How to Write a Stand-Out Personal Statement in the Age of AI

Webinar Transcription

2026-04-22-How to Write a Stand-Out Personal Statement in the Age of AI

Lydia: [00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello everyone. Welcome to, “How to Write a Standout Personal Statement in the Age of AI.” My name is Lydia Hollon and I’m going to be your moderator tonight. I’m. I am a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor. I’m also a proud graduate of New York University, and in addition to my work with CollegeAdvisor, I am an education consultant.

Lydia: So to orient everyone with the webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start off with a presentation, then answer your questions in a live Q&A. On the sidebar, you can download our slides and start submitting questions in the Q&A tab. We’ll also be recording this session so that you can review the webinar again later.

Lydia: Now let’s meet our presenter.

Dr. Aya: Thank you so much, Lydia. Hi everyone. Good morning, good afternoon, or good evening depending on where you are in the world. I am [00:01:00] Dr. Aya Waller-Bey, and I will be delivering tonight’s webinar. Um, just a little bit about me. I often like to start with saying I am a proud first generation college student, which means I was the first person in my family.

Dr. Aya: To obtain a four year degree. I have been working with college advisor going on five application cycles, so a lot of experience, uh, in the admissions consulting space. But I grew up in Detroit, Michigan, attended Georgetown University where ultimately I became an admissions officer upon graduation. Um.

Dr. Aya: That job changed my life and is part of reason why I’m here tonight. After my tenure in admissions, I went across the pond to get my master’s in philosophy of education from Cambridge and England. An amazing experience where I became an alumni interviewer for Georgetown, and then shortly after, uh, returned stateside and then began my PhD in sociology at the University of Michigan, uh, where I ultimately [00:02:00] defended my dissertation and became a, a doctor and a sociologist.

Dr. Aya: Studying the college admissions essay. So I have a lot of experience thinking about supporting students with, um, and writing about the college personal statement. So I’m really excited for tonight’s conversation.

Lydia: Great. So before we jump into the presentation, we’re gonna do a quick poll.

Lydia: To ask you all what grade you are in, to give us a little bit of context about the audience we’re speaking to tonight, and while I give everyone a chance to answer that question, I’m curious, Aya, before you get into how this affects personal statements specifically, how has AI just reshaped your understanding of the college admissions process in general and just the way that we do work?

Dr. Aya: That’s a phenomenal question and I think that’s, um, one that we’ll continue to try to answer over the next. You know, four or [00:03:00] five years. I mean, I, I think I have just seen the incorporation of AI, um, as a tool for families, um, who perhaps are not in communities where they have read, like access to personal advisors or consultants.

Dr. Aya: So just asking information about schools or developing school lists. So I’ve seen it become a, a great resource. For a lot of folks. Um, and then when I speak to my admissions colleagues as someone who interview admissions officers for my research, you know, they, they’ve expressed that, um, they’re seeing kind of the use of AI, um, and, and essays that they kind of encounter in the missions process.

Dr. Aya: So this conversation is very timely and I think the, the role of AI is still kind of unfolding and we’re all kinda learning how to work with it, work around it, et cetera.

Lydia: That’s a great answer. Um, looking at our responses, we have 2% in [00:04:00] eighth grade, 7% in ninth, 23% in 10th grade, 57% in 11th grade. Makes sense.

Lydia: Thinking about those personal statements, 2% in 12th and 9% in the other category. All right, so I will go ahead and pass it over to you to get into our presentation.

Dr. Aya: Fantastic. Thank you so much, Lydia. All right folks. So to start our conversation about how to write a standout personal statement in the age of AI, it’s really important we just kind of unpack what essays students have to write for college essays or college applications.

Dr. Aya: Um, the nature of this conversation prioritizes the college personal statement, which is probably. The, um, essay you hear the most about, right? It is that 650 word essay that you write using the common app, or when you’re applying via the common app, rather, you write that [00:05:00] essay and it, you press submit and it goes to all the schools on your list.

Dr. Aya: That requires the, the com, the, you know, the personal statement. So it’s an essay that’s that you submit to colleges, universities that really showcases your voice. Right, your writing skills and real, real reveal depth and add context to the application. You know, we often say the personal statement or in some cases the supplemental essays as well, or some of the few opportunities that students have to speak directly to admissions officers.

Dr. Aya: When you think about the larger admissions essay, you have letters or recommendation or um, your transcript or test scores, et cetera. Um, they all are speaking for you to a certain. So when you have the essay, that personal statement, it gives you an opportunity to write, uh, authentically and specifically for the admissions officers.

Dr. Aya: Then in addition, we have the supplemental essays. Now those are usually school specific prompts. Often the more selective, uh, schools, um, invite students to [00:06:00] write supplemental essays. Um, and again, these are additional essays that students are invited to write about a variety of topics. And there’s often, you know, why do you want to attend the University of Michigan?

Dr. Aya: Right? Or write a, a letter to your roommate, um, et cetera. Um, and again, unlike personal statements, these essays are required only by some colleges, universities, and they’re often used to highlight fit, right? Often used, uh, for universities to really establish who has done their homework, right, who can show there’s some true alignment between our institutional values or ethos or academic majors, um, and who can really show that they’ve, again, really done some homework.

Dr. Aya: Perhaps you’ve spent time on the campus, you know, looked at their website, um, talked to, you know, students from your high school who might attend, but you really want to showcase that again, you’ve really taken your research seriously about the school and, and really demonstrate that there’s a good fit between what the university is offering and also.

Dr. Aya: What you have [00:07:00] to offer. And then lastly, although less common, there are also for some schools that additional scholarship essay, and I’ve seen it with some of the students that I work with this year who’ve applied to land grant universities. Um, there are additional essays that some universities will consider merit-based scholarships or grants Now.

Dr. Aya: Sometimes if you check a particular box, maybe you check environmental science. There may be a scholarship specifically for students who are, you know, interested in majoring in environmental science, right? Maybe a wealthy donor has earmarks and funds or endowed some funds in the university. So you check that box.

Dr. Aya: Um, your major, and then there’s another essay that you have to write ex, you know, explaining why you wanna study environmental science and why you might need, you know, this scholarship. Right. So again, less common, but they definitely exist. And again, I, I’ve supported students this year who have applied to some land grant universities who’ve had some large kind of scholarships.

