College counselors Stephanie Nelson and Richard Tench, whereas a whole bunch of miles aside, give their rising seniors the identical task when requested for a letter of advice: Take a “brag” sheet, fill it out with challenges they’ve overcome or accomplishments they’re notably happy with, and provides it again to the advisors to assist information their writing.
It’s a standard counseling method. And what’s additionally catching on: Counselors then plug these scholar achievements right into a generative AI instrument to assist compose the letter of advice.
“I’m not taking away the non-public half, and I’m nonetheless utilizing my tried-and-true counseling strategies and expertise and enhancing what’s already in thoughts with it,” Nelson, a college counselor in North Carolina, says. “I’ve joked with college students who say, ‘That is fantastic,’ and I’ll say, ‘ChatGPT helped.’”
Whereas college students are already turning towards AI to assist with every thing from examine aids to psychological well being wants, with the more and more huge chasm spreading between the variety of college students and variety of counselors accessible in colleges, generative AI might current as a instrument to assist each teams do their half to finish faculty functions.
“I’ve plugged issues into AI to assist me strengthen the letter; generally for time, generally I get caught — when it’s a must to write a whole bunch of letters a 12 months,” says Tench, who estimates he writes between 120 to 150 letters of advice annually at his faculty in West Virginia. “It’s undoubtedly a great tool. Whereas it helps them fine-tune their resumes, it could actually additionally fine-tune our letters to point out the most effective in our college students whereas additionally protecting our voice.”
How Widespread Is This Use?
Whereas loads of headlines have been penned about college students’ generative AI use and schooling establishments’ issues, the query of college counselors utilizing it to help the faculty admissions course of has been largely unaddressed.
There’s not a lot information, if any, about that particular use. The American College Counselor Affiliation informed EdSurge they don’t observe it.
For counselors who’re seeing rising numbers of scholars — Nelson sees roughly 380 college students whereas Tench calls himself “fortunate” with a 275:1 ratio — AI instruments might barely lighten their very own load.
However opinions about this are combined. In a spotlight group for foundry10, an schooling analysis group, conversations swirled between tech-forward academics and their extra novice counterparts, bringing to mild the stark distinction of their AI utilization.
“You get reactions of academics which might be already AI-forward and the others form of shocked or shocked, like, ‘Actually? You’d use it for one thing like letters of advice?’” says Riddhi Divanji, a expertise, media, and knowledge literacy workforce lead at foundry10.
That dialogue led to a 2024 examine, discovering roughly 1 in 3 college students and academics self-reported utilizing some type of generative synthetic intelligence to assist with faculty essays or writing letters of advice. Divanji, a co-author of the examine, acknowledged that quantity has most probably risen from when information was first gathered within the spring of 2024.
“College students have been eager to experiment with the instruments however needed to do it with boundaries; and nobody was serving to them perceive what these boundaries have been,” she says.
The examine discovered college students turned towards their mother and father first for assist, then academics and counselors. For first-generation college students whose mother and father didn’t attend faculty, or college students who couldn’t afford dear faculty admissions coaches that may run a whole bunch of {dollars} an hour, “then it could make sense to show towards this instrument to assist,” Divanji says.
Utilizing AI Ethically to Apply to Faculty
The utilization ought to include guardrails. Hannah Quay-de la Vallee, a senior technologist on the Middle for Democracy & Know-how, encourages college students to put in writing their very own essays at first, then be particular with requests.
“For those who say, ‘Write my essay,’ it’ll be way more error-prone, versus, ‘Assist me give you a thesis assertion,’ or ‘My introductory paragraph isn’t punchy sufficient,’” she says, including a human ought to all the time be the ultimate entity to take a look at an essay, not a pc. “The extra focused duties you may give it the higher. And maintain an actual robust eye out for error and bias.”
She additionally encourages each college students and school to take a look at precisely what instrument they’re utilizing for assist. Many schooling expertise firms are touting their very own options, that are “wrappers for ChatGPT, or Gemini or Claude,” she says, with no precise schooling analysis concerned.
“Actually, simply use ChatGPT at that time,” she provides.
Tench and Nelson each say they’re upfront about their use of AI and anticipate the identical of their college students, repeatedly stating the most effective utilization is to assist brainstorm or fine-tune concepts.
Every knowledgeable additionally gave the reminder for educators and college students to examine first with each highschool and faculty AI insurance policies. Faculties are combined on permitting college students to make use of AI of their functions, with some encouraging it whereas others outright ban its utilization.
AI insurance policies are sometimes hyperlinked within the admissions utility, however it might take some extra digging to seek out, Tench says.
“It’s following our insurance policies as a college but in addition their insurance policies in faculty to ensure these pointers are adopted; that’s a part of the moral and accountable AI utilization for college students that’s so essential,” he says. “For some, it’s tougher as a result of AI is the simple approach out. However I really feel the longer it’s round, the extra intentional and systemic we might be in coaching them within the do’s and don’ts.”
