Chatgpt common app essay blew me away..

[Anonymous]

Yes, teachers are known to spend their Saturdays on DCUM, especially in the college forum.

People are so gullible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid's public school AP Lang teacher has a zero AI policy. I am glad for the hard stance.

The purpose of writing training is to learn to write well without something else doing the work for you.

It's sad if leveling the playing field means everyone can turn in something that approximately AI slop.

Sure. But college applications at our school are done outside of class. You can have 4 years of non-AI writing. That’s fine w me

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They're have to hand write in pen soon.

In a human proctored examination hall, no less.

I actually love this.

In a human proctored exam hall there is no need for the pen. Students can use locked down devices the same way they do for the PSAT and plenty of other assessments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, teachers are known to spend their Saturdays on DCUM, especially in the college forum.

People are so gullible.

Yes how silly! We all know its just government workers like you scrolling and posting!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, teachers are known to spend their Saturdays on DCUM, especially in the college forum.

People are so gullible.

Yes how silly! We all know its just government workers like you scrolling and posting!

Actually - both teachers AND government workers can be striver helicopter moms. But mostly its the lawyers. But none have a monopoly on maintaining an obsessive focus on their kids applications

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is interesting is that this is encouraging students not to revise.

My son wrote a college admission essay last year that was heartfelt but had several errors and sentence structure /vocabulary that could be improved. I looked at it but he didn't want me to proofread it and point out the errors. He said that is the way he writes and he was well aware he could put it into ChatGPT and it would correct all the errors and improve several things. He submitted it the way he wrote it and he surprisingly got admitted into some college that on paper he was in the lower range of the stats for the school. Now I wonder if admission readers were happy to read an unpolished essay that was absolutely clear the student wrote without any help.

I’ve read in multiple places that they are looking for less than perfect grammar, including lack of the use of the Oxford, period less than perfect sentence structure. It shows them that you have not used AI.

This

[Anonymous]

You guys are pitiful. Gemini or Claude can take a rough draft or ideas and create an amazing essay that is not dectectable. All you have to do as provide as much advice as possible regarding what not to do (em dashes, blablabla, the list is huge and easily accessible). Then ask to purposely create less than perfect sentences strucutures….and even misspell on purpose a long word….

My son who is super smart (1600 on the SAT) did this and his essay was incredible. TBH it was 30% him 70% AI. He is at a freshman at an Ivy right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After you've read hundreds of them for the same school, you will appreciate the honest, funny, or plain-spoken kid who isn't cliche.

Someone on here linked to a good Reddit post about this. I will try to find it.

I personally think that writing tearjerking, heartwarming essays to get something you want (admittance) is kind of gross. I don't know if AOs get tired of it.

That's why we like the UCAS system. They only want an essay from you explaining why you want to study what you have chosen to study. None of the personality BS.
No other higher education system in the world has this weird "holistic" admissions system. They don't engage in social engineering.

[Anonymous]

It is ok to have a holistic process. As long as it it explaining your life and ECs and etc….not this flowery mumbo jumbo storyline BS that the common app has become.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is ok to have a holistic process. As long as it it explaining your life and ECs and etc….not this flowery mumbo jumbo storyline BS that the common app has become.

Also one of most effective essays if personalized

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They're have to hand write in pen soon.

I hope so. Though that could also just be copied from ChatGPT. I wish they'd bring back the writing portion of the SAT/ACT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I prompted it with a metaphor and theme. fed it the extra curriculars and told it 650 words. It gave me a rough draft that was 80% there.

I think it evens the playing field

I’m the 80/20 poster above. This is exactly what I meant. Feed in the specifics, including a few phrases and notes about tone, and you’re well on your way.

Then edit as a human being - removing text, phrases, and punctuation that are “off” for whatever reason, and adding some unique and authentic voice. Run it through fir some new variations and incorporate anything you like.

As someone who enjoys writing, I find it to be a great partner on both the front end and in the editing phase. But it requires human engagement to sound human.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a good thing. 90% of people don’t need to be great writers they just need to convey information,

No, this is not a good thing. A machine is thinking for you. How does that make you or your life better?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You guys are pitiful. Gemini or Claude can take a rough draft or ideas and create an amazing essay that is not dectectable. All you have to do as provide as much advice as possible regarding what not to do (em dashes, blablabla, the list is huge and easily accessible). Then ask to purposely create less than perfect sentences strucutures….and even misspell on purpose a long word….

My son who is super smart (1600 on the SAT) did this and his essay was incredible. TBH it was 30% him 70% AI. He is at a freshman at an Ivy right now.

This should be disqualifying. It is disgusting that you think it is brag worthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I either don't believe it or you must have sadly low standards for college essay writing.

I'm a writer who works with AI (and has even worked to train AI chatbots before). AI can be an incredibly useful writing tool, but there's no way any of the bots I've used could generate a truly compelling personal essay. A generic essay that checks a bunch of boxes for someone with very mundane standards? Sure. But not something original and truly moving. It's a robot. It doesn't think and has no soul. You can always tell.

IMO it can get you 80% there. 20% editing after that!

PP here. For professional, corporate, writing, I agree.

For personal essays, I think it's the opposite. You need to provide 80%, and AI can improve it that last 20% if you use the AI properly.

Of course, most personal essays written by students are pretty trite and mediocre. But even those are trite and mediocre in a way that usually reveals the humanity of the person behind it. AI-written essays are trite and mediocre in exactly the way you'd expect a robot trained on an LLM to be. It can even be perfectly structured. A good personal essay will reveal something essential about the writer. An AI chatbot cannot do that. Any revelations will be fake or stolen, and this is generally easy to spot.

I think this is the key: for personal essays, the raw material has to come from the student before turning to ChatGPT. Once that substance is in place, there’s no harm in using AI as a writing tool to shape the draft.

College admissions programs should adjust their expectations and recognize AI as a modern tool—much like word processors replaced handwritten essays. We should be encouraging thoughtful, responsible use of AI to improve writing, not treating it as something inherently negative.