Dr. Aya: So they’ve also had to write a scholarship essay.[00:08:00]

Dr. Aya: Now, what is the significance of the college essay? And again, I know we’re gonna talk more about what does this look like in the age of AI, but the essay really allows students to add that unique connect personal touch, right? It’s, as I said earlier, one of the few opportunities in the application for admissions officers to hear directly.

Dr. Aya: From you, right? So just think about again, all these components where you are writing about or thinking about the past, right? So again, even your extracurricular activities, that’s a way to communicate with the admissions officers, what your interests are, your leadership, your passions, but you’re reflecting about something that happened, right?

Dr. Aya: The essay in real time allows you to speak directly to the the universities, right? It provides an opportunity to tell your story in your own word. Emphasis in your own words. Right. So it’s a really, a again, a place to be authentic, um, where appropriate, a place to be vulnerable, um, and again, and really let your light [00:09:00] shine.

Dr. Aya: And I think it’s, it’s one of my favorite parts of the application and something that I really enjoyed evaluating and reading when I worked as an admissions officer. It also adds qualitative information and qualitative context to your application, right? It can provide additional context about your background, your identity.

Dr. Aya: Passions and circumstances, right? So again, you have the grades, you have the test scores, you have these quantitative measures, but then you have this personal statement, which can really add this really rich and nuanced context about who you are. And again, I think that really highlights the significance and the importance of the college admissions essay and increasingly so.

Dr. Aya: So what factors then make for a great essay and how can students stand out? This is an incredibly popular question. I’m sure Lydia could also echo this sentiment that students are often trying to figure out, how do I stand out, right? How do I stand out in these processes? You know, maybe Stu, some [00:10:00] students think they live in environments that are quite homogenous, so they’re always trying to figure out how to differentiate themselves from their classmates or their neighbors.

Dr. Aya: Maybe you grew up in an environment where everyone looks like you, right? So some students really struggle with trying to carve out their own niche, but what I often remind students is no one, even if you have a twin, uh, even if your environment is homogenous. There’s no one that’s you, right? Your morning routine, the conversations you happen with your friends, the conversations you have with family, you know your relationship with your dog, the relationship with the built environment, those little quirks, and again, niche things about your personality.

Dr. Aya: That’s you, right? So, you know, comparison. It’s truly the, the, uh, the thief of joy in a lot of ways when we think about this. But nevertheless, a great college essay again, presents information and ideas in a very thoughtful, yet focused manner, emphasis on focus, right? So it’s not a brain dump, [00:11:00] it’s not, you know, this kind of stream of consciousness where you just take everything out of your head and throw it on a, a document and press submit.

Dr. Aya: Right now brain dumps and, you know. Kind of word exercises is a great way to, um, start to the draft process, the brainstorming process, right? But you want that essay to be focused and thoughtful. You want to use specific and concrete examples to convey your points, right? Focusing on examples on the present in your past.

Dr. Aya: Now, this is not to say that if you had an experience that was really significant to you, that shaped who you are and informs the type of story you’re gonna tell. If that happened to you when you were nine and you say maybe at nine you, your family relocated to Singapore and like you talk about growing up in Singapore, ’cause you grew up, you, you know, maybe you’re originally from Detroit, you could write about what that looks like over, over time.

Dr. Aya: Right. So I, I don’t want to say that you cannot write about anything from your past, but you know, if [00:12:00] you wanna write about ballet and you only did ballet. From age four to six, that may not be the most appropriate topic given that you’ll be writing this essay probably at age 16 or 17. Right? You also want to focus on, again, examples, really activate the senses.

Dr. Aya: I often tell students, you know, what do you see? What do you smell? What do you touch? What do you feel, you know, what do you taste like? Where appropriate? Activate those. Those, uh, senses. Be descriptive, be colorful, be thoughtful, right? You wanna tell admissions officers about who you are, your personal triumphs or challenges, your leadership opportunities and experiences outside the classroom.

Dr. Aya: Naturally. You could talk about experiences inside the classroom. A lot of who we are, perhaps, uh, you know, as informed by those experiences. Um, but you know, again, that. Transcript, those letters of recommendation, maybe even those extracurricular activities might talk about those in, in, you know, in classroom experiences.

Dr. Aya: So the personal statement is an opportunity to write about other experiences. Keep [00:13:00] in mind that the personal statement does not have to be about academic interest. We often get students who say, okay, I wanna study biology. I wanna be a doctor, right? So I’m gonna be pre-med biology major. And they just assume that that personal statement has to also be about science or stem, and that’s not the case.

Dr. Aya: You can be, you know, wanna study neuroscience and become a doctor. You know, a physician, and you can write an essay about your love for roses, right? I just want you to know that the personal statement does not have to map on to whatever your professional goals are in the future. Okay? Um, of course, a great essay demonstrates good use of grammar, right?

Dr. Aya: And luckily there are all types of resources, whereas Grammarly, your friend, your teacher, your parents, your mentor, your advisor can support with that. And just you just understanding good grammar, right? And then ensure that your essay answers the question. Very important. Okay. And this is especially important in the case of like supplemental or supplements.

Dr. Aya: Uh, if a, if a school, if a question is asking why you’re interested [00:14:00] in majoring a particular area, make sure you are focusing on that versus just like going off on a tangent and talking about something that’s just unrelated. You wanna make sure you are answering the question. So in continuing, you know, what makes, um, for a essay, a good essay or one that stands out, you really want to effectively describe how whatever experience you detail has led to growth.

Dr. Aya: Right? Or some type of understanding or sense of belongingness in a way that really demonstrates maturity, character, and open-mindedness. Right? So it’s not enough just to like, again, trauma dump or just. Right, like it’s your diary That’s, you know, not an appropriate thing. I often tell students your personal statement is not a diary.

Dr. Aya: People will be reading it. Most likely you would not know who’s reading them, right? What personal statement or what committee member. Um, so, you know, do not treat it like a diary. Um, but you could be thoughtful. You could be reflective, you can be introspective, right? And you wanna [00:15:00] show not only what happened to you, but what ha like how did you come out of it or what was the end result or.

