The Role of AI in College Admissions
AI / Chat GTP are here to stay. It is changing the landscape of college admissions. As someone on the front lines of “all things college,” I must stay relevant to the culture and temperature of universities, students and parents. I’ve decided to take the “road less traveled” where ChatGPT is concerned.
While I initially resisted the ChatGPT trend, I quickly realized there are some benefits of using AI, both for myself in assisting students and finding scholarships but also the benefits for universities and students. For starters, Open AI is eerily human-like upon first glance based on the queries and questions submitted by the users. While excellent in some regards, it lacks in the most important aspects of being able to know the human experience. There are both ethical as well as educational best practices to consider when using this powerful tool.
ChatGPT wouldn’t be possible without the Internet. It essentially scrapes the internet pulling information from any document or other type of content that is available. This includes scholarly journals as well as documents written by uneducated people. It searches through all relevant data and produces a response to any prompt given. As the internet is growing each day, the responses from ChatGPT will be different once new information is accessible. According to the latest estimates, 328.77 million terabytes of data are created each day. (“Created” includes data that is newly generated, captured, copied, or consumed). In zettabytes, that equates to 120 zettabytes per year, 10 zettabytes per month, 2.31 zettabytes per week, or 0.33 zettabytes every day.)
While I am an expert in all things college admissions and scholarships, I am certainly no expert on AI / Chat GPT. I first began using Chat GPT on a personal level about a year and a half ago. I work with a team of Harvard students at Imagine Scholarships. These students have educated me, stretched my creative boundaries and challenged me to embrace new things to better help students. Challenge accepted. In fact, at their prompting, we are now implementing ChatGPT in Imagine Scholarships, enhancing the scholarships we offer and how students are matched with scholarships that are a perfect match for them.
I wanted to look at things from the perspective of both an IEC (College Coach) as well as from a student perspective. Once I dove in with an open mind, it was clear that as technology continues to advance, the integration of AI powered systems will likely become more prevalent, further enhancing the college admissions process for students worldwide. It also only took a few times using chat GPT to recognize that it has no personality, no heart and no emotion. Here is a direct quote from chat GPT: “I don’t have personal experiences or emotions.”
When considering the pros and cons of using ChatGPT in the admissions process, I decided to go to the source, ChatGPT and ask it. Here is the response from ChatGPT.
Pros:
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Instant Responses Chat GPT can provide instant responses to inquiries, helping prospective students get quick information about admissions requirements, deadlines, and other relevant details.
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24/7 Availability: AI chatbots operate around the clock, providing support to applicants regardless off time zones or business hours.
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Scalability: large volumes of inquiries, allowing admissions offices to handle a high number of applicants.
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Consistency: Chat GTP can deliver consistent and accurate information to all applicants, ensuring that everyone receives the same level of support and guidance throughout the process.
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Personalization: By collecting and analyzing data, Chat GPT can provide personalized recommendations and guidance to prospective students, helping them make informed decisions about their choice of programs or majors.
Cons:
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Lack of Human Interaction. Chat GPT may not be able to fully replicate the empathy and nuanced understanding that can be provided by humans.
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Limited Context Understanding. AI models may sometimes struggle to understand complex or nuanced questions, leading to inaccurate or irrelevant responses. This can be particularly challenging when applicants have unique or specific inquiries.
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Bias in Training Data: AI models are trained on existing data, which may contain biases or inaccuracies. If these biases are not addressed, it may inadvertently provide biased or unfair responses to applicants.
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Technical limitations. Sometimes there are technical limitations. This can negatively impact the applicant experience and potentially cause frustration.
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Privacy concerns: Collecting and analyzing applicant data raises privacy concerns. It is crucial to handle applicant information securely.
I agree wholeheartedly with the answer ChatGPT formulated. There are pros and cons. This brings me to ethics and best practices when it comes to advising students on using or not using ChatGPT. For me, it comes down to an ethical question and the reality of “Limited Context Understanding.” While ChatGPT has language that mimics human writing, it is still an automated system that often fails to generate high-quality articles that fulfill academic excellence. If a student chooses to use ChatGPT, it’s critical to do so and carefully evaluate any writings produced by ChatGPT. Considering everything, I’ve concluded that there are many reasons why students should be encouraged not to use ChatGPT for writing their college essays, school selection or application process and only a few reasons where they may benefit from using ChatGPT in the process.
Reasons why students should not use ChatGPT to write their college essays.
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AI Essays don’t use language that most young people use and sound overly formal.
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Essays are your best shot at showing your personality for a holistic review from a college.
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Only you (the student) knows the details of their story.
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Admissions counselors are trained to look for and detect ChatGPT essays.
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Essays should engage the reader with emotion and empathy. A robot can’t manufacture this.
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You are more talented than ChatGPT
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If caught using ChatGPT to write your essay, if won’t work out well
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Most students will use some form of AI in their essays, yours will stand out if you don’t. Take the road less traveled on this one.
To sum things up, I asked ChatGPT if they thought it was ethical to use ChatGPTfor the college admissions essay, here is the response:
GPT Response: I don’t have personal opinions but I will provide some general thoughts on the topic. Using ChatGPT or any AI assistance for your college admissions essay can be seen as unethical if it involves misrepresenting you own abilities, experiences, or writing skills. Admissions counselors expect applicants to submit their own original work which reflects their own unique voice and perspective. It’s important to be honest and authentic in your application process. While it’s perfectly fine to seek guidance and feedback from others, the content and ideas should ultimately be your own.
I’ve come to the conclusion that ChatGPT is wise after all, I agree wholeheartedly that the content and ideas should be generated by the student, not a robot. Any students who made it to the end of this article who needs a great essay topic for college admissions, you might consider writing about why not to use ChatGPT for your college essay.
Written by Sherri Graf and ChatGTP