Are you thinking about using ChatGPT or some other AI product to try to help you write your college admissions essay? If so, in this blog, I’m going to talk about some ways that you shouldn’t be using that platform because it’s going to backfire.
My first tip is that I don’t recommend that you ask it to write the whole thing. There’s a couple of problems with that. First, it’s going to be detectable by a ChatGPT finding bot that can see whether your writing is written by an AI or whether it’s written by a human. I will admit that I don’t know what colleges’ individual policies are going to be about using ChatGPT. We will be doing a video on that soon because we’re in the process of emailing them to find that information out. The other reason that I would avoid doing this is I tend to find that the essays that it writes sound really fancy and great but they also tend to be a little bit bland and lack personality. One of the number one things that you want to convey in your college essay is personality. And so if you do this, you’re going to be losing out on that. Now, obviously, if you’re applying to Arizona, that’s a different story than if you’re trying to get into Columbia Early Decision. But I will say that it’s not gonna make for the best college essay, if you are trying to completely outsource it to this software.
So, here’s what I did. I asked ChatGPT 4—which is the better chat GPT that you have to pay for—can you write me a college admissions personal statement? Here are some details about me. It says I’m an awesome flute player and that I have a decent voice. So, I just told it a bunch of random facts about me, and you can watch the video above to see them.
And here’s the essay it spit out for me:
“As I sit down to write this, I feel like an orchestra conductor attempting to harmonize the symphony of melodies that make up my life: the striking notes of entrepreneurship, the profound rhythms of performing arts, the delicate trills of creativity, and the steady beat of academia. These diverse interests and passions not only shape my identity, but they also energize my pursuits and ambitions. I believe in the power of “Yes,” not out of mere compliance, but as a means of embracing diverse experiences, stepping out of comfort zones, and shaping my unique path.
Music has always been a vital part of my identity as a gifted flutist with a decent voice, as some would call it, I found a home in the performing arts. I love standing center stage under the warm glow of spotlights, transforming words and notes into emotion and connection.
I revel in the act of creation from sewing costumes to conceptualizing entrepreneurial projects, the joy I find in building something from nothing invigorates me. My creativity extends to my academic pursuits as well. Whether solving math problems or writing essays, I approach tasks as challenges to create, innovate, and find the “wow” in every task.
In academics, I embrace a sense of dedication and tenacity. I value grades not just as markers of success but as proof of my resilience and determination. Despite my arduous struggle with English, I fought for every “A” I’ve ever earned. I’m not chasing perfection, but I relentlessly seek to make my work a reflection of the best parts of myself.
Life has been my greatest teacher, instilling in me the value of adaptability and resistance. My move from Chicago to Kansas during sophomore year was a pivotal moment, challenging me to reinvent myself and forge my new path.
My penchant for exploration and understanding extends beyond the classroom of the stage. Volunteering with the homeless and inner-city poor has opened my eyes to perspectives outside my bubble, adding depth to my world view and empathy to my character. These experiences, paired with my natural storytelling ability, have allowed me to share and connect on a deeper level with those around me.”
So, I think you guys get the idea. Essentially, it’s kind of cheesy. It’s exciting sounding, but it’s just a fluffy mix of adjectives and saying I’m well rounded. And when I walk away from it, well, how much did I learn that I couldn’t learn from the resume? Not a lot.
Number two is don’t plug in your entire essay at once unless you’re just looking for a few transition sentences or to punch up some language here or there. Generally what happens is that when you put in your essay all at once, it is going to anonymize your essay in some way and make it more bland and more like the median. Remember your whole goal in writing a college essay, especially if you’re applying somewhere competitive, is to stand out, not just mail it in. If you want to stand out, you have to sound different, you have to have a voice, and you have to be original. And when you have it do a pass over your entire essay, it basically normalizes your essay because it’s trained on a set of data that is a bunch of other people’s essays. So, you sound like everybody else and that’s exactly the opposite of what you want.
Third tip is don’t lift full sentences that don’t sound like you. One of the problems with ChatGPT is its voice is not your voice. It doesn’t sound like a 17 year old.
Finally, some of you might be wondering, okay, that’s what I shouldn’t do with ChatGPT, but can I do anything useful? And the answer is yes. Now, in terms of how to recommend how to use it, that depends on what colleges come back with in terms of their policies. I would say that I find ChatGPT really valuable when I have a sentence I’m struggling over and I can’t quite find a way to make it more elegant or to make it less unwieldy. I throw it in there and it can smooth it out. It also can help me find synonyms really quickly. It can help me vary my sentence structure. You might throw a few sentences in and say, hey, how could I say this with fewer words but say the same thing and it’s going to be able to cut superfluous words out for you. I wouldn’t use it all over the place. But if you need to pinch in a few places, it might be able to help you do that. You can even say “What might I do to improve it?” And maybe it’ll have some commentary. Most of the commentary that it gives is pretty standard and it gave me some comments on my essay, but maybe they are something that I can incorporate. For example, here I plugged in an essay that I wrote for a different video that I did a while back. They mentioned to me that I could be a little bit more consistent with my theme. And I agree, I could probably insert the theme a little stronger in a couple of places. They tell me to show, don’t tell, but I’m already showing. And then when they rewrote it, they got rid of some of my “shows” where I’m not telling, which was kind of head scratching. And then they told me to tighten up the conclusion and they gave me a few ideas. So maybe I’ll look into that, and I’m open to the ideas. It doesn’t mean they’re always right and I will see the revision that they did. It’s not great, and I’m pretty sure it makes my essay worse. And I know you might be thinking that I’m a better writer than you are, so it might make yours better in the end. You might think it’s better, but just be careful. Colleges want to hear from you. They wanna hear your voice. They don’t want a bunch of ChatGPT copy and pasted into your college application. They want to know who you are.
I hope that was helpful, and thanks for reading!
