ChatGPT and the Future of the College Essay

By Tina Brooks

As ChatGPT continues to evolve, the chorus of concerns has become louder: how will this impact teaching? learning? college admissions? Media coverage about ChatGPT has advanced both alarmist scenarios (artificial intelligence is replacing human intelligence!) and rosy predictions about increased educational efficiency and interactive learning. For students on the brink of applying to college, the question of how this new technology might impact their application process—particularly the central role of the college essay—feels particularly urgent.

What is ChatGPT?

In late 2022 the American artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI unveiled a free chat bot prototype (GPT-3.5) based on its GPT large language model. In March 2023, OpenAI released the improved Chat GPT-4, which requires a paid subscription. What’s all the fuss? This app uses deep learning to produce grammatically correct text that is often indistinguishable from (or even superior to) what a human can produce. Give it a prompt, and ChatGPT quickly produces text; it can make revisions based on further input, adding details without delay. Sounds like a student’s dream, right?

Some educators have jumped on the ChatGPT bandwagon, predicting that it will save teachers time and allow them to focus on higher-order thinking, rather than the tedium of comma placement.

Teaching digital literacy, or how to tell fact from fiction, has become the new educational frontier.

Educational organizations like the Educational Testing Service and Khan Academy are meeting with corporate representatives from Amazon, Microsoft and others?to develop guidelines for teaching with AI. Meanwhile, unprepared public-school districts (like New York City’s) have banned the app from students’ devices. What is not in question is that ChatGPT is easily available, and students are sure to use it.

ChatGPT and the Personal Statement

One of the most crucial essays students write in high school is the personal application essay, which is required by most colleges. As part of a student’s application (which also includes grades, evaluations from counselors and teachers, demographic information, and lists of activities and awards), essays provide a window into a student’s ability to think and write, self-reflect and analyze. The best essays make a student’s perspective and values come alive for the admissions officer. Can ChatGPT fulfill this role?

Several articles have found that the technological assist produced mediocre results—passable essays that were technically correct but lacking personality. I gave it a try, using a supplementary essay prompt from the University of Notre Dame and specifying a 200-word limit: “If you were given unlimited resources to help solve one problem in your community, what would it be and how would you accomplish it?”

Here’s what ChatGPT produced:

If given unlimited resources to solve one problem, I would focus on improving access to education. Education is a powerful tool for breaking the cycle of poverty, reducing inequality, and empowering individuals to lead better lives. To achieve this, I would invest in building and supporting educational institutions in underserved areas, providing teacher training programs, and investing in technology infrastructure to support online learning. I would also focus on improving the quality of education by developing curricula that are relevant to local communities and providing resources and support to teachers. Investing in education will create a more equitable society where everyone has the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed.

This was disappointing to say the least. As a first draft, it gives a writer a starting place, but it’s many revisions away from being final. As?a former admissions officer?assessing this essay, I would assume this student had zero personal connection to the content. Where is the?feeling?about this issue? What have they already DONE to solve a problem in their community? If the student doesn’t care about this issue, how much do they care about their application to my institution? This essay would lead me to doubt their sincerity more broadly.

Generating a ChatGPT-authored response lacks the nuance, personal connection, and energy of the most successful essays.

By working with our?team of counselors, our students receive personal feedback that pushes them to think more deeply, reflect more thoughtfully, and continue to revise their writing until the product is something they can be proud of. In the best cases, this piece of writing actually shows the student something about themselves they didn’t know at the start of the process.

ChatGPT: Mediocre at Best

At this stage, ChatGPT can produce decent results, but nothing that would impress an admissions committee at a selective college. Add to this the fact that tools to detect AI-generated content are on the market, and colleges may well incorporate these into their review process. If colleges don’t want to invest in such technology, they might pivot to required video testimonials or may try to foil ChatGPT with prompts that do not easily generate text, like the University of Chicago’s “What advice would a wisdom tooth have?” (To this prompt, ChatGPT told me “As an AI language model, I cannot provide advice from a physical object such as a wisdom tooth,” then offered several clichés like “embrace change.”) Of course, ChatGPT will continue to improve and may make strides in replicating human creativity and quirkiness in the near future. However, lacking personality and self-reflection, today’s AI-generated essays are not worth the risk, as they are not going to persuade admissions officers to offer one of the few, valuable spots in their classes to applicants who make such a lifeless impression.