AI Admissions

The San Francisco Chronicle has an article on the growth of an AI admissions industry: [excerpt]

...Reach Best went live in June and charges customers $25 to $200, depending on how many essay reviews and AI queries they want. Yet most of the 10,000 users ... use the site’s free try-out section, he said. Free competitor Kollegio went live [last] Thursday.

Students entering college this fall are the first to complete a full application cycle since generative AI tools like ChatGPT emerged in late 2022, and signs indicate they are already jumping on the technology. For the first time, the University of California’s “statement of application integrity” contains a surprising message for all 250,000 applicants: When answering application questions, using generative AI for advice on content, editing and readability is fine. “But content and final written text must be their own,” UC warns for the first time, noting that it screens responses and may ask applicants to prove they created the content themselves. If it detects cheating, UC “will take action.”

About a third of 523 teens surveyed nationwide said they used AI to help them with the personal essays in their college application, according to foundry10, an education research group in Seattle that asked 16- to 18-year-old applicants about their AI habits in February and March.

Of the 153 students who used AI, half said it helped with brainstorming essay topics, checking grammar and creating an outline. About a third used AI to “enhance essay content phrasing.” More troubling is that 49 of the respondents, or 32%, used the tool to generate a first draft of their essays. And 31 of them, 20%, used it to write their final essay.

...UC... is requiring applicants to click on its application integrity statement, generating a signature that affirms, for the first time, that they won’t use AI to cheat. It remains unclear, however, if that is enough. Meanwhile, companies like Reach Best and Kollegio are rising in popularity...

Full story at https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/ai-software-college-applications-19597583.php.