first, people saw calculators as a way of cheating because you don’t have to do a lot of the equations that you once did or use your mind in the same sort of way. But since then, we’ve adapted to calculators … we can do higher level math or physics,” he said.

Conversely, Sharma felt that detection of AI usage in a college essay should be allowed, stating, “I think there should be at least a minor punishment because it’s easier if we curb it now so that it doesn’t hurt anyone later in the future.” 

However, even if schools agreed to take action against students suspected of unauthorized AI use, Professor Narayanan believes AI-identification technology is not at the “level of accuracy that would make it justifiable to penalize applicants for using AI assistance.”

Although the University did not respond with explicit rules about the use of generative AI in the college application process, Morrill wrote that all applicants “sign a statement acknowledging all information in the application (including the essays) is their own work.”

Claire Meng is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’

Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

Chebbi, Johnson, and Ugwonali advance to YAT general election

The three Young Alumni Trustee (YAT) candidates moving forward to the general election are Aisha Chebbi ’24, Sydney S. Johnson ’24, and Chioma Ugwonali ’24. The candidates won the primary election, coming out on top of a pool of 27 candidates.

NJ AI Summit addresses University's role in expanding AI statewide

Recently, the University hosted a New Jersey AI summit to address the growing role that the University plans to play in the statewide expansion of AI.

Projects Board funding runs dry for Spring semester, student groups frustrated

Project’s Board is coming to the end of their $130,000 semester budget. Several groups have reported receiving less or no funding in the final weeks of the semester, leading to speculation about the status of the Projects Board budget. The Daily Princetonian spoke with USG and Projects Board representatives, as well as student group leaders to understand how this happened.

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The Right Thing: The admissions essay you write should be your own

M y social media feeds have been all atwitter for some time about how the artificial intelligence (AI) bot ChatGPT could affect college admissions essays. Concern abounds that applicants will begin to use ChatGPT to generate admission essays that respond to college application prompts.

In a column for Inside Higher Education, Jim Jump, a seasoned counselor to high school seniors applying to college, recounted his experience being asked by Forbes magazine to weigh in on an essay generated by ChatGPT and definitively determine whether or not it was written by a person.

“I probably couldn’t detect the AI authorship,” Jump wrote, but he pointed out that he “wouldn’t label the essays as convincing.” They were cliched and did not respond to the prompt convincingly. “They also didn’t sound like an essay a teenager would write, but rather an essay a teenager might write with major assistance and editing by an adult.”

Shortly after I read Jump’s column, I saw a post on LinkedIn that mentioned embracing AI is crucial for aspiring students and job seekers. The poster pointed out how ChatGPT could write your admission essay for you, adding that high-priced admissions consultants who are hired to assist students with all aspects of their college admission process, including the essay, “are going to face tough days soon.”

Why is there so much fuss about prospective students using ChatGPT or similar AI tools to write their essays for them when many students with means have hired admissions consultants to “assist” them with their college application essays for years?

It is likely no easier to detect whether an admissions consultant wrote an essay for a student than it would be to determine whether ChatGPT did. In fact, as the technology evolves, it might become easier to detect ChatGPT’s work than the work of a seasoned admissions counselor.

An ethical admissions counselor, of course, should never write an application essay for a client. But if an application instructs applicants that they should not have someone else write or edit their essay for them, the line between “edit” and “coach” might be blurry. (Summon the angry letters from seasoned admissions consultants.)

If coaching involves giving a prospective student general advice, that seems fair. Such advice might be to make sure to actually answer the prompt, to make sure they try to include personal examples that could only come from them, to proofread their work. You know, basic stuff any high school senior should have learned in school but may not have taken to heart at the time.

The real question college admissions committees should be asking is whether they are explicit in their instructions that an applicant’s work should be their own. Having them sign a statement that indicates they did not rely on neither AI bots nor any one person to write, rewrite or heavily edit their work doesn’t guarantee they won’t, but it becomes a first test of a prospective student’s integrity. If they know that violating their agreement risks losing admission, that might give them pause. But the real reason students should do their own work is because it might give the admissions committee a sense of the person behind the essay … and because it’s the right thing to do.

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College Admissions in the Age of AI 

April 12, 2024

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is everywhere. You’re likely seeing it mentioned on the news and social media; it’s probably even been a topic in your classes or school assemblies. But there’s also a lot of misinformation about AI and, you guessed it, that can have dangerous implications for your college application. 

We’ll take a closer look at how college admissions and online applications in general are evolving in the age of AI as you prepare for the process yourself. 

Is AI Ethical?  

Let’s start with the big picture first: What is AI really, and is it ethical?  