Dr. Aya: What happened, right? The so what? Like, you experienced this thing or you enjoy this thing, therefore, right. So you really wanna make sure you can clearly articulate that. Um, it also ensures, uh, that they. Excuse me, your, A good essay also reflects your voice, as I mentioned earlier. It should be polished. It should be free of major grammatical errors and typos, but it should read like you wrote it again, thinking about the use of AI, thinking about sometimes the use of advisors or tutors or parents.

Dr. Aya: Um. We’ll talk more about this later in our conversation, but your voice is really important and really valuable. And writing like you is also important, right? Of course, we wanna be appropriate, right? We’re not writing, you know, uh, we’re not using LOL, you know, in, in an essay unless you were kind of telling the story and it’s appropriately used, right?

Dr. Aya: So you just [00:16:00] wanna make sure that the student voice is reflected while also being polished. Okay? And as I said before, use specific and concrete examples.

Dr. Aya: Now, what should you avoid in your essays? And that’s often, you know, a, a question like, what, what should I avoid? Is there, are there certain topics or what type of kind of approach? Well, you wanna avoid writing essays that focus on other people. And what I mean by that is sometimes, you know, for students who are motivated, um, or are.

Dr. Aya: Aspired by family or relatives and et cetera. They might, um, write essays that like profile people so they, you know, someone might tell a, a story about a grandparent who was the first, maybe your grandmother was the first woman admitted to a loss. School in Virginia or something along those lines. Right?

Dr. Aya: Um, so the essay becomes all about grandma being admitted to this law school and breaking, you know, glass ceilings and barriers. A phenomenal [00:17:00] story, but then it all, it almost becomes a biography about grandma and then it’s not centering you. Like, we end up learning about grandma and like, we want to then admit grandma when we really wanna admit you, the student.

Dr. Aya: So sometimes those very. Beautifully inspired to kind of essays that talk about the person who motivates or inspires you can be derailed if the entire essay is about that person and not you. Right? We need to, colleges are trying to admit you, not your lovely grandparent. Right? Also writing essays about overly common or controversial topics such as sports and politics.

Dr. Aya: There should be an asterisk here. Um, this is also a very popular question, particularly for those athletes who have dedicated. 10 plus years in a sport. You know, I was working with a student before who played hockey at a very high level. So that meant he was traveling all over the country, sometimes out of the country, you know, to Canada.

Dr. Aya: Um, and it took up all his time ’cause he was traveling so much. His parents invested a lot in his [00:18:00] hockey career. He invested a lot in his hockey career. And he was like, I want you to talk about this because this is quite significant. So he did write an essay that talked about his hockey career and lessons learned and how he kind of navigated, you know, being on the ice, traveling all the time.

Dr. Aya: Um, and that was his story to tell, you know, so in that case, that was a, a story that was incredibly significant. It was still thoughtful, it was still creative. It wasn’t. I won, you know, I scored the winning puck, or I made the, the winning touchdown. It wasn’t cliche in that regard, um, but it was about sports.

Dr. Aya: So I, I do, you know, always say that ’cause there is an asterisk. Now politics is also quite interesting. I went to a school in the nation’s capital DC right, where a lot of students went to, you know, go to schools in d dc because they wanna work on the hill, or they want to be a president, or they want to be a diplomat.

Dr. Aya: So they might invoke some of that, you know, rationale, um, and supplement essays. Um, but I, I would [00:19:00] not say it’s appropriate to start, you know, talking particularly about hearts. Staunch party lines and, you know, bad mouthing pol uh, politicians or et cetera. Especially because you do not know who’s reading the essays, right?

Dr. Aya: So you just wanna be mindful of the audience. Okay. Um, again, keeping in mind you are, you’re trying to understand the culture of the institution that you’re applying to as well. So you, you do want to like, make sure there’s alignment there. Um, but. Just would in doubt. Avoid kind of talking explicitly about your political, uh, beliefs and, and naming politicians and et cetera, because again, you just wanna make sure you’re not offending anyone and give yourself the best opportunity to shine.

Dr. Aya: Um, writing essays that read like they were written by a college professor. Some students have parents who are college professors, some students who might enlist the help of their parents to write their essays. And again, um, there is a student voice that is incredibly important. And this is also part of the greater conversation around AI, like [00:20:00] losing the authenticity of your voice.

Dr. Aya: So. Again, it’s okay to ask parents to review or your advisor to review and proofread. That’s appropriate. I do that. We, we do it all the time. Sometimes we need a fresh pair of eyes, but they should not be writing your essays for you. Um, another thing students do is mentioning experiences without describing them.

Dr. Aya: So what happens is if you’re telling a story and you say, you know, yeah, and then we went to the mall, we had a great time, and you know, we got in the car and went home, and it’s like, what happened at the mall that made that time so special? Right? Tell us the story. We are not there. We don’t know what happened.

Dr. Aya: You really have to elaborate, be thoughtful, be colorful. Okay? Um, naming a university or college in the personal statement. Remember that personal statement’s gonna be that essay that you submit that’s going to go to other schools, right? So if you’re saying, and for these reasons, I want to go to the University of Michigan.

Dr. Aya: Well, um, [00:21:00] if that essay goes to Michigan State or Ohio State, even more so, they might be like, this person did not proofread this or review this because. This is Ohio State and this essay says they wanna go to Michigan State or University of Michigan. So you just wanna be careful not to name, um, the college and the personal statement.

Dr. Aya: Of course, if there’s supplemental essays or supplements, um, that that’s appropriate, right? I went to go to University of California, you know, or Berkeley, because you. A, b, c, overly using it, the SOAs, uh, I feel like I’m seeing less of this. Um, but at one point everyone just was, you could tell folks were looking like, what is a synonym for this word?

Dr. Aya: And just throwing in words that were not actually appropriate for the context. Um, complex synthesis that could be written in, in much multiple smaller es. Now, as an academic who writes academic articles, um, I know what it means to have like a very complex sentence that is. You know, feels [00:22:00] like it’s an entire paragraph, but for the purpose of the personal statement, you know, sometimes the synthesis can be broken up to synthesis of various lengths.

Dr. Aya: Um, maybe do you need the semi or should it be a period, you know, we, using AI, oftentimes we’ll see the m dashes or the colons that also extend our synthesis. So again, um, just think about the flow if you have to like. If you’re holding your breath and running outta breath when you’re reading one sentence, it’s probably too long.

