How can admission essays carry even an ounce of weight going forward?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Essays are a stupid requirement. They need to get rid of them. But then an entire industry of essay writing will be gone. But wait, that would be eliminated by AI eventually anyway. The point is essays are subjective, rich kids get outside help with theirs, well educated parents can help or just write their kids essays. Its another unfair requirement.

Essays: stupid
SAT: racist
GPA: everyone gets an A
ECs: birdwatching is good

Why is basic math and english racist??

Because if certain groups don’t do as well that’s clear cut evidence of racism. Doesn’t matter that the tests are carefully analyzed and constructed to be bias free.

SAT isn't made to be bias free. They omit questions for demographics who score better than others on certain questions, but that presumes "white" is the normal to base off of.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How could you be sure that the data you uploaded to these AI tools are not "shared" by others. AI tools are learning from you too, and your idea (if any or no matter how tiny) will be learned by AI and will be provided to other users. I would stay away from it.

That's such an antiquated way of viewing the post-AI world. Everything is being shared.
Your kid's essays aren't (1) that special or usually even that distinguishable, and (2) likely used by ANY college counselor that you hire or essay editor.

If that's your stance, make sure you don't hire anyone for any part of this.

The reality is that the essays will become less important. It's more about your overall story. Themes that emerge that fit a specific school (not talking about classes or professors). How your application is boiled down to a sentence or two (Lee Coffin had a GREAT episode this spring where he talked just about this).
I do think the LOR has (already) become MUCH more important.

I kinda agree with you on this. Particularly in private schools it's about the whole package, less about each individual element. Counselors (and students as well) already have a clear idea what level of schools this kid is heading way before the application season. Who are the smart driven kids, and who are the layback chill ones, they don't fluctuate much. A 3.8 kid may drop to 3.7 but without force of God it's very rare to see they drop to 3.5. Same with test scores.

Of course there are still surprises for example an HYP kid may end up at Penn, a T30 kid may end up at Brown. I think that's where the fine details such as essays kick in. A mediocre essay will not hurt you much (HYP to Penn), a great essay may help some (T30 to Brown). But if you are not obsessed with ranking, yeah it's all about the whole package.

Public school may be different.

💯 agree - also at private.

Disagree. Those kids you labeled T30- ha. You don’t know them. Mine was uw4.0, 35ACT, 5s all APs and lots of ECs outside of HS. They actively choose those schools(Penn, Brown, etc) they didn’t settle —and you classifying any kid that gets into any Ivy as T30 material is so douchey.

These jealous parents that think they know every kid in their school intimately are atrocious. Likely, humble kids that don’t have mommy and daddy lobbying for everything.

You have it backwards. Any kid who is actually qualified for a "T30" is "Ivy Material". We all like to think that our little darlings are uniquely talented but they aren't. The is no difference between the typical T30 kid and the typical Ivy kid other than the luck of the draw when the sheer numbers overwhelm everything else in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Honestly go back to the writing portion of the SAT and have AI grade them…no more being subjective by the evaluators- everybody would get the same treatment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How could you be sure that the data you uploaded to these AI tools are not "shared" by others. AI tools are learning from you too, and your idea (if any or no matter how tiny) will be learned by AI and will be provided to other users. I would stay away from it.

That's such an antiquated way of viewing the post-AI world. Everything is being shared.
Your kid's essays aren't (1) that special or usually even that distinguishable, and (2) likely used by ANY college counselor that you hire or essay editor.

If that's your stance, make sure you don't hire anyone for any part of this.

The reality is that the essays will become less important. It's more about your overall story. Themes that emerge that fit a specific school (not talking about classes or professors). How your application is boiled down to a sentence or two (Lee Coffin had a GREAT episode this spring where he talked just about this).
I do think the LOR has (already) become MUCH more important.

I kinda agree with you on this. Particularly in private schools it's about the whole package, less about each individual element. Counselors (and students as well) already have a clear idea what level of schools this kid is heading way before the application season. Who are the smart driven kids, and who are the layback chill ones, they don't fluctuate much. A 3.8 kid may drop to 3.7 but without force of God it's very rare to see they drop to 3.5. Same with test scores.

Of course there are still surprises for example an HYP kid may end up at Penn, a T30 kid may end up at Brown. I think that's where the fine details such as essays kick in. A mediocre essay will not hurt you much (HYP to Penn), a great essay may help some (T30 to Brown). But if you are not obsessed with ranking, yeah it's all about the whole package.

Public school may be different.

💯 agree - also at private.

Disagree. Those kids you labeled T30- ha. You don’t know them. Mine was uw4.0, 35ACT, 5s all APs and lots of ECs outside of HS. They actively choose those schools(Penn, Brown, etc) they didn’t settle —and you classifying any kid that gets into any Ivy as T30 material is so douchey.

These jealous parents that think they know every kid in their school intimately are atrocious. Likely, humble kids that don’t have mommy and daddy lobbying for everything.

You have it backwards. Any kid who is actually qualified for a "T30" is "Ivy Material". We all like to think that our little darlings are uniquely talented but they aren't. The is no difference between the typical T30 kid and the typical Ivy kid other than the luck of the draw when the sheer numbers overwhelm everything else in admissions.

Our HS SCOIR says otherwise. Some very clear cutoffs

[Anonymous]

The essays are not just or even mainly about how well they are written - it is about what you choose to write about and how you tell your story. That is the part that is harder to have AI help with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure many of you use ChatGPT or the like in your daily lives and see its power to write just about anything.

Is it time for schools to 100% kill all essays? Honestly, what's the point?

Potentially, and only a wild idea here —

Maybe essays would be proctored now.

And yes, people could pre-write and memorized etc. But then they are still actively preparing and writing, which is something.

[Anonymous]

The essay is not a writing test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The essay is not a writing test.

Okay, apply with a poorly organized, poorly crafted and poorly written essay and see how that goes.

[Anonymous]

Still better than bull$hit test scores

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure many of you use ChatGPT or the like in your daily lives and see its power to write just about anything.

Is it time for schools to 100% kill all essays? Honestly, what's the point?

UC. They don’t care about your essays Much. Basically anywhere where the purpose is to train skilled workers wouldn’t care about essays much.

Community colleges as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The essay is not a writing test.

Okay, apply with a poorly organized, poorly crafted and poorly written essay and see how that goes.

Having a well written essay is table stakes. What you need is a compelling story

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The essay is not a writing test.

Okay, apply with a poorly organized, poorly crafted and poorly written essay and see how that goes.

Having a well written essay is table stakes. What you need is a compelling story

Don't write a poor quality essay that gives an excuse not to admit. You can have a compelling story or you can use a pretty standardized theme, but it better be well written because it is actually a writing sample.

[Anonymous]

Obviously artificial intelligence writing will improve but until it does be careful because it's formulaic and dull at this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The essay is not a writing test.

Okay, apply with a poorly organized, poorly crafted and poorly written essay and see how that goes.

Having a well written essay is table stakes. What you need is a compelling story

Don't write a poor quality essay that gives an excuse not to admit. You can have a compelling story or you can use a pretty standardized theme, but it better be well written because it is actually a writing sample.

It’s really not. Writing samples, depending on the context, are testing different things. Different admissions offices are usually looking for something different once a minimum threshold (much lower than you think) has been met.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sure many of you use ChatGPT or the like in your daily lives and see its power to write just about anything.

Is it time for schools to 100% kill all essays? Honestly, what's the point?

Faculty and admissions officers know how to test if something came from AI.