AI is revolutionizing college applications but expert warns everyone is starting to sound like clones as a result
AI is revolutionizing how families approach the college admissions process — and not just by writing application essays.A new survey from education research firm EAB found that the percentage of high school kids using AI in their college process jumped from 26% to 46% just between this spring and the prior one.And parents are using AI at even higher rates than students, according to the EAB data.
A staggering 57% of parents surveyed employed the technology to help direct the application process. But an expert warns that mother — and LLMs — don’t always know best.“Without even their kids knowing … parents are asking ChatGPT or Claude to act like an all-knowing predictor, like, ‘Give me my child’s chances of getting into this school with this GPA, this ethnicity, these extracurriculars and test scores,’” Chris Rim, CEO and founder of college admissions consultancy Command Education, told The Post.
But, “Admissions is more of an art than a science.”Over the past few years, he said that parents are showing up to appointments with him with fully formed strategies that all sound the same.For instance, AI will almost always tell the parents of kids interested in engineering to join the robotics club — pretty clichéd advice in Rim’s opinion.“I can now tell when parents have used LLMs to prepare for a call with me, because they’re saying exactly the same thing in the same order,” he said.
“That only started happening three or four years ago.”The biggest trap families can fall into is relying on AI guidance that makes their applicant sound less unique.“AI can really flatten the entire profile,” Rim warned.“It’s not necessarily bad advice, but everyone is going to get it, and you want to stand out in the process.”This can be especially true when it’s employed early in high school.“Families will use ChatGPT or LLMs to find the right programs to apply to and to map out the entire four years of high school,” Rim said.
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