AI is a technology that allows computers and machines to simulate human intelligence. For example, it enables human functions like problem-solving, interpreting speech, playing games, and identifying patterns.  

Generative AI, a form of AI, has been the topic of recent headlines, and is affecting schools, and more, worldwide. Generative AI can generate text, images, or other data using generative models, often in response to prompts. One of the most controversial forms of generative AI is ChatGPT.  

ChatGPT was created with large language models, also known as language-related data, to be able to create written thoughts or conversations based on topic and level of detail, format, length, style, and language.  

As you likely already know, users can send a prompt to ChatGPT, give it specific directions, and it will generate the content you request. Generative AI is also popping up in other industries, especially in healthcare.  

While it may seem like a sudden, new technology on the rise, some AI has been used for decades. AI can be as simple as a computer game like checkers; remember, this is a technology that allows computers and machines to simulate human intelligence, like playing games.  

Now, back to our first question: is AI ethical? The short answer is that… it’s complicated. While some AI technologies have helped create more efficient systems and led to significant progress across industries, some AI implications are troublesome. Many global leaders and prominent scientists are concerned about the impact of generative AI – what does it mean for human creativity? For privacy? Bias, disinformation, and more?  

Exhaustive debates are happening about AI’s ethical implications, but before we get in over our heads, let’s cover exactly what AI means for you in the college admissions process. 

For starters, keep in mind that ChatGPT is a slippery slope in academia. Some students may be abusing ChatGPT and entirely relying on it to help them complete their academic work, like essay writing, exams, and more. Trusting ChatGPT is dangerous territory. Much research has shown that ChatGPT can generate disinformation; it won’t always answer prompts correctly.  

Plus, if you entirely rely on ChatGPT to help you through academic work, you’re doing yourself a disservice – the more you depend on a piece of technology to do your thinking for you, the more you’ll struggle when it comes time to do it on your own. And this counts toward the college admissions process, too. You also risk that you won’t come across as your authentic, unique self and stand out amongst your peers. Which brings us to our next heads up. 

Do College Admissions Check for AI?

Yes, college admissions teams do check for AI, especially when it comes to the personal essay and supplemental writing prompts.  

College admissions teams use your application to get to know you. And one of the main ways they get a glimpse into your life and personality is through your writing. Your high school transcript certainly doesn’t demonstrate as much about you as your personal essay does!  

If you’re using an AI tool like ChatGPT to answer personal prompts, college admissions teams won’t get to know you. Not only will your writing style and tone of voice evaporate, you also can’t trust ChatGPT to describe your personal life and truly explain obstacles you may have faced, lessons you’ve learned, and influential people who have helped shape you.  

Read More: What Is the Most Important Factor in College Admissions?   

How Do College Admissions Check for AI?  

“What AI detector do college admissions use?” It depends. Some college admissions teams use AI-detection tools that can identify specific patterns and compare them to existing content. Remember, ChatGPT generates content that blends other data points and existing information, so sometimes the technology repeats itself or provides similar information to different users. Talk about getting lost in the crowd. 

College admissions teams are also made up of trained professionals who closely examine all aspects of college applications, so they are well-suited to see if something looks disingenuous. Detecting ChatGPT content is becoming a skill not only in college admissions and academia, but in the professional world too – various clues and patterns in the content alert reviewers.  

Our advice? It’s better to be safe than sorry. While you can turn to technology if you need inspiration, don’t entirely rely on AI or ChatGPT to write your personal college application essay, or more, for you. You’re much better off being yourself and attempting it on your own than getting caught trying to pass something off that’s not your own.  

Better yet, if you’re really feeling stuck when it comes to the writing portions of your college application, lean on your support system to help you. Seek out teachers or your high school guidance counselor for advice; your family and even your friends can help inspire your writing. And believe it or not, you can use ChatGPT as a tool (not the entire solution) to help, too.  

Check out some ethical ways you can utilize ChatGPT to help steer you in the right direction :   

• Generate ideas and brainstorm: Ask for a list of additional writing prompts or topics if you’re having difficulty getting started.  
• Understand complicated topics: Try asking for definitions or more context about specific issues if you’re confused or overwhelmed by your writing prompts.  
• Summarize research: If you’ve discovered some research that you’d like to include in your writing, ask ChatGPT for a quick summary to help you dissect it faster.  
• Analyze sentiment and tone: Ask ChatGPT to analyze the sentiment and tone of your writing if you’re unsure and want an additional review.  

Here’s the bottom line: College admissions teams can’t learn about you from a computer; try your best to complete your college application on your own so you can really impress them.  

CIEE Admissions Teams

Whether you’re heading straight to college after high school or considering a CIEE study abroad program for high school graduates , you’ll need to submit an online application. Our admissions teams at CIEE want to get to know you, too!  

