I really don’t understand why any kid needs to use AI at all to write this essay. Not Grammarly, not Claude, not anything. Just write the essay and ask another human to proofread or give feedback.

Anonymous wrote:A lot of intel in these Slate links. Went down the google rabbit hole (if you are interested there's so much more there). Here is what it looks like:

1. Slate can tell if you are "gaming" your major from when you first submitted an online inquiry - bc your two entries are side by side.
https://technolutions.com/admissions?itemId=rlmidt9qexf1yde9xo63qfwrhbby9n


2. What does "gifts" mean?
https://technolutions.com/admissions?itemId=rlmidt9qexf1yde9xo63qfwrhbby9n

3. They are tracking majors by round - even for schools that don't admit by major????
https://technolutions.com/admissions?itemId=y9pht9rumtfmy43uc36m5eep1zsojj


https://technolutions.com/admissions

Not all colleges uses all these "features." In many cases, they have to pay extra to access everything, so don't assume all admissions offices use these fields/features.

I think the Slate stuff should be in its own thread.

But the visuals show me why most RD candidates to schools like Northwestern, WashU, Dartmouth, Davidson, Bowdoin, Duke, Tufts, Michigan, (and even UMiami, Wake, Lehigh, Tulane, Pitt, BU, Bucknell, Case) will auto be rejected or WL in best case - even with strong everything.....these schools track DI - and its so EASY for them to see how serious of an applicant you are.

The kids we know who got into the first group did so much interaction with those schools, so there would be no doubt about yielding them (I mean Dartmouth didn't go to their WL at all this year - which is kind of shocking how spot-on they were).

Note to those with juniors or younger - start showing demonstrated interest to any of these schools (and others that track DI) EARLY and often!!!

A lot of intel in these Slate links. Went down the google rabbit hole (if you are interested there's so much more there). Here is what it looks like:

1. Slate can tell if you are "gaming" your major from when you first submitted an online inquiry - bc your two entries are side by side.
https://technolutions.com/admissions?itemId=rlmidt9qexf1yde9xo63qfwrhbby9n


2. What does "gifts" mean?
https://technolutions.com/admissions?itemId=rlmidt9qexf1yde9xo63qfwrhbby9n

3. They are tracking majors by round - even for schools that don't admit by major????
https://technolutions.com/admissions?itemId=y9pht9rumtfmy43uc36m5eep1zsojj


https://technolutions.com/admissions

Those links - Slate - is insane. I had no idea it looked like that and what the AO can see about you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

this is not believable.

Yep AO’s haven’t the time and you could easily fake a rough draft anyway.

Anonymous wrote:Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

Troll

So you used AI for your essay and are now mad that you got caught using AI? I dont get it.

Anonymous wrote:Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

this is not believable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

Who does handwritten notes nowadays?

My kids private requires all outlines and first drafts to be handwritten on all writing assignments over a page long.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

Who does handwritten notes nowadays?

You cannot overlook just hand write after you complete it.

Anonymous wrote:Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

Who does handwritten notes nowadays?

Our kids AO reached out and asked for proof they wrote the essay. My kid sent handwritten rough drafts as proof.

Anonymous wrote:My kid used Claude (paid) to cut 42 words from the common app essay. Also used Grammarly to correct grammar (and add commas, semi-colons, broke long sentences up, new dashes, etc).

Beware of Grammarly: The Grammarly changes trigger AI detectors on Pangram, gptzero, Originality, and Winston. The Claude changes did not trigger AI detectors anywhere.

There is increasing chatter on Reddit that AOs have integrated these 3 or 4 third-party AI detectors into "Slate" and other parts of their admissions workflows to screen application materials. Do some research before using Grammarly. It looks like an essay will be auto-highlighted for suspected AI and the entire app thrown out (at some schools).

https://www.enrollify.org/blog/college-ai-detectors
https://www.yomu.ai/resources/do-college-admission-officers-use-ai-to-detect-ai-written-essays
https://www.carnegiehighered.com/blog/slate-ai-features/ (this is crazy!!)
https://knowledge.technolutions.net/docs/summit-2025-executive-summary (click on the dashboard portal!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9b_NGFnt4

Clearly, that YouTube video shows that they aren't even recalculating GPAs anymore....its just going straight through the Ai bot to get core academic uw GPA.

My kid used Claude (paid) to cut 42 words from the common app essay. Also used Grammarly to correct grammar (and add commas, semi-colons, broke long sentences up, new dashes, etc).

Beware of Grammarly: The Grammarly changes trigger AI detectors on Pangram, gptzero, Originality, and Winston. The Claude changes did not trigger AI detectors anywhere.

There is increasing chatter on Reddit that AOs have integrated these 3 or 4 third-party AI detectors into "Slate" and other parts of their admissions workflows to screen application materials. Do some research before using Grammarly. It looks like an essay will be auto-highlighted for suspected AI and the entire app thrown out (at some schools).

https://www.enrollify.org/blog/college-ai-detectors
https://www.yomu.ai/resources/do-college-admission-officers-use-ai-to-detect-ai-written-essays
https://www.carnegiehighered.com/blog/slate-ai-features/ (this is crazy!!)
https://knowledge.technolutions.net/docs/summit-2025-executive-summary (click on the dashboard portal!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR9b_NGFnt4