Dr. Aya: If your one sentence is the size of like one paragraph, it’s probably too long. And then also passive voice. Um, whatever possible, you know, just try to write, um, in the active voice.

Dr. Aya: Now I, I wanna transition to the conversation about the use of AI or artificial intelligence to help college essays now, um, in thinking about appropriate ways to incorporate AI, um, again, I think the. And I’ll, I’ll, I’ll mention this [00:23:00] later, but I think there’s a lot of ways that we, um, sell ourselves short about how the, the power of our own brain and mind.

Dr. Aya: So you might notice, I, I can understand why people might use AI, but I do think there’s a lot of. Brain power that we, we have, that I want us to all lean into a bit more. But if you, if you, you know, want to use AI, um, people use it for brainstorming and idea generation, right? It can help you reflect on a parti, uh, potential topics or identify themes in your experiences, or suggest ways to structure a story.

Dr. Aya: But again, the core ideas and voice should come from you. Right. Um, so it can help to, to brainstorm, right? I know some folks who use AI for feedback and revision support. You know, ask for suggestions or clarity or organization or grammar. You know, I, I mentioned earlier in my introduction that I myself am a first generation college student, and as much as my parents and siblings wanted to offer support, I was the first person to navigate that process.

Dr. Aya: So, [00:24:00] at the time, I didn’t have. You know, um, chat box or Claude or Chat, GBT or an et cetera. Um, so I had to enlist the help of teachers or, um, college access, uh, support, um, when I needed help with like organization and et cetera. So for some students, you know. Using resources like AI for like clarity and structure can kind of give them that extra boost of support that they might need.

Dr. Aya: Um, ’cause they may not have it at home, right? Um, you can use AI and I see this used quite often to clarify prompts and expectations. So there might be a prompt that feels so convoluted and I’ve talked to my missions colleagues. Sometimes those essay questions or prompts are not the clearest, right? So sometimes you might feel like I need someone to.

Dr. Aya: Like, make this plain to me. Um, so sometimes folks will use it to break down what a prop is asking so they can respond more directly. Okay. So again, my colleagues have gotten, you know, quite creative with the essay prompt sometimes, and sometimes students and families just struggle to [00:25:00] like, what exactly are they asking?

Dr. Aya: And then also, um, and app avoid using, you know, kind of AI to write or heavily rewrite your essays so, you know, AOs are evaluating your authentic voice and perspective. So, you know, over-reliance on AI can flatten your narrative and raise concerns, you know, about originality and in integrity. Okay. So just kind of think about how you kind of engage AI, uh, in your writing.

Dr. Aya: So in thinking about, um, how you should avoid using or in, in what ways we should avoid using AI, you know, avoid using AI to write full drafts or large portions of your essay. I would even say, you know, synthesis, you know, it can erase your authentic voice and it makes writing sound generic and very interchangeable.

Dr. Aya: Um, I often can spot AI, um. Kind of essays when I encounter them, or and phrases. And especially as someone who works with diamond students, [00:26:00] those are students who kind of enter college advisor usually at a much, um, kind of earlier stage. And they work directly with admissions officers like myself. So I literally get to see them, you know, I just.

Dr. Aya: Graduated a diamond student who I’ve been working with since she was a sophomore. So I’ve seen her writing grow over the years. Um, so I, you know, I have a firsthand seat to just kind of see the style and the, and the ps um, and the way, you know, students write so I can typically spot it, um, especially that generic kind of robotic, um, very patterned style of writing.

Dr. Aya: Um, so Envo relying on AI to generate personal stories and experience very important. Right, because what can, you know, AI or chat box or chat bot brothers tell you about yourself? Right? You know, ar, AOs and admissions officers and admissions personnel are really looking for your lived experience. So please do not use AI to fabricate or don’t use your brain to fabricate, [00:27:00] okay?

Dr. Aya: Be, be truthful and honest. Avoid over editing to the point that the essay no longer sounds like you. I mentioned earlier the beauty of your voice, right? The student voice, so excessive polishing, right? You know, dropping your essay in and saying, Hey Chat, can you please clean this up so it looks presentable?

Dr. Aya: You know, it can strip away the personality, the specificity, and the emotional death of your writing. And then also, again, avoid using AI in ways that violate school policies or ethical guidelines. And that could be your own school policies, but also the school policies, uh, or the common app policies. I, I’m sure they’re, you know, gonna start integrating more explicit kind of AI guidelines.

Dr. Aya: You know, you don’t wanna misrepresent authorship and it can raise, raise concerns about integrity and may have consequences in the emissions process. Um, I, you know, I’ve seen instances where people actually are citing. That they use AI for certain things. Like this email was, you know, was co generated by.

Dr. Aya: Gemini or whatever. [00:28:00] So you just wanna be careful, right? You do not want to take someone else’s words. And what often a lot of the chat boxes bots do, um, they’re taking my words, your words, Lydia’s words, and they’re kind of forming it to complete like this thought, right? These are like learning language models.

Dr. Aya: So you just want to be cognizant of that. Are these your words or are these the words of others? Now this is an incredibly, um. I think popular question we’re getting nowadays, and it’s so interesting to see how much has changed because two years ago, two cycles ago, this is not a question we were getting quite as often as we are now, right?

Dr. Aya: But our colleges scanning essays for AI generated content and what policies are in place for this. Most colleges, from my professional experience, are not routinely scanning. Essays with AI detectors and because there’s, there’s reliability issues, right? I, I know so many people have written. I have written [00:29:00] things, you know, from, from my big brain, from my, you know, decade plus, you know, time of research, and eight years of getting a PhD from, you know, U of m of all places.

Dr. Aya: And, you know, I’ve seen it be like AI, you know, Grammarly has said, and it’s like, wait a minute now I wrote this, right? So. It is not, AI detectors are not always reliable so much that some universities have kind of given them the boot or thinking about their own ways to detect. Um, so there’s no widespread standardized practice again, of running all applications through detection, software and emissions.

Dr. Aya: From my experience. Now, again, these policies are shifting the technology. Shifting. Some universities are really embracing AI and some universities are more, you know, slowly kind of coming around to it. Schools may require you to certify that your work is your own, and submitting AI generated content can be treated as a violation of academic integrity.

