Tutoring News Post
The Jig is Up: students who rely on AI to write their college admissions essays will soon feel the wrath of adcoms.
 As we all know, AI (Artificial Intelligence) such as ChatGPT can write quite well: almost too perfectly, in fact. To be specific, it could compose a similar blog post in 1% of the time it took me to write this one, with zero typos and/or grammar errors. Does using AI really make our essays better, though? If AI were so much better at creation, for example, then why are actual humans still authoring nearly all the best-selling books, movies, songs and TV shows? Yet AI’s affordability, ease of use, speed, and ubiquity are just a few of the many reasons why overworked students often cannot resist the temptation to choose the easy way out. After all, why toil and sweat over the laborious process of writing when the machine can do the work for you instead, most of your classmates are also using AI already, and you have other classes to study for? In some cases (in particular, high school and college English classes), I’m sure that plenty of students have been getting away with “mailing it in" and outsourcing their assignments to a computer algorithm -- especially when the course's teacher or professor either doesn't care, or isn't up to date / paying attention. Problem is, there’s a difference between getting away with utilizing AI (since it’s difficult to prove), and seeing an actual advantage from employing it, for various reasons. First, you cannot learn to become a better writer without real struggle. Second, like me and your English teacher, most college admissions committee (“adcom”) readers are experienced academics and professionals who seek personal essays that are quirky, vulnerable, human, and flawed -- not perfect and algorithmic. Finally, experienced readers and writers such as those who are employed by top colleges can spot the signs of an AI-generated essay quite easily. Your adcom readers might not necessarily be able to prove that you used AI, but they can certainly hold their suspicions against you via their admissions decisions. Full disclosure: am I biased on this issue? Yes, very much so: I edit admissions essays for a living. Both as a test-prep tutor and essay editor, I strongly believe that my work is head-and-shoulders above anything that the latest fad in technology can produce. Someday the AI bubble will burst, and we will realize that the best teachers, artists, scientists, etc. are still human beings. The machines are excellent copycats, of course -- but true originality still issues almost exclusively from human minds. Please, 12th graders: avoid the temptation to use AI in your essays this year. If you take this risk, then you will see worse admissions odds! Instead, put in the effort, and try your best to do all the writing yourself. Most of you still have a little bit of time left before regular application deadlines, so I hope you will take my advice to heart. In both life and in college admissions, it’s far better to be authentic, flawed, and interesting than to be perfect and boring. Good luck and happy holidays, -Brian
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