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Technology has always shaped, and in one case even invented, the art of writing. Be it the Hieroglyphs of ancient Egypt, the printing presses of medieval Europe, or the messaging apps of our era, writing has grown in a multi-dimensional fashion. Yet in every iteration, writing has fundamentally remained true to its purpose of propagating human ideas more systematically on a paper without having to rely on a human medium to pass on its message.
This is what admission officers in most universities abroad (and some in India) understand and use to their advantage. Personal statements and countless other writing prompts were originally designed with the intent to offer a unique personal touch to each student’s application. The logic was this: in getting to know the applicant more holistically, better decisions can be made on who is a better-fit candidate for their college. Its longevity and consistency through decades is perhaps a testament to its success. However, it has become a matter of increasing skepticism and reconsideration.
Writing has always been at its core a creative and artistic medium. As any seasoned writer would tell you, writing involves a lengthy and sometimes mechanical process of learning to find innovative solutions to express your ideas in prose, while using each experience to gain larger insights into the craft itself. Learning that passive voice sounds less confident than active voice is an example.
This has meant that students who have had a chance to explore this craft more often than those who have not, tend to have more advantages when it comes to writing a more cohesive essay. While some of these issues cannot be accounted for, as many are not pointing to any structural issues, there are reasons to believe that social factors play a role in creating a divide in the quality of an essay the admission officers receive.
Following in the footsteps of standardised testing reforms to address structural inequalities, it is likely that university essay requirements will also begin to change in some fashion or the other.
Take, perhaps, one of the most well-known writing prompts for undergraduates aspiring to apply to colleges in the UK– the UCAS. Late last year, UCAS announced that it is scrapping its personal statement requirements, a move that was later welcomed by many universities that associate themselves with the application platform. In the “Future of Undergraduate Admissions” report by UCAS, published on 12th January, UCAS acknowledged that the personal statement has been criticised as a mechanism to “widen the gap” by affording advantages to more privileged students with greater access to expert guidance. According to Varsity, Sam Lucy, Director of Admissions at the University of Cambridge, feels the change will “mean that less well-supported students can engage more effectively with the process” .
Starting in 2024, the personal statement will be replaced by a set of structured questions instead of the free-response personal statement. Students will instead be asked to respond to a series of structured questions focused on six areas. These will include motivation for attending the course, preparedness for the course academically experience-wise along with any extenuating circumstances that might have hindered student progress. Additionally, preparedness for study and their preferred learning styles will also be part of the questions asked.
One way or other, students have always needed to answer these aforementioned questions in their personal statements. So, this shouldn’t change the approach to the UCAS application much. This change, however, makes the process much more transparent for all students, and in turn, ensures that universities can evaluate students more fairly.
Kim Eccleston, head of strategy and reform at UCAS, said they believe the move “will help guide students through their responses by removing the guesswork, as well as capture the information universities and colleges have told us they really need to know from applicants when it comes to offer-making”.
For the 2023-’24 admissions cycle, UCAS will introduce “Entry Grade Reports” that will display the range of grade profiles that have been accepted for entry to courses over a five-year period to help students evaluate their options better.
But given the pace of technology is actively changing the pace of writing, it is also good to assume that admission committees will also rework their essay requirements even more. Thus far, regardless of drastic technological progress, writing has mostly benefited from these developments in different ways, often easing some cumbersome parts of the process.
In comparison to a decade ago when each successive draft of an essay could be worked on by only one person at a time and sent for review via email, the process of writing college applications looks drastically different. Today, we have software like Google Docs, Edidate, and countless other tools that ease the more tricky aspects of the writing process and help students focus on the more important aspects of it, such as the act of writing itself.
Let me reiterate here that in none of these instances was the integrity of writing challenged to its fundamental core. ChatGPT, however, and other AI software are emerging as a tool that might shake things up for the better or worse.
ChatGPT can either be extremely destructive to the writing process for college applications, by adding the vector of its unethical usage, or be another aid for many students in assisting their writing process. Having tested this software for writing college essays, I have to say that I fall on the side of its use as a constructive medium, with some reason to be cautious of course. In my opinion, AI as software has helped revolutionise the writing process. We have always understood that writing is in part a logical and technical process and AI can be a useful tool to assist us through this process.
Let’s hear ChatGPT say it in it’s own words:
“ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionise the way students write their college application essays, by providing them with personalized feedback and suggestions that can help them to craft more effective and compelling essays. One of the biggest challenges that students face when writing their college application essays is trying to figure out what the admissions committee is looking for. ChatGPT can help with this by analyzing the student’s essay and providing feedback on areas such as structure, content, and tone. ChatGPT can also help students to brainstorm ideas for their essays by providing them with prompts and suggestions. This can be especially helpful for students who are struggling to come up with a topic or who are feeling stuck in their writing process.”
Of course, it would helpful for students and counselors like me, who have worked in this industry for 15-odd years to read this prose generated by the software with heavy skepticism.
Jeff Selingo, a seasoned writer and a reporter on college admissions says: “We often see the battle between technology and humans as a zero-sum game. And that’s how much of the discussion about ChatGPT is being framed now. Like many others who have been experimenting with ChatGPT in recent weeks, I find that a lot of the output depends on the input. In other words, the better the human question, the better the ChatGPT answer.” In other words, one skill, that of writing, is being replaced by another, that of coming up with concise and helpful prompts.”
Despite this fact, one caveat that, I believe, is being neglected is the role of human touch that any essay written needs plays in making a piece of writing good.
Check for yourself — no matter how detailed a prompt is for the ChatGPT to generate content, it can never truly personalize the essays to you as a student. This personalization involves not just content but also the style in which a student tends to write.
A well-written essay is never expected to have some cosmic perfection, but rather a human touch. A touch that is filled with minute details that almost leave, metaphorically speaking, a fingerprint of each student’s personality. Fortunately, this is what admission officers want.
I have spoken to many admission officers about the role such AI tools might play in the changing landscape of college admission essays, and the answer has been fairly unanimous. In a recent live conversation with Nicole Buenzli, Director of Admissions at the University of San Francisco, mentioned that ChatGPT has been a major part of the discussion in many forums conducted by admission officers.
She added that the main aim of reading a college essay, no matter how perfect or imperfect it is, is to get to know the student.
If a student is using ChatGPT to seek help in aspects of writing that would otherwise need a specialized editor’s help then there is no issue. It is in fact a practice that is encouraged by some given, as of now, the AI tools are democratic in nature. Anyone, no matter their socio-economic background, can access these with a stable internet connection and a device. Some officers, however, are more skeptical and suggest that with such advancement in AI’s capabilities, there might be a possibility for the officers to rely more heavily on other means to gather more information about the student. This can include students having to write timed essays on the application portal, attend interviews, or even connect with mentors and counselors as a source of information about the student.
Regardless, ChatGPT and other software tools are not yet a threat to the essay one has to write for colleges, and I don’t foresee a future yet where that would be the case.
(The writer is the founder of Edbrand and CollegeFair.Live – a one-on-one college admissions mentoring company based in India.)