Dr. Aya: So there might be a pledge or a box that you check to say, I certify that this [00:30:00] work, this essay, this application was not completed with the use of AI. So there might be increasingly more policies like that, right? Where student, almost like an honor code where you’re saying, I did not do that. Right. So that’s something to keep in mind.

Dr. Aya: Again, there’s no widespread policy, so there is no kind of hard yes or no to these questions. But these are something to think about as things are shifting as technology is evolving, as emissions processes are evolving. Okay?

Dr. Aya: So in, in addition to kind of what the policies are in place, there’s some institutions doing a mix of things, right? So, you know, students are often wondering like, who’s reading? So, and, and I think we’ll talk a little bit about this on the next slide, but. There are some human, human readers. I was a human, uh, Lydia’s, a human, um, trained to spot inauthentic voice.

Dr. Aya: You know, there might be some use of detection tools that the universities might have access to in college. I know a lot of students, and maybe in your high school some students might use turning [00:31:00] in. Or they’ve had to upload essays to like, turn it in and, and know to kind of detect if things were plagiarizing, et cetera.

Dr. Aya: So there might be iterations like that for admissions and just consistency checks across your application writing style versus grades or other materials, right? So if they’re looking at your English grades or, you know, um, or literature grades, and they’re noticing, you know, you, you have a C throughout the three or four years, but then the essay, the personal statements you produce are sounding like.

Dr. Aya: Something a PhD candidate will write. Then there might be some, you know, hmm, did this student write this? Right? And again, those types of checks honestly were happening before, you know, AI where when there were major inconsistencies that, you know, admissions officers attend, might go up. And again, policy is vary widely by school.

Dr. Aya: Again, some might ban AI generation writing outright. Others may allow it, like for brainstorming or grammar help, but this is all evolving folks, so please always check with your school specific guidelines. Okay? It’s [00:32:00] always evolving, always changing, especially right now, right? This is the world of AI.

Dr. Aya: Everyone’s talking about it. So. You know, there could be a a, a new for like in the upcoming year, right? I’m sure universities gonna be spending a lot of time over the summer thinking about, uh, AI as we enter the next kind of application cycle in the fall, which a lot of you all will be, uh, submitting applications during.

Dr. Aya: So will your essays be evaluated by AI readers or real people? Well, from my experience, I always have to say that. At most colleges, essays are read by humans. Like again, like Lydia, like myself, like some, you know, our, our teammates here at CollegeAdvisor. Typically AOs are trained, right? Application readers.

Dr. Aya: Um, they might also engage external readers, right? And we are evaluating your voice or story, your fit within the broader application, right? Making sure you’re answering the question, trying to learn a little bit more about your background, your identity, your passions, et cetera. Again, some institutions may use AI [00:33:00] or automated tools in limited ways, so maybe AI might be used to sort applications.

Dr. Aya: All the students who apply to study physics in this group, right? All the students from a particular region in this group, all the students from a particular zip code, all the students who have, you know, SAT scores in this range. So the tools can be used to, to sort, you know, or to flag things. But again, these tools are often not replacing human judgment in the evaluation.

Dr. Aya: They’re just kind of putting, uh, students into buckets based on kind of parts of their profile. Right. Or maybe the zip codes or all the students who go to, you know. Jesuit schools. I went to a Jesuit university, so maybe they had like a special. Kind of category for those students, or all the students who are first generation college students, or all the students who, um, you know, who live in the area, you know, so things like that.

Dr. Aya: So sorting. And then again, holistic review processes rely on human readers to interpret nuance, context, and authenticity. Right? Um, and these are [00:34:00] just things AI is not yet well positioned to assess accurately. Um, and again, AI, um, and artificial intelligence and. A lot of the kind of, uh, kind of computer engineering that we see, it’s often as good as the people creating it.

Dr. Aya: Right? Often reflects the biases, the backgrounds, the, the, you know, um, the just consciousness frankly, of those who, who’s creating it and developing it, right? So it’s not error free. We know AI can hallucinate check GPT, hall, hallucinates. Um, so there that is often something to keep in mind, right? Um, so as we think about just some of the final kind of tips and tricks before.

Dr. Aya: We transition to questions tonight. A few things to, to remind you on. First, you want to show and not just tell, right? So as you’re thinking about that standout personal statement, instead of saying, I learned a lot volunteering at the animal shelter. Remember I mentioned I learned a lot at the mall, or whatever the example was [00:35:00] that I gave earlier.

Dr. Aya: You wanna say, while feeding the sick puppies, while other shelter volunteers, I learned the importance of teamwork, compassion already more details. You’re saying who you were around, you’re saying what you were doing, and you’re talking about what you learned, right? And how you kind of learned that. So you really wanna show, just don’t tell us what you’re doing.

Dr. Aya: Show us what you’re doing, right? Show the admissions officers you wanna share. Lessons learned. Again, not enough just to trauma dump or just share. You know, this thing happened to me, but we gotta know why should, why should we care what happened next? Right? You wanna detail how the experiences you write about inform your future and the type of student you’ll be.

Dr. Aya: You know, be in college. Right? So just really, really important, um, to kind of share lessons learned. You wanna proofread Exhibit A, right? You wanna proofread use features like the Read allow feature on Word. I don’t know if students still use Word or still have licenses for it, but I love Word and I think it’s a plugin now from Google [00:36:00] Docs.

Dr. Aya: You wanna capture correctly spell words used in the wrong way, which sometimes we don’t often catch. And then also we want to be able to. You know, ask a friend, ask a teacher, ask a mentor. Ask someone you trust to take a look at it as well. You also want to tell your story, right? Write about your own experiences, not simply someone else’s.

Dr. Aya: Again, your grandmother could be the most amazing person who’s ever walked the earth. Yet we want the essay to be about you, right? We want to admit you, not your, your grandmother, who again, I’m sure is wonderful. You also wanna write your essay for a human audience, okay? Do not go in assuming everybody’s using AI, so there’s no humans on this, on on that other side.

Dr. Aya: They’re probably humans on the other side, trust me. So you wanna focus on clarity. You wanna focus on being authentic, and you want the reader, the human reader, to understand who you are. And last but not least, I want you to also use your own AI, your authentic imagination, [00:37:00] right? Do not use artificial intelligence to write or rewrite your essays entirely.

