why even have college application essays anymore?

[Anonymous]

And that is a poorly crafted run on sentence. And at least I know that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rules don't change when a system stops working. The system simply goes into denial mode.

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.

just because you think “most kids are not using it” is a horrendous argument - the system no longer has integrity and can and will be abused - I agree time to eliminate

[Anonymous]

Have a testing center where kids complete essays on paper for 2 hrs after seeing the prompt. Those get scanned and sent to universities. Or administer these blue book essays on school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a testing center where kids complete essays on paper for 2 hrs after seeing the prompt. Those get scanned and sent to universities. Or administer these blue book essays on school.

bingo ^

but part of the rationale for the essay is to get insight into the kid after they craft a thoughtful essay on a topic - putting this into a timed construct defeats the purpose and really is testing writing ability and how they can regurgitate canned responses to any prompt

[Anonymous]

any child with an ounce of intelligence will not simply cut and paste - they will use the chatgpt result as a template and make the slight personal edits to ensure it passes thru the AI screening -

[Anonymous]

Here’s what my kid did:

Spend summer (5 weeks) on draft common app (8 drafts).

Then hit a roadblock. Got ideas from paid AI (turn off data sharing) on where the weaknesses were and how to improve.
Re-drafted a few more times w/that guidance.

Asked again for specific types of examples for areas of improvement and fed it about 20 pages of notes, draft essays, anecdotes, and other personal (storyboard) information. It pulled out the most salient anecdotes from the firsthand notes to use and how to frame them and ranked them from most powerful relevant to PQ to least.

Kid framed used some of those examples (reworded though) with another edit. Its very detailed, unique and personal filled with lived experience.

Paid essay editor reviewed it with a professional/polish edit, said it was quite strong and perhaps one of the strongest seen (so far) this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rules don't change when a system stops working. The system simply goes into denial mode.

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.

just because you think “most kids are not using it” is a horrendous argument - the system no longer has integrity and can and will be abused - I agree time to eliminate

It hasn't had "integrity" in ages. Paying someone to write your essay is nothing new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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

AI filters exist. Colleges use them for assignments. Do they use them for admissions?

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”.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a testing center where kids complete essays on paper for 2 hrs after seeing the prompt. Those get scanned and sent to universities. Or administer these blue book essays on school.

Agree, but you can still do this on a computer without access to AI or even the internet. Doesn't need to be handwritten.

[Anonymous]

People in the know realize there’s a way to use paid AI to help - the same way an essay editor does.

It doesn’t draft the essay. It takes something the kid wrote and makes it better.

It’s why Duke doesn’t grade the essay anymore. It’s more about the idea/qualities in the essay. Not the writing.

[Anonymous]

But also, like test optional working better for kids who aren’t amazing test takers, what about the kids who just aren’t great writers? Seems unfair to make them write an essay! Lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have a testing center where kids complete essays on paper for 2 hrs after seeing the prompt. Those get scanned and sent to universities. Or administer these blue book essays on school.

I’m not understanding how this replaced the essay prompts which are meant to give the college some insight into the particular student and what they bring to the school.

I can see this as another part of the application where maybe you compare this writing sample to the kid’s essays to see if they are dramatically different styles.

BTW, within a year there will be glasses that can read questions and feed you AI answers direct to the glasses that are only visible to the wearer. It will already be loaded with an LLM so it doesn’t have to be connected to work.

[Anonymous]

If you think chatgpt is good, you don't read enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have a testing center where kids complete essays on paper for 2 hrs after seeing the prompt. Those get scanned and sent to universities. Or administer these blue book essays on school.

I’m not understanding how this replaced the essay prompts which are meant to give the college some insight into the particular student and what they bring to the school.

I can see this as another part of the application where maybe you compare this writing sample to the kid’s essays to see if they are dramatically different styles.

BTW, within a year there will be glasses that can read questions and feed you AI answers direct to the glasses that are only visible to the wearer. It will already be loaded with an LLM so it doesn’t have to be connected to work.

Obviously those would not be permitted in a testing environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here’s what my kid did:

Spend summer (5 weeks) on draft common app (8 drafts).

Then hit a roadblock. Got ideas from paid AI (turn off data sharing) on where the weaknesses were and how to improve.
Re-drafted a few more times w/that guidance.

Asked again for specific types of examples for areas of improvement and fed it about 20 pages of notes, draft essays, anecdotes, and other personal (storyboard) information. It pulled out the most salient anecdotes from the firsthand notes to use and how to frame them and ranked them from most powerful relevant to PQ to least.

Kid framed used some of those examples (reworded though) with another edit. Its very detailed, unique and personal filled with lived experience.

Paid essay editor reviewed it with a professional/polish edit, said it was quite strong and perhaps one of the strongest seen (so far) this year.

The paid editor never, ever says this to all their clients. I'm sorry, but it's their job to make the client happy.