College counseling and AI

[Anonymous]

Do you think less people are hiring college counselors, or essay editors bc of the proliferation of AI and so many new AI college tools?

There seems to be a desperation in the advertising I’m seeing recently from college counseling companies and I’m wondering if that was always there or if it’s because of AI and people are reluctant to pay for something that they can now figure out with a paid AI tool?

[Anonymous]

AI has given me great college recommendations based on my kid’s stats, interests, personality, IQ and neuropsych test results. I don’t see how a college counselor could do any better.

[Anonymous]

Yep

[Anonymous]

Wonder if those college consulting firms are experiencing a drop off in customer headcount or worse yet an existential threat yet.

[Anonymous]

Maybe people have less money plus they are becoming disappointed in the general idea of fighting for the best college

[Anonymous]

Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

[Anonymous]

My college freshman used a counselor. We found one that was a reasonable price for a recommendation list, help with brainstorming and editing essays, help looking for scholarships and access to some financial tools for paying once we had the admit list. My DC is a strong writer and refused to use AI for essays.

We have a few years before the next one goes to college and I expect that it will be all DIY with the advancement of AI and other tools related to the application process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

Wow, you sound uninformed. You don't blindly trust AI. You give AI hundreds of pages of info related to your HS, your kid's background, analogous kids' profiles (from Reddit or here), and links to dozens of former AO interviews and podcasts.

Claude (and others, I assume - I just prefer Claude) can process and synthesize that volume of info better than humans can. But you take that synthesis and apply it to your kid. It's how I discovered why one T10 would likely value my kid's application more than another T10 (and yes, they got into school 1 and not school 2 last cycle in RD).

Don't be an old fool. Learn technology. Before you look like the grandma here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

Wow, you sound uninformed. You don't blindly trust AI. You give AI hundreds of pages of info related to your HS, your kid's background, analogous kids' profiles (from Reddit or here), and links to dozens of former AO interviews and podcasts.

Claude (and others, I assume - I just prefer Claude) can process and synthesize that volume of info better than humans can. But you take that synthesis and apply it to your kid. It's how I discovered why one T10 would likely value my kid's application more than another T10 (and yes, they got into school 1 and not school 2 last cycle in RD).

Don't be an old fool. Learn technology. Before you look like the grandma here.

Curious why you’re spending money on college. What could your child possibly learn there that Claude cannot already do better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

Wow, you sound uninformed. You don't blindly trust AI. You give AI hundreds of pages of info related to your HS, your kid's background, analogous kids' profiles (from Reddit or here), and links to dozens of former AO interviews and podcasts.

Claude (and others, I assume - I just prefer Claude) can process and synthesize that volume of info better than humans can. But you take that synthesis and apply it to your kid. It's how I discovered why one T10 would likely value my kid's application more than another T10 (and yes, they got into school 1 and not school 2 last cycle in RD).

Don't be an old fool. Learn technology. Before you look like the grandma here.

Curious why you’re spending money on college. What could your child possibly learn there that Claude cannot already do better?

Just having claude do the work that a 100k counselor would do is not replacing an education? You are confused.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

Wow, you sound uninformed. You don't blindly trust AI. You give AI hundreds of pages of info related to your HS, your kid's background, analogous kids' profiles (from Reddit or here), and links to dozens of former AO interviews and podcasts.

Claude (and others, I assume - I just prefer Claude) can process and synthesize that volume of info better than humans can. But you take that synthesis and apply it to your kid. It's how I discovered why one T10 would likely value my kid's application more than another T10 (and yes, they got into school 1 and not school 2 last cycle in RD).

Don't be an old fool. Learn technology. Before you look like the grandma here.

Curious why you’re spending money on college. What could your child possibly learn there that Claude cannot already do better?

Just having claude do the work that a 100k counselor would do is not replacing an education? You are confused.

You’re right, I’m confused. You’re bragging that Claude has put the college counselor out of work, but you assume there will be a job for your child when they graduate? Why? Or are you assuming no jobs, but you’re so rich that you’re going to spend full freight on a T10 school with no thought to ROI?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

Wow, you sound uninformed. You don't blindly trust AI. You give AI hundreds of pages of info related to your HS, your kid's background, analogous kids' profiles (from Reddit or here), and links to dozens of former AO interviews and podcasts.

Claude (and others, I assume - I just prefer Claude) can process and synthesize that volume of info better than humans can. But you take that synthesis and apply it to your kid. It's how I discovered why one T10 would likely value my kid's application more than another T10 (and yes, they got into school 1 and not school 2 last cycle in RD).

Don't be an old fool. Learn technology. Before you look like the grandma here.

Curious why you’re spending money on college. What could your child possibly learn there that Claude cannot already do better?

Just having claude do the work that a 100k counselor would do is not replacing an education? You are confused.

You’re right, I’m confused. You’re bragging that Claude has put the college counselor out of work, but you assume there will be a job for your child when they graduate? Why? Or are you assuming no jobs, but you’re so rich that you’re going to spend full freight on a T10 school with no thought to ROI?

Don't be scared of AI. It's here whether you like it or not. Jobs will change. If you really are curious, spend some time reading about this next phase (Fourth Industrial Revolution).

For purposes of this forum, I do think it's important to choose colleges with a strong liberal arts foundation, where classes are Socratic, and tests are old school (no technology) to test implicit understanding and knowledge. Those kids will have an advantage. Oh, and people skills will be absolutely paramount.

But we digress. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. I'm not sure I'd hire a counselor now. Maybe still essay editing? TBD.

[Anonymous]

AI is an echo chamber. If a substantial number of sources start putting out articles saying something wrong but new, such as "extensive research by leading medical researchers shows that tea leaves cause autism in children," and a large number of popular websites agree to repeat the wrong claim, after a while, AI would repeat the same wrong claim. AI is a parrot, that fortunately is often right because what's out there on the web is often right. But AI can be fooled with a concentrated effort to train it with garbage.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:AI is an echo chamber. If a substantial number of sources start putting out articles saying something wrong but new, such as "extensive research by leading medical researchers shows that tea leaves cause autism in children," and a large number of popular websites agree to repeat the wrong claim, after a while, AI would repeat the same wrong claim. AI is a parrot, that fortunately is often right because what's out there on the web is often right. But AI can be fooled with a concentrated effort to train it with garbage.

Kinda. The thing is, though, that companies training foundational models are aware of this. The models aren’t just indiscriminately ingesting stuff. Microsoft tried that with Tay, which continuously learned from interactions with users. Twitter taught it to be a Nazi misogynist within 24 hours. Now companies curate what models ingest more carefully - well, models other than Grok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only people who don't understand what AI is would trust its advice.

this sounds like college counselor speaking