If you’re struggling with anything on your CIEE application, we offer personal support and understand that enlisting some additional guidance (whether human or computer) might be needed. As with the college admissions process, we suggest utilizing different resources as tools for help on your application, not something to rely on entirely.   

We want to know you and your motivations for participating in something like CIEE Gap Year Abroad or CIEE First Year Abroad . Are you passionate about other cultures? Have you always dreamed of going to Japan? Or Australia? Tell us what excites you; we guarantee you won’t need AI for assistance.  

The college landscape and the many emerging technologies are always evolving, but one thing remains true: you deserve an application, a college experience, and a study abroad program as unique as you! You got this.  

SUBMIT A CIEE APPLICATION   

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Does the US college essay still have value?

Now that it has moved so far from its original purpose – and is often written by AI or a ghostwriter – what purpose does the US college application essay actually serve?

Warren Emanuel

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AI will change the world. Already, we can see ways in which widely available AI tools are shaping education , from enhanced curricular design to renewed focus on academic integrity in schools and universities.

So it stands to reason that the link between these institutions – the college application – would be similarly affected. And yet AI is hardly the only force acting upon the college application. The United States Supreme Court’s decision to ban the use of race in admissions decisions too will reshape what information universities request from applicants and how students choose to provide it.

Given the dynamics at play, it seems an appropriate time to re-evaluate the college essay and its intended purpose. 

The US college essay: a brief history

For the purposes of this exercise, let’s consider the college essay as the primary essay or personal statement required by the Common Application or by individual universities as part of the university application in the US.

It is important to note, however, that the term “college essay” is an oversimplification. In the US alone, there are myriad forms that the college essay or personal statement can take, including the Common Application essay. Yet not every applicant will use the Common Application to apply to university, or there might be university-specific supplemental essays required along with a personal statement.

Furthermore, there are key differences between the US college essay and the UK personal statement. 

An inauspicious beginning

The origin of the application essay is not one that reflects well on US universities. The application essay traces its roots to early 20th-century antisemitism, with the “character-based application” used predominantly as a tool to keep unwanted minority groups out of prestigious institutions. Those curious to learn more might read The Chosen ,  by sociology professor Jerome Karabel.

The college application essay, of course, evolved. And so for several decades, along with a combination of academic transcript, standardised testing and letter of recommendation, it remained a tool by which admissions offices throughout the US could assess an applicant’s preparedness to succeed at that particular institution.

Embracing the mass

Marketing guru and social thinker Seth Godin frequently writes about our historical movement towards the mass: mass production, mass communication, mass marketing. Perhaps curiously, the college essay was included in this shift.

The Common Application, a convenient and free application form accepted by more than 1,000 schools globally, requires one primary college essay. It offers students a choice of six essay prompts, and a seventh, “topic of your choice”, each with a word limit of 650 words.

Until somewhat recently, there were only five prompts, and a limit of merely 500 words. Applicants thus had to embrace the mass, to find a way to stand out slightly within a rather rigid mass-market application structure.

For decades it worked. It was imperfect, but it worked. The college essay retained a dual purpose of articulating academic and intellectual preparedness through the use of grammar, syntax, styles and mechanics, along with values and interests (drivers of fit) through content.

Tipping point

Like so many practices and processes before it, the college-admissions process reached a tipping point fuelled by the confluence of globalisation, ranking systems, cost, prestige and shifting cultural values.

Colleges and universities no longer had to sort through applicants to assess who was qualified to attend. Instead, they had to sort through the qualified applicants to determine which of them fit the institutional values and needs in that particular year, all while shaping (somewhat) diverse communities.

Preparedness remained an integral purpose of the college essay. Yet more than ever, an applicant’s voice, interests and values needed to shine through, so that admissions offices could assess the nebulous concept of fit.

Increasingly, applicants were instructed to “be unique” – which, while well intentioned, is not particularly helpful advice. The college essay peaked in importance, required to convey so much more than perhaps originally intended.

The college essay, disrupted

The US Merriam-Webster dictionary should consider “disrupt” the word of the year, to reflect the current infatuation with disrupting absolutely everything. Of course, sometimes we need a little disruptive behaviour. Other times, disruption occurs before we fully consider the implications.

It was fascinating to read that Duke  University – and likely other institutions – no longer assumes that applicants write their own college essays . This invites many questions:

• Is it OK if applicants are not writing their own essays?
• Who (ghostwriters) or what (AI) is writing them?
• How does an admissions committee assess preparedness if essays are inauthentic and testing is optional?
• What is the new purpose of the essay?