Dr. Aya: You have all the tools you need. I know. Yes. You know, I, we have students who say, well, English isn’t my first language, so you know, I, I might want to use some AI to help with that. You are not the first student, right? Who’s applied to a university whose English isn’t. Your first, uh, language, but do not just use AI or chat boxer or whatever to just dump all of your, you know, human knowledge that you have and give them all of you know, parts of your story and have them spit back out a essay.

Dr. Aya: We want to hear from you, right? We wanna hear from your thoughts, authentic experience. Yes. Proofread, yes. You know, half people you trust. Take a look at it, make sure everything is spelled correctly. That is grammatically correct, but again. When in doubt, use your own authentic and imagination. Okay, so that concludes my, my portion of our conversation.[00:38:00]

Lydia: All right. Thank you so much Aya, for that awesome presentation. We’re gonna now move into the Q&A portion of the webinar, so if you have any questions, please do put them in the Q&A tab. We will be reading them aloud and answering them on this webinar. So my first question for you, AYA, is what is your advice for students who maybe aren’t the strongest writers and feel like they need AI or really would prefer to use AI to feel confident in what they’re writing?

Lydia: What are some things that they can do to feel more confident in their own human writing?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, that’s a great question. And it’s, you know, I always think like, wow, what times have really changed, right? Because there have always been students who haven’t felt confident in their writing. You know, I, I’ve all worked with students who are like, I am a scientist.

Dr. Aya: Like I am not a writer. That’s not how I shine. Right? [00:39:00] But I, I think about, let’s kind of reimagine what, where the strengths fly. Like for an example. I, I was literally talking to a professor at, at, at U of M about this a week ago. He says like, sometimes when I write, I feel like I, I ramble. So I, he said, I actually produce a lot of my writing by talking, so he’ll record himself or dictate.

Dr. Aya: Um, ’cause he feels like he’s more eloquently like, captured as a speaker, so he’ll dictate it and then that will kind of produce literally, um, what he, the thoughts he have in his head on, on paper. So that’s just like one way to creatively think about like, maybe you freeze up when you’re about to like put pen to paper or where you’re about to type on that Google doc.

Dr. Aya: But sometimes dictating is a great strategy to get the thoughts from your head onto the page. I also say sometimes we, we need writing to be a iterative process and we need to do it in community. So maybe you feel intimidated by writing a 650 word essay, so it might [00:40:00] be more appropriate for you to talk to your counselor, talk to your teacher, talk to a parent, talk to a sibling, talk to a classmate, and kind of share ideas.

Dr. Aya: And brainstorm together and kind of jot down ideas that way. And, and again, it’s going to be iterative. Very few students I know some folks cram and like, you know, um, have to procrastinate so they’re writing at the last minute. But I want you to know that every, most students are writing multiple drafts, so.

Dr. Aya: It just kind of, it’s, you know, it takes a while. It’s like a muscle you have to flex. It’s okay. No one’s saying you need to be, you know, a Pulitzer Prize writer or you know, Kendrick Lamar. You just need to write, you know, think about the topic, reflect on that topic, and just do it at a piece, uh, piece by piece, you know, paragraph by paragraph.

Dr. Aya: Um, and give yourself time to do so. So, and then lastly, I would say. One of the ways to improve your writing is by reading more. I always encourage [00:41:00] students to read more. Um, and that can be, you know, novels that can be, again, fiction. It could be nonfiction, it can be the Atlantic, it could be, you know, you know the New Yorker.

Dr. Aya: But reading more also helps to improve your writing as well. So those are some of my, my kind of tips.

Lydia: I definitely agree with the reading more piece. I think that this, I can tell when a student reads a lot because whether you realize it or not, you kind of pick up the moves of people who are great writers.

Lydia: So

Dr. Aya: I agree,

Lydia: definitely agree with that. Um, so another question that we have is, if I use AI for brainstorming and identifying themes, how can I make sure that the direction of my essay still sounds like me?

Dr. Aya: So if you use AI to brainstorm and what was the second part?

Lydia: Um, so if I use AI to brainstorm and identify themes, how can I make sure that the [00:42:00] direction of my essay still ends up sounding like me if I don’t really have any other direction or any other ideas, basically.

Dr. Aya: Hmm. Okay. That’s framing. So using, again, one. Appropriate ways that I mentioned earlier was to kind of leverage AI to help with brainstorming, especially if you feel like you’re in a rut. Um, I guess one of the ways to just kind of make sure it’s reflective of who you are is that you’re using it to like maybe brainstorm and, and kind of in the more bullet point way, but you are forming the complete synthesis.

Dr. Aya: So remember if there are, if there are experiences that you have for an example, you’re like, okay. I have these five extracurricular activities. You know, I was a dancer, I was class president. I, I worked at, you know, Starbucks. I, I did, I was a mentor and I was a tutor, you know, for elementary school kids.

Dr. Aya: And you really say, Hey, AI, like, I’m trying to figure out like, what direction can I go with these five [00:43:00] topics, right? So then, you know, the AI bot or whoever might spit out. Directions that you can take then, then it’s time for you that then it’s time for the authentic imagination to kick in and say, Hmm, out of all of these, these two resonate the most.

Dr. Aya: So let me now kind of translate what this. You know, resources said that might be a potential, uh, de um, direction. And now let me then use my own authentic imagination to take it a step further. So again, I think again, I really encourage everyone to kind of re become a little bit more self-reliant, um, because there needs to be confident in your own, your own ability to.

Dr. Aya: You know, create thoughts, original ideas, especially as you pursue four year degrees, right? That’s a part of the academic enterprise and the academic process is learning how to think, uh, critically, right? And on your own to a certain extent. So once you get those ideas spewed out from whatever AI resource you use.

Dr. Aya: Then again, tap into the authentic [00:44:00] imagination and start to kind of weave in like, okay, it might say, I can write about that time I helped a customer. Now it’s time for you to again, dig deep. What was that experience like? Remember I said the census, what did you see? What did you feel? What did you taste like?

Dr. Aya: Literally kind of lean into those experiences ’cause only you truly will have that kind of information about what happened, what didn’t happen because you lived it in the, in the AI chat bot, you know, would not have so. That would be my recommendation.

