Faculty counselors Stephanie Nelson and Richard Tench, whereas lots of of miles aside, give their rising seniors the identical project when requested for a letter of advice: Take a “brag” sheet, fill it out with challenges they’ve overcome or accomplishments they’re significantly happy with, and provides it again to the advisors to assist information their writing.
It’s a typical counseling method. And what’s additionally catching on: Counselors then plug these pupil 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 great,’ and I’ll say, ‘ChatGPT helped.’”
Whereas college students are already turning towards AI to assist with every little thing from examine aids to psychological well being wants, with the more and more broad chasm spreading between the variety of college students and variety of counselors obtainable in colleges, generative AI may current as a instrument to assist each teams do their half to finish school purposes.
“I’ve plugged issues into AI to assist me strengthen the letter; generally for time, generally I get caught — when it’s important to write lots of of letters a 12 months,” says Tench, who estimates he writes between 120 to 150 letters of advice every year at his faculty in West Virginia. “It’s positively a great tool. Whereas it helps them fine-tune their resumes, it may possibly additionally fine-tune our letters to indicate the perfect in our college students whereas additionally retaining our voice.”
How Widespread Is This Use?
Whereas loads of headlines have been penned about college students’ generative AI use and training establishments’ issues, the query of faculty counselors utilizing it to help the school admissions course of has been largely unaddressed.
There may be not a lot information, if any, about that particular use. The American Faculty Counselor Affiliation instructed 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 may barely lighten their very own load.
However opinions about this are combined. In a spotlight group for foundry10, an training analysis group, conversations swirled between tech-forward lecturers and their extra novice counterparts, bringing to gentle the stark distinction of their AI utilization.
“You get reactions of lecturers which might be already AI-forward and the others sort of shocked or stunned, like, ‘Actually? You’d use it for one thing like letters of advice?’” says Riddhi Divanji, a know-how, media, and data literacy group lead at foundry10.
That dialogue led to a 2024 examine, discovering roughly 1 in 3 college students and lecturers self-reported utilizing some type of generative synthetic intelligence to assist with school essays or writing letters of advice. Divanji, a co-author of the examine, acknowledged that quantity has most certainly risen from when information was first gathered within the spring of 2024.
“College students had been desirous to experiment with the instruments however needed to do it with boundaries; and nobody was serving to them perceive what these boundaries had been,” she says.
The examine discovered college students turned towards their dad and mom first for assist, then lecturers and counselors. For first-generation college students whose dad and mom didn’t attend school, or college students who couldn’t afford expensive school admissions coaches that may run lots of of {dollars} an hour, “then it will make sense to show towards this instrument to assist,” Divanji says.
Utilizing AI Ethically to Apply to School
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.
“In case you say, ‘Write my essay,’ it’ll be far more error-prone, versus, ‘Assist me provide you with a thesis assertion,’ or ‘My introductory paragraph isn’t punchy sufficient,’” she says, including a human ought to at all times be the ultimate entity to have a look at an essay, not a pc. “The extra focused duties you may give it the higher. And maintain an actual sturdy eye out for error and bias.”
She additionally encourages each college students and school to have a look at precisely what instrument they’re utilizing for assist. Many training know-how corporations are touting their very own options, that are “wrappers for ChatGPT, or Gemini or Claude,” she says, with no precise training 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 perfect utilization is to assist brainstorm or fine-tune concepts.
Every professional additionally gave the reminder for educators and college students to examine first with each highschool and school AI insurance policies. Schools are combined on permitting college students to make use of AI of their purposes, with some encouraging it whereas others outright ban its utilization.
AI insurance policies are sometimes hyperlinked within the admissions software, however it may take some extra digging to search out, Tench says.
“It’s following our insurance policies as a college but additionally their insurance policies in school to verify these pointers are adopted; that’s a part of the moral and accountable AI utilization for college students that’s so vital,” 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 could be in coaching them within the do’s and don’ts.”
