More students are asking AI tools for help writing their college essays, but a New York Times reporter didn’t get great results.

Using short-answer essay questions from Princeton, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale, the reporter asked for ideas and full responses. For one of Princeton’s question, shown here, ChatGPT suggested an inappropriate response—not just because it’s about sex but because it doesn’t accurately answer the question.

The reporter concludes:

My takeaway: high school seniors hoping to stand out may need to do wholesale rewrites of the texts they prompt A.I. chatbots to generate. Or they could just write their own—chatbot-free—admissions essays from scratch.

That may be true about many writing assignments. In addition, using AI raises integrity issues and may hurt students’ differentiation. With the limited number of tools, how many students will submit the same song to Princeton? I’m reminded of reading hundreds of applications for the Hotel School at Cornell. To the question about why students chose to apply, far too many wrote that the school is “number one” or that they love Disney. Admissions committee members see enough unoriginal responses without the help of AI.

Update: Some schools now offer guidance for using or not using AI in applications. The equity issues are clear in The University of Michigan’s approach. Students might not have people in their lives who can offer this assistance: “Applicants may, however, ask pre-law advisors, mentors, friends, or others for basic proofreading assistance and general feedback and critiques.” 

Georgia Tech offers a more democratic approach:

Tools like ChatGPT, Bard and other AI-based assistance programs are powerful and valuable tools. We believe there is a place for them in helping you generate ideas, but your ultimate submission should be your own. As with all other sources, you should not copy and paste content you did not create directly into your application. Instead, if you choose to utilize AI-based assistance while working on your writing submissions for Georgia Tech, we encourage you to take the same approach you would when collaborating with people. Use it to brainstorm, edit, and refine your ideas. AI can also be a useful tool as you consider how to construct your resume in the Activities portion of the Common Application. We think AI could be a helpful collaborator, particularly when you do not have access to other assistance to help you complete your application.