Further, several colleges have publicly noted that any use of AI in the application process is prohibited.
To offer another example Brown clearly states in their “Artificial Intelligence in the Application Process” statement:
As per the Common App’s policy linked above, their definition of application fraud includes: “submitting plagiarized essays or other written or oral material, or intentionally misrepresenting as one’s own original work: (1) another person’s thoughts, language, ideas, expressions, or experiences or (2) the substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform, technology, or algorithm.”
Brown affirms this definition and reiterates our own independent policy that the use of artificial intelligence by an applicant is not permitted under any circumstances in conjunction with application content. While an applicant may use artificial intelligence to assist with spelling and grammar review, in the same way as any other platform that supports basic proofreading, the content of all essays, short-answer questions and any other material submitted by an applicant must be the work of that individual.
Given this (and given what other schools have shared—see additional examples below), at CEG we advocate that students, counselors, and essay coaches align with what these colleges, universities, and the Common App have said publicly: We do not advocate for the use of AI or ChatGPT in writing the college essays or application.
To be clear: Even if a school has not (as the schools below have) published their AI policy, we prefer to err on the side of caution and not use AI to write the personal statement, supplemental essays, additional information section, or activities list.
Can ChatGPT and AI be useful in certain contexts? Absolutely.
As an example, I used ChatGPT to research college and university policies for this article. (Why? Because researching every college individually would have taken me hundreds of hours.)
But the writing and analysis here is my own.
In a similar vein, might students use AI to research what colleges might be a fit for them? I believe looking up information on colleges is okay (e.g., “Which colleges and universities might be a good fit for me, a student interested in studying Theater at a mid-sized university in the midwest? Give me links so I can do further research”), as long as students are not using AI to write their essays. If students do use it, I think it can be useful to disclose how they used it (as I’ve done in the paragraph before this one).
Stay tuned for more guidelines on the use of AI in researching colleges later this year.
In the meantime:
Here’s what a few (more) colleges have to say:
University of California (UC) System (Public)
“A personal insight question written by AI is not going to be very good, because it’s not going to teach us anything about the student,” says (Robert) Penman, (who leads undergraduate admissions for UC Davis and previously worked in the admissions department at UC Berkeley and UC Riverside). “It’s not going to help us understand more about the student in their context, their hopes and dreams, their trials and tribulations, their achievements. That can’t be generated by a machine, it really has to come from the student.” Source
Gonzaga University (Private)
As for concerns about AI-penned essays on applications, (senior director of undergraduate admission Stephen) Keller notes that all students attest to honesty and accuracy as part of their applications. The process assures that every application is reviewed more than once, and GU isn’t looking for sterile, unusually precise writing that tends to be spit out by AI tools. Source
Southern Methodist University (Graduate)
SMU requires graduate applicants must certify the following when they apply:
“I confirm that I have completed my admission application to this SMU graduate program without any artificial intelligence (AI) assistance. All elements of my application, including essays, statements, and responses, are the product of my own effort and creativity. I also pledge to maintain this level of authenticity during any admission interviews or evaluations, ensuring that my thoughts and answers are solely based on my own knowledge and abilities.” Source
University of Melbourne (Outside the US)
“If a student uses artificial intelligence software such as ChatGPT or QuillBot to generate material for assessment that they represent as their own ideas, research and/or analysis, they are NOT submitting their own work. Knowingly having a third party, including artificial intelligence technologies, write or produce any work (paid or unpaid) that a student submits as their own work for assessment is deliberate cheating and is academic misconduct.” Source