ChatGPT: Getting Your College Application Personal Statement to the Starting Line
It’s a Means, Not an End
The range of reactions among educational professionals to the Chat GPT writing tool is instructive: it can assist a student, but it can also "destroy" a student’s chances for admission. Its helpful side seems clear enough−feed it information that it quickly transforms into the basic narrative. If it’s as simple as that, then what are the downsides?
College consultants and admissions officers agree with students who rely on artificial intelligence to generate a personal statement for the application risk nullifying their admissions chances. AI writing may appear too smooth, too general, devoid of personality—in a word, too superficial and relatively easy to identify. Is there any redeeming value, then, to a tool like Chat GPT? Yes, we think so.
You visit the market, buy veggies, then take 'em home and add personal spices; you seek a mentor, receive counsel, ponder it, and incorporate it into your personal life; looking for advice about growing flowers, you visit a nursery, then consider the options for the particular sandy backyard plot you love. In each of these cases, there's a jumpstart leading to an end. By jumpstarting your deeper reflections with ChatGPT, you’ll see its usefulness the way we see it, too.
We’ve always told our students that their very own "voice" must ring loud and clear in their writing. That translates into written reactions and reflections that are truly personal. So, finding a framework to which you can add the richness of your personal experience can be an immense help, much like the armature onto which a sculptor places and forms her clay to reflect her personal taste, intention, and imagination. ChatGPT can assist a student in finding a general direction for writing. What we educational consultants and counselors do is support the student in enriching and personalizing the writing to make it unique and reflective − so that it "speaks" to the reader. It’s crucial in the finished personal statement to remove the “artificial” from ChatGPT’s “intelligence.”
ChatGPT
The Dark Side
How do you ensure your ethical use of ChatGPT? Frankly, the technology is so new that college admission officers are grappling with this issue themselves. Most are falling back on a “wait and see” attitude. Still, there are some ethical boundaries you will not want to cross. The first one may be the easiest to flesh out.
Plagiarism is a concern you’ll want to be wary of when using AI tools. A completely AI-generated essay that you pass off as your own would be considered deliberate plagiarism. Even if you tweak the generated text, you will run the risk of unintentional plagiarism by using someone else’s words without attribution. Another ethical consideration − and a good reason to make sure that your AI-generated material serves only as background research and brainstorming − is that before you submit the Common Application, you must sign off on the authenticity of your work. Specifically, you will agree to the following: “I certify that all information submitted in the admission process − including this application and any other supporting materials − is my own work, factually true, and honestly presented.” So, you best rely on your honesty and integrity to ensure that your use of AI is ethical in today’s college application environment. Colleges want authenticity from you−and their readers will be on high alert.
You don’t want to be like a recently sanctioned New York attorney who used the output of ChatGPT in an affidavit for the court. The judge and defense lawyers, with a bit of research, uncovered judicial decisions fabricated by ChatGPT to support the attorney’s case, according to anInsiderarticle. For a college applicant, your own creativity must infuse the personal statement by weaving in richness and insight from real personal experiences; and “facts” generated by AI must be checked.
Ethically Harnessing ChatGPT's Power
Crafting Your Authentic College Application Personal Statement
Writing a compelling, authentic college application personal statement has almost always been daunting for students. It's supposed to showcase to admissions officers your unique experiences, values, and aspirations. Finding the perfect words to express yourself may be difficult, but you can leverage ChatGPT for brainstorming and drafting your initial essay. Let’s explore here how you can ethically and effectively utilize ChatGPT to kickstart your personal statement, then blend into it personal creativity, insights, and voice.
Understand ChatGPT’s Role: First, the basics: ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model designed to assist users with generating text. It can be valuable for a student when used appropriately. However, as we’ve underscored, it’s crucial to be ethical by ensuring that the essay ultimately reflects your own voice and ideas.
Brainstorm and Outline: Begin by engaging ChatGPT as a brainstorming partner in a conversation in which you explain some of the things that make you unique, such as your background and family, hobbies, interests, motivations, goals, dreams, favorite books and movies, and memorable moments in your life. ChatGPT will produce invaluable suggestions to help structure your essay. IMPORTANT: review and critically evaluate the suggestions, selecting those that resonate with your experiences and aspirations.
Draft Your Initial Essay: With insights from your ChatGPT conversation, put fingers to keyboard to start drafting your personal statement. Use the model's generated text as a foundation or starting point for each paragraph. Expand upon the narrative, adding personal anecdotes that highlight your personality and perspective. Avoid directly copying the generated text. Instead, aim to rephrase and personalize it to align with your own personality and writing style. That’s the essence of your “voice.”
Ensure Authenticity and Originality: Do so by incorporating your own insights and experiences. Use ChatGPT's suggestions as a springboard to explore deeper into your personal journey. Reflect on meaningful moments, challenges overcome, and lessons learned. Be vulnerable, be honest, be reflective. You can even be ambivalent! Your unique experiences will differentiate you from everyone else and deliver your genuine story!
Revise and Refine: After drafting your initial essay, step away from ChatGPT and focus on the revision process. Sleep on your draft for a night or two, and then review it critically, ensuring it reflects your own voice, aligns with your values, and conveys your desired message. Change it as you see fit to convey your message more clearly to admission readers. Pay attention to sentence structure, grammar, and clarity of ideas. In seeking feedback from your college counselor and other trusted mentors, ask what they learned about you from your essay. Use their perspectives and suggestions for possible improvement.
Inject Creativity and Insight: To make your essay more introspective and memorable, think beyond any simple listing of events or facts so you can add personal reflections, vivid descriptions, and emotional connections. Make sure your essay resonates with who you are. Does it reveal what you’d like colleges to know about your growth, resilience, lessons learned, and perspectives? By adding detail and reflecting on your emotions, your essay becomes a testament to your potential positive impact on the college campus.
Make it Your Own: Remember: the personal statement must reflect your voice, thoughts, and experiences. While ChatGPT may serve as a starting point, it should never overshadow your own creativity. Take ownership, using your very own life experience to elevate your essay. Make deliberate writing choices that showcase your deepest thoughts. That will convey the distinct “you.”
The technological power of ChatGPT may help you generate a foundation on which you subsequently build your personalized college application essay. By using it ethically and effectively, you can access inspiration and guidance while ensuring your personal statement remains authentic and revealing to the reader. Infusing your own creativity, self-reflection, and voice into the essay leads to a memorable and compelling narrative that will captivate admissions officers. You've got this! Savor your college application journey!
P.S. Were you able to guess that I used ChatGPT and my methodology above to draft, reflect, rewrite, reconsider, rewrite, fine-tune, and finalize this blog so it conveys my exact thoughts? (And a multitude of changes to contemplate in order to create the finished product!)
