Even if you’re not interested in artificial intelligence, you should pay attention to ChatGPT, the new AI bot in town. The chatbot ChatGPT responds to questions you type in natural language using the technology from OpenAI, a major artificial intelligence player.
It keeps track of the conversation’s flow and bases subsequent responses on past queries and answers. Its responses are obtained from a vast amount of online data. The tool is reasonably knowledgeable when it has sufficient training data to learn from. It isn’t yet omniscient or intelligent enough to completely replace all humans, but it can be inventive, and its responses can sound very powerful. Here is why ChatGPT is essential in the college admissions space.
Academic essays with ChatGPT
Everyone is raving about ChatGPT, an AI bot that can quickly and efficiently write your academic essays. One of the most sophisticated chatbots ever created, ChatGPT, was released on November 30 by the AI research group OpenAI. It already has more than 100 million users globally in a little more than a week and allows you to write almost anything, which is ideal for students.
Currently, ChatGPT is in the research phase, and OpenAI is gathering user feedback to understand its advantages and disadvantages. Because it’s in beta, anyone can utilise the model right now. Go to ChatGPT and register before you begin writing your essay. After that, you must input your phone number and confirm your email address. Return to ChatGPT after that, sign in, and request that the bot compose an essay for you. It will quickly return an entire essay on the subject of your choice. The bot will supply more if you write “more, please” or “make it longer.” For instance, write me a college essay about Germany and World War Two.
Benefits of ChatGPT
The ability of ChatGPT to produce ideas and prospective topic sentences is one of the main advantages of using it for essay writing. ChatGPT can create a list of possible topic sentences or ideas for the student to consider by giving the model a prompt, such as an essay question. This can benefit students who get writer’s block or are unclear about what to write about.
Using ChatGPT to write essays also has the advantage of producing grammatically sound and coherent sentences. Students who need help with grammar and sentence structure may find this helpful. The student can use ChatGPT as a starting point and edit and modify the created content to fit their needs.
Limitations of ChatGPT essays
While AI-generated essay content can help write many essays in a limited period, it is still very much dependent on programming. This means that it may need to be more accurate and can create embarrassing mistakes. While chatGPT can create content that appears authentic and personalised, it doesn’t understand what it is saying. This means that it could create awkward and stilted sentences that sound like they need to be more authentic.
Can ChatGPT write convincing college essays?
Forbes fed ChatGPT two college essay prompts, one 650-word Common Application prompt: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, please share your story”—and another was the “Why Wisconsin?” essay from the University of Wisconsin. According to the article, each essay took ChatGPT less than 10 minutes to complete. That is far less time than students would spend composing essays and far more time than most admissions officers spend reading essays.
When it was time to examine whether the AI-produced essays were convincing, whether they looked similar to essays from actual high school seniors, and whether anything in the essays suggested that they were written by AI rather than a human being, it was not possible to detect the AI authorship. Still, at the same time, the essays were not convincing. Both essays were found to resemble cliché essays, and neither of them convincingly answered the prompt. They also didn’t sound like an essay a teenager would write but rather like an essay a teenager could only write with significant assistance and editing by an adult.
ChatGPT can help students with their college essay writing. But it’s crucial to remember that the approach could never take the place of a student’s writing and critical-thinking capabilities. The value of an authentic college essay is not changing anytime soon. Before using content produced by AI, it’s a good idea to work on your writing abilities. The mentors at Rostrum can help you do just that. We provide intensive one-on-one writing sessions where students can hone their writing skills while guided by our experienced mentors. To schedule a free consultation, contact us right away.
Author
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Yatharth is the co-founder of Rostrum education. He pursued a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Mathematics and Statistics from London School of Economics and Political Science. He has worked with leading educational consultancies in the UK to tutor students and assist them in university admissions.
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