A Blog about AI in College Admission - Not Written by AI

I remember sitting down to start writing the essay for one of the colleges I applied to and I couldn’t muster the first sentence. The prompt was (in my mind) obscure, I knew I needed to offer a well-crafted response, and there was concern about how I would make myself stand out from all of the other applicants I would be going up against. In retrospect, I was my own worst enemy. 

Given how much I struggled with drafting my own personal statement, I think it’s funny that one of the aspects of my job that I enjoy the most now is helping students with theirs.

Colleges ask students to submit writing that helps them understand a student’s character, lived experiences, values and interests, and doing so provides students with an opportunity to show who they are beyond their GPA and test scores. Helping students reflect on their lives is an honor that I try not to take for granted; I’m always humbled by students who open up and trust me to guide them with their writing.

But for most students, as it was for me, writing the essay can be a daunting process. The task feels laden with importance, and setting out to draft something that stands out can lead to serious writer’s block. It appears we may be heading toward a situation in which students don’t need to stress as much about it, although we’re not there quite yet.

In a webinar I recently attended, the Dean of Admissions at Duke said that he and his team no longer consider applicant essays to be a demonstration of writing ability, adding that with resources like ChatGPT now on the scene, the operating assumption is that students are using it. 

This marks a significant shift, where essays are now just an opportunity to gain an understanding of an applicant and nothing more. Gone is Duke’s policy where a numerical rating was assigned to each applicant based on the strength of their writing. We must assume other schools will likely follow - or already have been following - in Duke’s footsteps.

While the temptation is real for our students, we do not encourage them to have ChatGPT write their essay. In fact, we’ve heard from admissions counselors that given its current abilities, it’s still fairly easy to detect which essays are original and which may have been “enhanced” by AI. We always encourage our students to submit writing that is original, not only because they attest to it being their own work when they submit their application, but also because it will more genuinely convey who they are, what their voice is and what they’ll bring to a college campus.

Essays have been a component of college admissions for decades, but as we can see, their future is murky. And perhaps this speaks to the greater theme of Artificial Intelligence and the role it plays in our society; everyone agrees it's not going away.

The college admissions process is already one which feels shrouded in mystery, and we now hear concerns from folks about how much of a role AI plays in the application evaluation process. In fact, this has actually become a fairly common question that’s asked on campus tours and even when we meet with students and families in our offices.

For now, colleges have assured us that artificial intelligence plays no role in their review process. Any concerns about algorithms making decisions, sorting students into piles or evaluating writing should be put to bed … at least for now. Even for schools with immense application volume (e.g., UCLA with over 146,000 applications this past cycle), humans are conducting the review. Many of these large schools hire external readers to assist with the process, and they are thoroughly vetted and trained prior to reading any applicant files. Thus, when colleges say that they are conducting a holistic review, reading each file individually, they actually are.

We can’t speak to the future of AI or how it will impact college admissions. We are confident it will, but for now, we just don’t know in what ways. That said, trust that we all will be working hard to keep our fingers on the pulse, continuing conversations with our colleagues across the desk and keeping you apprised of all that we learn and uncover.

And for this summer, if you’re a parent of a junior, please have them write their own essay. They’re welcome (and encouraged!) to reach out to us for assistance anytime.