AI Impact on College and Career

There has been a lot of discussion about Chat GPT in the news. For those who aren’t familiar with Chat GPT, it is a platform that is often referred to as a “language machine” or chatbot that uses statistics, reinforcement learning, and supervised learning to generate words, phrases, and sentences. What does it mean for college applicants?

Can Chat GPT Write a College Essay?

In the literal sense, yes, Chat GPT can write a college essay. It can generate grammatically correct sentences, but in our experience the essays it generates fail to persuasively make the case for admission. A strong college essay highlights perspective gained, lessons learned, and hopes for the future.  Software can’t move people the way a real person reflecting does.

Some of the applicants we worked with last year gave us first drafts of essays that felt “off”. Yes, they were grammatically correct, but they felt stiff, robotic, and rather inauthentic. With a little digging, we discovered that our students used Chat GPT to write these drafts. If a student has the academic qualifications for a university, they still must make the case for admission through the essays they include in their application. There is no point in applying if the essays do not adequately answer the questions if they lack perspective and warmth. We want each of our students to make the most of this journey to earn admission to colleges that are great fits for them and their long-term goals. While this process can involve a lot of work, especially for students applying to highly selective colleges, it rewards students who invest time to reflect on their life experiences and goals for the future. The majority of our students have not written reflective essays for their English classes and it can feel uncomfortable writing about themselves. This is normal. Through this process, they will gain the critical skill of advocating for themselves and their ability to add value to other organizations.  

Why We Should Learn to Write in the Chat GPT Era?

We are entering an era where many forms of communication will be outsourced to software. Those who are able to effectively communicate will be rewarded in their education and careers. Writing, like speaking, is one of the ways we connect with others, which will take on increased importance in an era where routine tasks are able to be automated or outsourced.

In college and high school, we expect professors and teachers to reduce their reliance on essays written outside of class to in-class assessments to prevent students from using AI to generate their essays. Students that choose to rely on Chat GPT early in their education may be in for a rude awakening when they are suddenly confronted with assessment formats that prevent them from using it.  

When it comes to writing and long-term goals, not everyone needs to love writing or be “good” at it. We seek to ensure that our students have a baseline competency in writing so they can communicate effectively with their superiors, generate goodwill with outside stakeholders in their professions, and express themselves fully. This applies to all professions, including engineers and programmers. Those who can communicate effectively are poised to become stronger managers!

How AI Will Affect Future Jobs?

Experts are predicting that AI will replace tens of millions of jobs in the coming years–ranging from marketing, basic programming, financial analysis, and more. AI will not be able to replace managers, positions that depend on forging human connections, and tasks that require physical interactions (i.e. tending to a patient). 

We need to be thoughtful about the paths we pursue to ensure that we are not blindly following paths that were successful in the past. The future of work will be different. For now, we remain committed to ensuring that our students develop the skills, perspective, and experience they need to engage with a competitive and changing world. We are helping several students who are now in college or have graduated from college with their resumes, interview prep, and career planning to help them make the most of graduate school and postgraduate employment opportunities. We will continue to work with our students to make sure their educational plans prepare them for college and beyond.