AI wants to ruin your college application
AI is becoming increasingly ubiquitous in many aspects of our lives, and this is hardly more true for any population than our teens who have grown up their entire lives as digital natives. Despite the many ways that AI tools can make life easier, there are some considerations that are particularly essential in the college admissions process.
Before you run that essay idea through ChatGPT, read on for what students and parents must know about the impact of AI on your college application–
1. You may be directly violating a college admissions policy:
Pay attention to the fine print. While some colleges have yet to articulate a policy, a growing number have expressly stated policies that prohibit the use of AI tools in the development of college applications. Many acknowledge that once a student has crafted their own work, the use of editing tools, such as Grammarly, are acceptable; a few allow students to use AI for brainstorming ideas. Any that have a published policy prohibit the use of AI to write for a student. Most importantly, the vast majority of students submit applications through the Common App. The Common App’s Fraud Policy expressly states that submitting “the substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform, technology, or algorithm” as one’s own work is considered plagiarism. By using the Common App, and signing the “Application Affirmation” required to submit an application, a student is affirming that their application is their own work, according to the Common App Fraud Policy. This puts a student in serious jeopardy of discrediting their application if AI is found to be used to generate essay content.
2. Your authentic voice and reflections cannot be replicated:
Generative AI, in its very design, is a copy cat. It processes the millions of pages of text it has previously been fed, and produces something that approximates what a college essay ‘should’ sound like. This is like the uncanny valley equivalent of human expression. If you are unfamiliar with the uncanny valley theory, it originates in the field of robotics and refers to the ways that humans feel uneasy, and are even repulsed, by a robot that too closely approximates a human being without actually being one. If you’ve ever seen the animated Polar Express film, you’ve likely encountered this feeling. No shade to Tom Hanks, but the CGI ‘realistic’ animation of this 2004 film leaves me feeling weird and unable to look the characters in the eye.
This is exactly the feeling I get when a student shares an essay with me after inviting ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting. The language feels like what a robot, sitting in a garret, wearing a wizard’s cape, might string together to approximate human emotion. It’s off, and the sense of hollowness it elicits is obvious to anyone, college admissions readers included, who have spent a lot of time reading the writing of high school students. Even if this lack of authenticity isn’t immediately apparent to your admissions reader, the feeling that the essay is ‘just okay,’ fails to capture a deep sense of who the writer is, or falls short of captivating the reader will likely come through. And if not that, the overwhelming likelihood is that a college admissions office is using an AI screening tool to detect the use of AI. How’s that for meta?
3. Honestly? You’re missing out.
As someone who has come alongside hundreds of students navigating the college process in the last 20 years, I can say unequivocally that a student who turns to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, HyperWrite or any other AI tool to generate ideas for them or work through the process of refining the language and flow of an essay, is losing something profound.
The neuroscience data that is now coming forward agrees with me. Among others, an MIT study recently corroborated that the use of ChatGPT to research ideas for writing or to generate content on behalf of a student dramatically impacts brain connectivity and cognitive development. I am not a neuroscientist, but years of working with students in the admissions process have affirmed for me the immeasurable value that comes from wrestling with your ideas, reflecting on your past and values, and shaping a vision for your future in the ways that college essays and supplements require. The work of honing that expression to reflect your most authentic self, and refining a final piece of work you are proud of, is the transformative power that leaning into the college process offers. Students who engage in this way build confidence in who they are, develop clarity about why they are drawn to the colleges they’ve applied to, and arrive to college better equipped to engage new people and ideas.
While these intrinsic gains are invaluable, there are extrinsic motivations as well. This process is essential to crafting a college application that captures the attention of an admissions reader with nuance, authenticity, and that particular je ne sais quoi that is like the lightning in a bottle that differentiates an otherwise strong applicant from an admitted one.
This is the 2nd in a multipart series on AI and the college admissions landscape. Read, part I here: AI has arrived to college admissions: what do students do now?
And if you find you are in need of support to navigate the college admissions process, TBU Advisors are experienced in supporting students to navigate their college choices and prepare their most compelling applications in ways that affirm their integrity and support their growth. If you’d like to explore working with a TBU Advisor, get in touch here. We look forward to connecting with you.
This is exactly the feeling I get when a student shares an essay with me after inviting ChatGPT to do the heavy lifting. The language feels like what a robot, sitting in a garret, wearing a wizard’s cape, might string together to approximate human emotion. It’s off, and the sense of hollowness it elicits is obvious to anyone, college admissions readers included, who have spent a lot of time reading the writing of high school students. Even if this lack of authenticity isn’t immediately apparent to your admissions reader, the feeling that the essay is ‘just okay,’ fails to capture a deep sense of who the writer is, or falls short of captivating the reader will likely come through. And if not that, the overwhelming likelihood is that a college admissions office is using an AI screening tool to detect the use of AI. How’s that for meta?
3. Honestly? You’re missing out.
As someone who has come alongside hundreds of students navigating the college process in the last 20 years, I can say unequivocally that a student who turns to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, HyperWrite or any other AI tool to generate ideas for them or work through the process of refining the language and flow of an essay, is losing something profound.
The neuroscience data that is now coming forward agrees with me. Among others, an MIT study recently corroborated that the use of ChatGPT to research ideas for writing or to generate content on behalf of a student dramatically impacts brain connectivity and cognitive development. I am not a neuroscientist, but years of working with students in the admissions process have affirmed for me the immeasurable value that comes from wrestling with your ideas, reflecting on your past and values, and shaping a vision for your future in the ways that college essays and supplements require. The work of honing that expression to reflect your most authentic self, and refining a final piece of work you are proud of, is the transformative power that leaning into the college process offers. Students who engage in this way build confidence in who they are, develop clarity about why they are drawn to the colleges they’ve applied to, and arrive to college better equipped to engage new people and ideas.
While these intrinsic gains are invaluable, there are extrinsic motivations as well. This process is essential to crafting a college application that captures the attention of an admissions reader with nuance, authenticity, and that particular je ne sais quoi that is like the lightning in a bottle that differentiates an otherwise strong applicant from an admitted one.
This is the 2nd in a multipart series on AI and the college admissions landscape. Read, part I here: AI has arrived to college admissions: what do students do now?
And if you find you are in need of support to navigate the college admissions process, TBU Advisors are experienced in supporting students to navigate their college choices and prepare their most compelling applications in ways that affirm their integrity and support their growth. If you’d like to explore working with a TBU Advisor, get in touch here. We look forward to connecting with you.
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