How to (Responsibly) Leverage ChatGPT for College Essays
The rise of Chat GPT has opened the door to a lot of questions. One of the most common is: Can Chat GPT write a good essay?
We’ve talked about this before in previous blog posts. Chat GPT can write a passable (in other words, unoriginal and worthy of a C grade) essay, but not one that can get your student into a competitive college. That said, that doesn’t mean that Chat GPT can’t be used to help your student get started.
If your student is struggling to get started with their admissions essay, they could begin by typing the prompt for the essay into Chat GPT and see what gets generated. That information could still be used, but the student must take what the AI produces and make drastic changes to the language and structure of the essay to reflect the student’s own voice and personal experiences.
In a recent interview with Business Insider, Ivy Link’s founder, Adam Nguyen, spoke to this very issue. "If you fill in the details, restructure the essay, and provide the specific language and sentences, that will make the essay your own…I think many colleges would be fine with that.”
Colleges are more than aware that this technology is being used and many are not opposed, as long as they are being used to generate ideas and not to write the essays for students. But keep in mind that the college admissions officer should not be able to tell that the essay was written with help from Chat GPT.
"If an essay's really good, it won't raise any suspicion, and I don't think most colleges will care that you use GPT to start, as long as they can't tell either," Adam added.
Adam estimates that, if using Chat GPT to start an essay, at least 80% of the essay should be edited, revised, and rewritten in the student’s own voice.
Remember that college admissions officers are looking for genuine human experience and introspection. No AI can produce that, no matter how advanced. The officers want to see that the student has not only had experiences, but that they’ve learned and grown through those experiences.
If your student needs help crafting their personal statement, or would like some tutoring to help them improve their writing, reach out to Ivy Link below! Our essay specialists have decades of combined experience in helping students gain admission to their top-choice colleges, and many were former application readers themselves.
