Using ChatGPT to review your college essay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Our top private school embraces the use of AI. They advocate for smart use and guiding students on how to use it appropriately. As some PPs mentioned, it's ability to edit, review and provide recommendations are great if used appropriately.

To me, that's a telling indication to embrace it.

Remember the 90s when they tried to ban calculators? That back fired.

We're in charge now and we don't plan on forgetting how technology ignorance delayed innovation and progress.

Remember when they said testing was never coming back for college applications?
It’s still early days re AI editing.

What does testing have to do with AI? Testing has moved to an all-digital format vs. pen-and-paper which is perhaps a more apt analogy.

AI is a technology, like a computer or a calculator...it's not a substitute or in any way relevant to college testing.

I think what PPs are trying to say is that within 5 years it will seem quaint and stupid we are even having this debate...much like it seemed quaint and stupid to debate over using a calculator or the Internet or a computer.

Ok- knock yourself out. But people who get the analogy might think twice about counseling their kids to use ChatGP or other forms of AI for their essay writing, at least for now.

What's the analogy? That you can use AI now, but colleges may reverse themselves?

If you listen to top school AOs, they are no longer doing any official AI-detection because the detectors come up with too many false positives.

It's now if the essays just sound too much like AI, they reject you and that's that.

Agree.
That’s what our CCO told us (and also we heard from private college counselor).

Also it’s why Duke doesn’t score essays anymore. So for example, the concepts or ideas behind the essay may be noticeable but no one is looking at how well it’s written?

Important perhaps to be creative then?

Agree no one is checking. If you do this, make sure you know to keep it in your voice, not use common AI words etc.

[Anonymous]

If your kid runs their essays through machine learning, they run the risk of their essay being caught in a vortex that gets snared by college admission offices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're giving OpenAI permission to use your work in training. I wouldn't do it, personally.

Exactly so your essay can showup when somebody searches. I would stay away from GPTs for essay

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're giving OpenAI permission to use your work in training. I wouldn't do it, personally.

Exactly so your essay can showup when somebody searches. I would stay away from GPTs for essay

How can I find other peoples essays then?

I’ve tried “show me some recent college admissions essays that show personal growth about a challenging time for a family of 5 when (dad lost job/got cancer/died or similarly moving story”…..

Nothing comes up besides horrible gobbledygook

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You're giving OpenAI permission to use your work in training. I wouldn't do it, personally.

Exactly so your essay can showup when somebody searches. I would stay away from GPTs for essay

It doesn’t work this way….

[Anonymous]

No one here understands AI

[Anonymous]

does originality.ai have a lot of false positives?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter wrote a great essay and needed ideas for how to end it. ChatGPT gave her a few ideas.

But how to end an essay is so important. Too bad ChatGPT did it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some colleges require you to attest in the application that you did not use AI.

Which ones?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some colleges require you to attest in the application that you did not use AI.

Which ones?

all of them:

And Yale says its grounds for expulsion if they discover after the fact.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The problem isn't people using ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, etc. to write the essays from the ground up - it's having these tools to tune and refine the essays.

I suspect the majority of students are going to begin using these tools going forward; it's naive to assume otherwise.

Try taking one of your essays and throwing it into ChatGPT - ask it to clean it up, make it more professional or persuasive or insightful, improve the vocabulary, etc.

Now which one do you want to send to an Ivy?
I know - I'd rather be authentically myself than turn in work that wasn't my own.

Ok...maybe, but do you still feel that way knowing that all of your peers aren't necessarily so virtuous? Do you still feel that way if it means the difference between your dream school and a safety?

I'm not advocating anyone use these tools, but it is a slippery slope, particularly when you know everyone else is using them.

Agree: Per the AP News article posted recently, colleges such as Virginia Tech are using AI to evaluate essays: so why get on a high horse about the virtue of refraining from AI use to assist in writing essays that colleges are using AI to review.

I would caution though, Chat GPT (at least the free version) is a mediocre editor at best. I have used it to edit some professional work and never has it produced an edit I loved verbatim. Best to ask for a specific fix on a small section (sentence or two) to garner a few workable ideas as a helpful iteration.

When I have given it full sections, often the meaning is slightly shifted.

I can also tell work that is entirely/mostly Chat GPT generated by formatting and em dashes (it has ruined the em dash, which is a shame) and even voice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're giving OpenAI permission to use your work in training. I wouldn't do it, personally.

This. You’re giving away your own intellectual property for free. Stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem isn't people using ChatGPT, Gemini, CoPilot, etc. to write the essays from the ground up - it's having these tools to tune and refine the essays.

I suspect the majority of students are going to begin using these tools going forward; it's naive to assume otherwise.

Try taking one of your essays and throwing it into ChatGPT - ask it to clean it up, make it more professional or persuasive or insightful, improve the vocabulary, etc.

Now which one do you want to send to an Ivy?
I know - I'd rather be authentically myself than turn in work that wasn't my own.

Ok...maybe, but do you still feel that way knowing that all of your peers aren't necessarily so virtuous? Do you still feel that way if it means the difference between your dream school and a safety?

I'm not advocating anyone use these tools, but it is a slippery slope, particularly when you know everyone else is using them.

Agree: Per the AP News article posted recently, colleges such as Virginia Tech are using AI to evaluate essays: so why get on a high horse about the virtue of refraining from AI use to assist in writing essays that colleges are using AI to review.

I would caution though, Chat GPT (at least the free version) is a mediocre editor at best. I have used it to edit some professional work and never has it produced an edit I loved verbatim. Best to ask for a specific fix on a small section (sentence or two) to garner a few workable ideas as a helpful iteration.

When I have given it full sections, often the meaning is slightly shifted.

I can also tell work that is entirely/mostly Chat GPT generated by formatting and em dashes (it has ruined the em dash, which is a shame) and even voice.

But you can easily coach chatGPT on tone and tell it to use no em dashes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You're giving OpenAI permission to use your work in training. I wouldn't do it, personally.

If you pay for your account it’s okay.

Duck.ai is another option.

[Anonymous]

No one is checking for ai.

No version of any product will get you in trouble

Will it produce a good essay. Maybe. Maybe not. But it won't be flagged.