AI is amazing. It started with ‘SIRI’, or maybe it started with Star Trek, when Patrick Stewart played Captain Jean Luc Picard asked for his tea on board: Earl Grey, hot.
That was ‘pretend’. Today, we are dealing with reality.
So, what does this have to do with college admissions and for K-12 education in general? A lot.
I think about my education and, yes, life was simple back in the day. We had typewriters, and if we were lucky, we had electric typewriters and the greatest gift we were given upon high school graduation was an electric typewriter. We of course, used text books and if you can believe it, used encyclopedias as resources. History was obviously a shorter timeline. As a teacher, life was simple back then as well. For my first few years of teaching, there weren’t computers, lesson plans were mapped out in a teacher’s ‘lesson plan book’. We went to conferences and some local lectures to keep up on the latest developments in education, and belonged to various organizations reflecting our specialties. What was lovely about this era was it was slower, we didn’t feel rushed with the exception of meeting our deadlines for report cards, lesson plans and parent teacher conferences and for high school teachers many letters of recommendation. Back in the day, college applications were sent only when complete and by snail mail.
We can move forward a bit, and I recall our report cards being computerized and we could ‘opt in’ for computerized comments. I found them repugnant because I felt that I needed to write what I felt about the students I worked with.
Let’s fast forward to today and I think that tomorrow is even here with the college application and essays. Here we are. While students could probably write their essay using AI, it’s not a great idea. I believe that is one aspect of the college application that admissions officers want to remain ‘pristine’ and they want to hear a student’s true voice and story.
Will AI be used for application review? I would have to lean towards a yes. How will this be accomplished? I have no idea. I can only assume it will have to do with numbers- don’t stop there. A wise question to ask:
“Is AI used to process, review or evaluate any of the components of an application, and if it is, which parts and how is the output used by admissions officers and readers? Admissions officers talk about ‘holistic review’ of applications. How does this factor into ‘holistic review’?’
Here is what we ‘kind of know’, we know that some universities are going to implement the use of AI in courses. It’s inevitable that this will happen. Is it the cart before the horse? It might be. I believe you, as a consumer, have the right to ask the above question as well as while on tour, ask how AI is utilized in courses.