College Admissions in the Age of AI - by TR - Ex Ante
Recently I was helping my cousin apply to high school. He reads voraciously and is doing advanced math, but for some reason his writing was childish and littered with mistakes.
I initially rewrote his application essays in the voice of what I imagined was a sophisticated 8th grader — think lots of exclamation points paired with stabs at olde english verbiage. But then I trawled through my old school files and skimmed my own 8th grade writing and realized that I was making my little cousin look like a fool. My younger self’s writing was choppy, but it delivered its message in inoffensive prose without coming across like a coked-up 3rd grader.
I rewrote the essays again. This time I focused on cleaning up the grammar, using clear word choice, and choosing themes that were sophisticated without being suspect. In some places I couldn’t wesist using childish constwuctions in the hopes of tugging on the heawtstwings of some admissions employee.
My cousin should get into this school because he’s smart. He can easily handle the academics, and the prep environment will help him socialize with other smart kids. However, the only real opportunity he has to prove this is the admissions test. His essays, and I’m sure the essays of every other applicant, are basically fake and a test of who can find the best mercenary writer for hire.