Lydia: Yeah. Um, another question. This is from a student that actually doesn’t want to use AI and they were asking How can I use other people?

Lydia: They didn’t specify who to help me brainstorm and think about what my essay should be in a way that AI maybe could help other people.

Dr. Aya: Yeah, that’s a great question because we, that’s what often, you know, we’ve used community to do for a long time. You know, I benefited from a lot of college [00:45:00] admissions and college, I’m sorry, college preparatory programs, and we did a lot of, uh, brainstorming with.

Dr. Aya: Staff and other students. So again, something as simple as like, Hey, I have these three ideas of a personal statement, topic. Um, and then jot down kind of three directions you would wanna take those essays and share it with someone that you trust, right? And talk through your ideas. I want to write about this because of this.

Dr. Aya: I want to write about this because of this and just kind of do some verbal sparring. Um, I also love idea mapping. I’m, I’m working with students now who are gonna be applying for senior year and we’re doing idea mapping. So there’s like different topics, um, of. Some a time that they felt scared. A time they felt brave.

Dr. Aya: A time they felt love, a time they felt excited, a time, whatever. Right? And then they’re going to, then they’re gonna think about three. Try to find two to three examples for each of those moments. You know, things that really kind of impacted them. And then from there we’re gonna [00:46:00] start to map out potential kind of topics and stories for their personal statements.

Dr. Aya: So yeah, I think just brainstorming with folks, you know, sharing, like these are some of the ideas I have. Also a great place to start is just looking at the personal statement prompts on the common app, which are already identified for the next cycle is always the same six. With that extra choose your own adventure.

Dr. Aya: So start there. Kind of look at those personal statement prompts and if you have a parent, you know, sometimes you’d be like, Hey mom, hey dad, hey grandma. Um, these are some of the topics I’m thinking about. You know me better than anyone else. Like, what do you think? Do you have any ideas of a direction? So just being a community and conversing with people who know you is a great way also to aid the brainstorming process beyond AI.

Lydia: I think, uh, talking to people who know you really well is a, is a great one. Um, so another question we have is how do admissions officers decide who will get in if they are [00:47:00] students who have personal statements that are similar in content?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, I mean, the personal statement is just one component of the application process for more selective universities.

Dr. Aya: Uni, univers, uh, universities are practicing holistic admissions, and what holistic admissions is essentially is, um, universities are taken to every. Taking into consideration every part of the application as well as background and identity, their institutional priorities, et cetera. So two essays being very similar.

Dr. Aya: Even if a student, two students write about their same love for hockey, they have near similar SAT scores, they have near similar GPAs. They might still go to very different schools, come from very different backgrounds, have very different contexts, and also might wanna study very different things. So their pathways to the university will look very differently.

Dr. Aya: So the essay is just one of the components to the application. Actually, when I interviewed admissions officers and asked them on a scale of one to five how important the essay was, the university admissions officers often [00:48:00] said three. So like, middle of the road, it’s important, uh, but there are so many other, uh, uh.

Dr. Aya: Components, particularly the high school transcript, you know, um, weighed a lot more, um, in those application processes. So again, you could have write about similar topics many students do, but the students themselves still have very distinct backgrounds, experiences that kind of differentiate them and throughout the process.

Dr. Aya: So I wouldn’t worry too much about that.

Lydia: That’s good to know. Um. Another question we have is do admissions officers read every essay or is there some kind of GPA and SAT filler filter that automatically rejects candidates before their essays are even read?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, there, there for particularly larger universities.

Dr. Aya: Um, there’s all types of ways that, again, applications are sorted, right? Some schools have internal explicit cutoffs. Um, I’m thinking of you’re, you know, you’re replying to more selective universities and [00:49:00] by selective, you know, let’s say. T 40, right. Uh, a student that has, you know, a 1.5 GPA, um, will that application be reviewed?

Dr. Aya: Probably. Will it be, uh, will there be a lot of time dedicated to Rena essay? Probably not because that GPA might reflect that that student, um, there might be extenuated circumstances, but typically that GPA might reflect that that student might not be able to, um, compete at a high level for the, given the rigor of.

Dr. Aya: That institution. So, uh, I feel like, uh, from my experience, um, for schools that don’t have explicit internal GPA or test score cutoffs, essays that are, I’m sorry, applications that are considered less competitive, there might be less time dedicated to reviewing them. Um, but the essays were still read the application, um, again.

Dr. Aya: They were just read through more quickly because the, the GPA often reflected a student who would not be competitive for the, the application process. [00:50:00]

Lydia: Makes sense. Um, so another question we have is, what are the common app essay prompts and. What, how are they used in writing a personal statement? And I’m assuming when they say that, they’re asking like, what should you be thinking about when selecting a prompt?

Dr. Aya: So what are the common app prompts?

Lydia: Yeah, I mean, we can pull them up right now. Yeah,

Dr. Aya: right

Lydia: now. But

Dr. Aya: I would recommend actually pulling them up. Um, they’re, you can like type in common app. Um, personal essay questions. So that’s a very kind of Googleable thing. And again, that’s something I really encourage students to take a look at.

Dr. Aya: Um, you know, common App announced them in February and they’re still very similar. It’s the same six prompts, um, from, I’ll

Lydia: put them in the public chat right now.

Dr. Aya: Thank you.

Lydia: You don’t have to go over all of them.

Dr. Aya: Yes. And, and you know, intellectual curiosity. Background, identity, et cetera. So those prompts are, [00:51:00] uh, shared currently.

Dr. Aya: And then Lydia, you said the second part of the question was

Lydia: how are they used in writing an essay, which I kind of took to, to mean like, what should you be thinking about when selecting it? How can that shape, you know, the direction of your essay?

Dr. Aya: Yeah. You wanna think about which question you feel like you can answer without it feeling too forced?

Dr. Aya: Um, I know sometimes, and myself included. When I applied using the common app, I actually chose number seven, which was the Choose your Own topic. And if you look at the data from the Common app based on like the link or the site that Lydia shared topic of your choice is actually the typically, um, the top question that people often respond to because they may have an essay that they write that does not fit squarely into any of the particular.

