Why Your Teen Shouldn’t Use ChatGPT For College Admission Essays

Learn How to THink

4/28/25

I have a student who loves using ChatGPT as a coach, but the other day I told him he should never use Chat for help with admission essays.

For background, I’m a Stanford graduate, journalist and college admissions coach who helps high-performing teens fulfill their dreams while building lives they love. I do this by using the admissions process as a way to teach life skills like thought leadership, entrepreneurial mindset and self advocacy.

This year all 4 of my top students got into Stanford (2 teens), Harvard and MIT. In the past 11 years, 80% of my top students have gotten into Ivy-caliber schools or UC Berkeley / UCLA.

Now that you have an idea of my background, let’s get back to the story – here’s why, ethics aside, no one should use AI to draft or majorly edit admission essays:

Misses the Story

Yes, it’s tempting to ask Chat to help you come up with story ideas from all of your past conversations. 

However, Chat can never replace a real human being’s intuition and curiosity. 

I’ve read student essays that were “run through” AI – and AI missed the True Story. 

It takes a human being’s instinct to spot one line – or even a phrase – in a 650-word story and say:

What’s that about? 

Tell me more. 

Actually, this is the story. 

You should scrap that essay and write a completely new one based on this one line.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done that for students – for example, one of my students wrote that  he wanted to be an inventor and was working on some projects. 

“Hang on a second,” I told him. “Tell me about these projects. Have you prototyped them? (Yes.) Do they work? (Yes.) Then you’re already an inventor. Let’s completely reshape this essay to talk about how you’re an inventor - tell me about how you came up with the idea, your process, impact, etc.” 

That was a completely different story than what my student initially drafted, and the new one cast him in a much stronger light. 

Rather than being someone chasing a college admissions spot, we showcased my student’s extraordinary talent and shifted the power dynamic so colleges would be lucky to have him on their campus. (He ended up getting into a Top 3 school.)

The ability to identify the True Story is a skill I developed in journalism graduate school and have honed for years as a journalist writing hundreds of stories on a daily deadline. 

I know what will appeal to human beings, especially admissions readers.

At this point in time, Chat doesn’t have the analytical ability or intuition to determine the best stories that will resonate with human beings. 

But if you brainstorm witgh other human beings, you’ll be on the right path.

Narrow Perspective

ChatGPT is too restrictive - it only sees what’s on paper; it’s a word predictor; it’s not truly intelligent.

There are many sides of yourself that you may have not revealed to ChatGPT, but human beings can get to the heart of your story a lot faster. We can read your body language (are you lighting up when you talk about this topic?) and use other non-verbal clues to determine how important a topic is to you.

My students and I go so much faster when we riff off of each other in real time and when we can see each other – the best work does not happen over email or typing into the void.

Brainstorming is not a linear process, it can be tangential and even random. 

ChatGPT is not capable of making tangential leaps.

Discuss, brainstorm and refine your ideas with people in real time, not screens. Have fun, loosen up. If you’re having fun and excited talking about your idea, someone will have fun reading your story. 

Positive emotions towards your story will spur admissions officers to advocate for your file.

Tone

As a writer, I’ve experimented with ChatGPT.

Initially it seems amazing - quick, polished, confident.

But after stepping away from the screen and reflecting, I’ve realized I hate it and will never use it to write my work.

Why not?

Because it can never capture my tone, personality or idiosyncrasies.

And that is exactly what you need for college admissions in order to stand out.

The best essays have a strong, unique voice.

Just as you can identify who wrote a song (Jon Batiste anyone?) you can identify who wrote an essay. 

If you use Chat too much for your college essays, it erases your voice and reverts you to the mean (it is a word predictor, after all.)

Boring and predictable  = college rejection.

Colleges want diverse, unique contributors to their campuses.

My students often write essays that surprise me.

But ChatGPT never does. 

Lack of Developmental Edit Capability

In journalism, we have a concept called “developmental editing.” 

That’s when your editor (a very senior one) goes through your work, asks you a million questions, tears your story apart, restructures it, and helps you put it back together again.

As a writer, it’s a process not for the faint of heart – but it’s crucial for improving one’s writing.

I graduated college as a history major earning As in humanities courses, but I never experienced developmental editing until I went to journalism school, where veteran journalists took the time to work one-to-one with me.

They taught me how write, structure and report a story (and yes, when you write your college essays you’ll be reporting on yourself). They improved my story by 10X, and I got to walk away with the byline.

And now I do this for my students. 

That’s something Chat will never – and can never – do. (Yes, I’ve tested it… with this story.)

Can Chat copy edit your work, looking for commas, periods and quotation marks? 

Yes. 

But it can never analyze your writing, tear it apart and completely restructure it – because it doesn’t think.  

You need developmental edits to bring a B essay to an A++ one, because that’s what you’ll need to get into an Ivy.

You Lose Your Ability to Think

Finally, and this is the most important point – never ever have Chat write for you because writing is not just putting words on a piece of paper, it is thinking.

I have edited thousands of essays in my career and I can tell exactly how intellectual a person is by their writing.

Some writers submit work that is perfectly structured, not a word out of place. 

Others struggle to craft a single coherent sentence in a 500-word story.

As more people use AI to write, fewer people will know how to think.

If you can think, you’ll have the advantage in college admissions – and in life. 

—————

Do you want your teen to learn how to think (a.k.a. become a thought leader and command any rate?) Consider working with Alice Chen, a Stanford grad, award-winning journalist and “coach of admission coaches.” Her specialties include application strategy, essay writing and most importantly life skills – because she wants to teach her students how to create success no matter where they go to college. 

What families are saying:

The competition is fierce for Asian male engineering students and (Alice) helped my son create the strongest application possible. My son has already been accepted into an Ivy League University and another Top 10 University. She is an outstanding mentor - she works not just on the essay but on developing the potential of each of her students.” - Fiona Zhang (Son admitted to Top 3 University) 

I got into my top choice early decision because of Alice! My only regret is not starting sooner with her! - J. B. New York, New York. Admitted to UPenn VIPER Program.

Alice was an amazing help in college essay writing… I ended up learning a lot about myself… Alice also encourag(ed) me to focus on topics I found personally powerful and meaningful. Thank you Alice!” - D. R, - SF Bay Area - admitted to Harvard, Berkeley MET Program (< 2% admitted), Columbia (Egleston Scholar), UPenn, Northwestern, USC Iovine and Young Academy (Presidential Scholar, half tuition scholarship, ~$160,000)

Alice is AMAZING! She helped me learn how to organize my writing in a way that was engaging, easy to read, and contained all the little things admissions officers look for…I felt like my writing improved a lot… I'll be going to MIT this fall :)!-A. M. - SF Bay Area -  admitted to MIT, Dartmouth, Rice (Full tuition scholarship~ $210,000), Dartmouth, Duke, Georgia Tech ($85,000 scholarship)

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