Should I Use AI for My College Essays?

Ok, imagine you’re on a blind date. The two of you meet for dinner at a cute Italian place. I know you’re nervous, but don’t worry, you’re looking good! And so is your date—at least at first glance. Yet within the first few minutes, you start realizing that something is seriously off with them. Their movements are weirdly stiff. Their conversation is stilted and impersonal. When you look at their eyes, you can’t help but notice a glassy emptiness.Suddenly, their head twitches and a small hatch on their neck pops open, revealing the wiring and circuitry within They’re not a person at all, you realize with a shock! They’re a robot!

Needless to say, you probably won’t be asking them out on a second date. 

This is basically the experience of a college admissions reader when they encounter an essay written with AI. As an experienced reader of college essays, I can recognize within seconds whether AI has been used to help generate an essay. And so can your admissions reader. And I promise you, they won’t exactly feel tickled.

AI might be great for some uses. But when it comes to AI and college essays, I’ll be as frank as possible: it sucks. Apart from the thorny question of plagiarism, AI-assisted essays are full of cliched phrases and expressions. The writing is vacuous, reminiscent of the empty lingo of corporate memos or inspirational posters on gym walls (“There’s no I in team!”). The ideas and approaches are ones we’ve seen a thousand times. Reading them is like chewing on cardboard. Or like petting a block of sandpaper. We discover no distinctive voice, experience no encounter with a vibrant mind and personality. The inevitable result? Rejection from the colleges of your choice.

Human creativity is unpredictable, and therefore exceptional college essays always contain an element of surprise. They make moves we haven’t seen before, and offer original structures and ideas, even if they’re sometimes touching on familiar areas of experience within the galaxy of high school life. Their language distinctly conveys the writer’s unique personality and ways of seeing and thinking through their experience. They offer us insight, inspiration, and emotional texture. During our reading of an excellent essay, we feel like we’re having a genuine encounter with you…and you end up seeming pretty darn interesting. 

My advice? Ditch AI altogether for college essays. Even using AI for experimental drafts risks boxing you in and restrict the range of your thinking. There’s work to be done, and a good essay coach can help. But a skilled coach will show you how to generate something great from your gloriously original, gloriously human self.