Dr. Aya: Um, kind of essay prompt. And I want to really, really, um, kind of highlight that there is no, uh, benefit of choosing one essay topic over the other. They’re viewed equally. It’s not like if you choose the adversity question, you’re ranked [00:52:00] higher than someone who chose the gratitude question. So I just want to just emphasize that, but you really wanna think about which question feels like a natural fit to me.

Dr. Aya: Which question can I answer thoughtfully? And, and write this 650 word essay, um, you know, which question, you know, after reading it, does my response answer the actual prompt that that’s invo, you know, inviting me to respond. Um, yeah, so that, those are the types of questions you want to ask yourself as you’re thinking about, which.

Dr. Aya: Essay to choose and how to respond. You know, again, start with the question, what are are, what are they asking me to do? Use that as their starting point.

Lydia: Yeah. So we’re gonna take just a brief pause for a moment to, from the Q&A, uh, just to highlight some student success stories. So the first one is DJ who grew up wanting to be a physician.

Lydia: He was active in relevant extracurriculars and sought out challenging coursework. And as a scientist, [00:53:00] writing narratively was challenging, so the college essay style didn’t come naturally to him, but he signed up to work with CollegeAdvisor and was accepted by five colleges, including Johns Hopkins, where he received an institutional scholarship around $61,000 a year.

Lydia: And then we also have another student, Abby, who reached out because she was an aspiring first generation college student, and her immigrant parents had no experience applying to US colleges and she wasn’t receiving much support from her teachers or school counselors. So she felt alone in the process.

Lydia: She was thinking ahead and connected with CollegeAdvisor as a sophomore, and she ended up applying early decision to Cornell where she was accepted and received full financial aid. So these are just two examples of the 10,000 clients CollegeAdvisor has guided through the application process. Our team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process and [00:54:00] one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing.

Lydia: To learn more about how you can get started with CollegeAdvisor, just scan the QR code to sign up for a free 60-minute strategy session. On the screen, uh, with an admissions specialist on our team. And during this meeting, you’ll receive preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations on what you can do to stand out.

Lydia: At the end, you’ll also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. We’re here for the whole process. So now we’re gonna head back to the Q&A. Just to ask a few more questions. Um, so, uh, another question that we have is how do I make sure my essay doesn’t read like it was written by AI while still maintaining good grammar and trying to align with all the structures of academic writing?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, that’s [00:55:00] actually a question I feel like we’re starting to get more often because so many people are afraid that their work might be viewed as AI. Um, and honestly, just write it, you know, write the best essay you can without, um, kind of plagiarizing using AI without, you know, writing, using AI to write full paragraphs or an entire essay.

Dr. Aya: You’ll be fine. You know, um, again. To my knowledge, very few universities are running essays through AI detectors because there are such things as, you know, false positives, false negatives, and et cetera. Um, but you just wanna write the best essay you can. Right. And then, you know, be able to, if it ever came to it, because we’re seeing this also in the classroom now for some uni teachers and professors, if there ever comes down to it and someone says, this essay is so good.

Dr. Aya: We think someone used AI. If you, you know, use Google Docs or some, some of those kind of. Kind of online outlook where you can, where you’re editing and writing in real time. Often you can show like [00:56:00] your, your record, um, and kind of show. It’s almost like showing your work. Like when you do math, it’s like, show your work.

Dr. Aya: How did you get to this answer? You can often kind of use those types of resources to signal like, no, I have been working on this. This is the first draft. This is the second draft. This is the third draft. So that’s also a way to kind of prove if it came to that. But if you are writing authentically, if you’re not plagiarizing, if you’re not.

Dr. Aya: You know, using AI to write full paragraphs, you know, et cetera in your essays, you’ll be fine. Just focus on writing the best essay that you possibly can and when I, you’ll, you will be fine.

Lydia: Got it. Um, and another question that we have is. If I’m applying, if I’m applying for merit-based scholarships,

Dr. Aya: yeah.

Lydia: Uh, should my scholarship essay differ significantly from my personal statement? That I used?

Dr. Aya: Yeah, that’s a good question. And it’s a really, it depends, right? So say if [00:57:00] you apply to a selective university, like a selective public university, let’s say Ohio State, um, and you have really high grades and test scores.

Dr. Aya: So there might be a second essay that they invite you to write, um, and that essay might be like, why are you interested in Ohio State and why do you want to study what you wanna study? Right now you have May, you may have already written a supplemental essay that talks about your interest in majoring in mechanical engineering, but this scholarship essay is also asking you to say something very similar.

Dr. Aya: They want you to wanna know why the university and why that major. It is very appropriate then to kind of talk about why that major, even if you already wrote about it. So just what is the question asking you? Um. And then respond to it. So that might be repeating yourself. Also, we, you don’t wanna assume that the same person reading, you know, not the person reading your application for admissions also may not be that same person reading the essay for the merit-based scholarship.

Dr. Aya: So, to a certain extent, you do wanna kind of reintroduce yourself. Now, [00:58:00] if it’s an external scholar. Essay from a merit-based scholarship that is unrelated to the university. Students repurpose essays all the time, and that is something I encourage you to do. You do not have to write every essay for scratch, right?

Dr. Aya: If there’s a scholarship competition that is not related to a university and it’s asking you why you wanna study chemistry, and you’ve already written six essays about why you wanna study chemistry, feel free to incorporate those essays into that scholarship essay so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Dr. Aya: No one has time for that. So yes, there are appropriate times to kind of reuse and repurpose.

Lydia: Okay. Uh, one. Last question that we have is how much help from an adult human, not AI, but I guess we could think about AI too since this, this feels like it might be relevant, is considered too much, is helping restructure the sentences or correcting grammar acceptable.

Dr. Aya: Yes, helping restructure, that’s something I do when I work with students and, um, grammar and [00:59:00] correcting grammar is absolutely something that I support students with all the time.

Dr. Aya: So I think that’s appropriate. Um, for sure. I think inappropriate help is saying, no, don’t write that. Write, write it this way, like, write it like this, or write this instead. Or I don’t like the way that sounds. I think you should write it like my way. You know, when you start to edit the student’s voice out, I think that is when it becomes too much adult help or too much AI.

Lydia: Great help. So that was our final question. Thank you so much, Aya, for being a wonderful presenter and sharing your expertise with us tonight. That concludes tonight’s webinar, and thank you all so much for joining us. Have a great night.