why even have college application essays anymore?
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Anonymous
| chatgpt is ridiculously good - just watching sam altman this am on the enhancements and I decided to put in “college essay” 500 word prompt about nature impacting and shaping my life. The result was so insanely thoughtful and authentic it’s kinda scary. time to eliminate the essay, zero protection against this - although it does level the playing field where poor inner city kid can compete with Biff from Great Falls |
Anonymous
| Paste it here. I doubt it good. |
Anonymous
get the app boomer! |
Anonymous
I’ve done that. It’s not good. Not for T25. For Syracuse? Sure. Submit it. |
Anonymous
| Agree - essays should be eliminated - unless you're applying for, say, creative writing. |
Anonymous
AI filters exist. Colleges use them for assignments. Do they use them for admissions? |
Anonymous
It is that good if you know how to train it. Stanford did an experiment back in 2023 on the first generation and trained it on the top 1% of their essays…and they said it produced essays that they would also consider top 1%. |
Anonymous
They don’t use them for assignments, but if they do then there is a free version of that AI filter that the kid will run their essay through. An essay can go from 100% AI to 0% AI often by just changing certain words that AI likes to use, or instead of writing in “threes” you just give two reinforcing examples. |
Anonymous
| Rules don't change when a system stops working. The system simply goes into denial mode. |
Anonymous
| Ha, just a few more model upgrades and kids are going to have to start writing poor essays on purpose to stand out from the sea of well crafted chatGPT essays. |
Anonymous
Because it still matters. System still works. Can you fool it? Sure. But most kids are not using it and it sticks out. You don't throw out a system that mostly still works. |
Anonymous
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If there weren't extra steps to apply to the top schools, and they just required an extra selection and fee on the Common App, then rich and UMC kids would simply apply to all of them, adding another layer of advantage.
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Anonymous
| not much difference between using AI and hiring expensive college / essay counselors. Trying to game the system - easy fix, get rid of it |
Anonymous
Yes, Slate runs the whole thing through. But it’s an upgrade to the product so not all schools have it. Beware. Proceed cautiously. Use paid AI to help brainstorm. But don’t just paste it into the common app. Even for the activities descriptions - it’s so blatant what is AI when you read 300 essays. For more evidence, go to Reddit. The kids there are pasting AI gibberish. An AO just passes over you if there are “signs”. |
Anonymous
Your kid needs to know how to communicate in English. Help them learn how to do this so that they have this skill to help them in their lives. What do you suggest they do when they sit down to take a written exam if they don't know how to organize and present ideas and communicate in English sentences? |