Contrary to any inclination towards fear or scepticism, there is ample reason to believe that the college essay, which has undergone multiple evolutions already, can still be beneficial to both applicant and admissions office. Consider the following questions:

• Is the applicant able to use modern tools, including AI, with integrity?
• Does the applicant share meaningful lived experience in a thoughtful and reflective way?
• Can the applicant convey authentic personal values and interests?

Within these rhetorical questions, the current purpose of the college essay is found. Certainly many applicants will continue to pen their own essays without AI assistance for years to come.

But even for those who use AI or rely on a ghostwriter, it is worth remembering that the shift away from preparedness as the primary purpose of the college essay began long ago, and that values, interests and voice still have merit. 

AI is transforming student selection in university admissions

Colleges are using artificial intelligence to screen candidates, conduct admission interviews and help freshmen choose a major.

No university administrator anywhere would consider entrusting the entire admission process to a computer. However, many of them view artificial intelligence (AI) as a valuable tool for initial screenings of the vast pool of annual applicants. It’s also a rising trend in corporate recruiting . According to a recent Infojobs report, AI was used by 5% of Spanish companies for hiring in 2023, with plans to extend this to another 11% soon. Ultimately, human judgment prevails in the final decision-making process. While Spanish public universities do not currently use AI for this purpose, private universities may embrace it in the future. The application of AI in student selection was a topic of discussion among university officials at the Reinventing Higher Education conference co-hosted by Spain’s IE University and the University of Miami in Florida.

“The top areas where AI can bring huge benefits are healthcare and education. So, I think it’s a mistake to try to avoid or ban it,” said University of Miami President Julio Frenk, who has launched a pilot program in admissions. “We review 50,000 applications every year and select around 8,000 to 9,000 students. If advanced language models can enhance selection, admission committees can make better-informed, fairer decisions for students.”

The University of Miami requires candidates to submit their grades and write an essay about their life experiences. “We seek traits to spot individuals who’ve conquered challenges. While we still need human judgment, AI can efficiently sift through huge applicant pools.” Frenk firmly denies their approach is elitist. “It’s pointless to accept someone only for them to leave after a year because they’re overwhelmed by the workload. This approach helps us focus our scholarships more effectively.”

Universities looking interested in applying AI in admissions processes need to clearly define the essential skills and competencies they require in students. By integrating an AI platform and training a customized algorithm, they can identify candidates who meet their criteria, while reducing individual biases. AI can also schedule and conduct interviews, keeping candidates informed throughout the admissions process. People must monitor the process closely and analyze student grade data for insights on trends and areas for improvement.

David Garza, rector and executive president of the prestigious Monterrey Institute of Technology (TEC) in Mexico, says his university has not considered using AI in admissions because their priority has been on applying it in teaching. TEC created its own bot to answer practical questions from university students and help teachers plan and prepare classes. Garza says he’s in favor of AI in admissions because “it can help us synthesize information. However, the final decision in a sensitive process like this one should remain in the hands of committees.” TEC requires an admission exam, a summary of academic achievements and an essay. If the application’s authorship is in doubt, a video is requested. TEC annually admits 6,000 students who go through a special high-school prep course, and another 6,000 from a pool of 18,000 applicants.

Many universities in Singapore, a global powerhouse in AI research, use AI in admissions processes. But not Singapore Management University. It’s vice-rector for research, Archan Misra, attended the conference in Miami and told us that if the university decides to use it in the future, it would implement “a kind of feedback loop,” so that students who exhibited the same pattern of success would be consistently selected. Misra, a computer science professor, offered another useful application of language models. “We’re considering AI to suggest interview questions for students, but the interviewer has the final call on which questions to ask. It’s a tool, not an AI-based student ranking system.”

At IE University, with campuses in Madrid and Segovia, the admission process is quite complex since it attracts students from 160 countries. They have a unique approach to using AI in admissions. University President Santiago Íñiguez described their development of an AI application to assist students in selecting a major. “We have two applications that provide uniform answers to the students’ questions and help them identify the most suitable major.” Íñiguez believes these types of applications are very helpful as they store and draw on all the information from previous candidate interviews.

IE University “no longer gives as much weight in admissions to essays and motivational letters,” said Íñiguez. Letters of recommendation have also dropped in importance. The AI used in admissions weighs an applicant’s complete academic record, admission test results and interview (to assess maturity). IE University accepts 9% of its applicants.

Minerva University president and founder Ben Nelson, which claims to be more selective than Harvard with a 1% admission rate, is concerned about AI in admissions leading to “false positives” and “false negatives.” He advises rigorous testing before implementation. “It can be useful, but you have to be very confident about it.” His San Francisco-based university uses “many of its own automated formulas” to evaluate the applicants’ mathematics and language achievements, and the rest of the process is “manual.” About 25,000 students apply to Minerva every year.

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