Too many admission essays by AI or consultants leads to changes at Duke
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This makes sense as to how they will use the essays.
“Essays are very much part of our understanding of the applicant, we’re just no longer assuming that the essay is an accurate reflection of the student’s actual writing ability,”
According to Guttentag, essays will now be used to “help understand the applicant as an individual rather, not just as a set of attributes and accomplishments.” He also wrote that the admissions office now values essays that give “insight into who the unique person is whose application we’re reading” and that “content and insight matter more than style.”
“Because of that they are not given a numerical rating, but considered as we think holistically about a candidate as a potential member of the Duke community,” he wrote.
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So…They are moving towards using PIQs like our friends at the UCs 
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that is probably different between Duke and UC approach.
Duke kind clearly downgrade the essay weighting factors, UC still important. Duke’s change makes other part of application more important such as activity, teacher letter, GPA, class rigor. Also Duke accepts 90 second video clip from the third party recording (which prohibits your editing and outside help – truly you) will play a role in making a decision to understand the students.
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I wasn’t referring to their overall strategy of reviewing applications, but it sounds like the spirit in which they will now review and use personal statements - focusing on gaining additional insight into the candidate as a person rather than on their writing ability and style - is more in line with how the UCs review and use PIQs. Of course that doesn’t mean they will necessarily weight them the same in their review strategy.
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sounds this way. so commonApp essay content will play more role… however if you look at this year’s UCB HASS supplementary materials on top of UC 4 essays, Hass requires the student to have 1)350 words essay to describe business related, 2)video essay - 6minutes with three questions to diving in the student thinking and experiences – recording no chance editing, three times to try, you even can not choose which one, always late try to over-write the previous regardless good or bad… total three trys… that seems to get the real student characters and personal quality in public speaking, communication, thinking, writing… for International students, some schools start to have third party to provide non-edited video interview and video essay to verify what is written in commonApp. Duke has supplementary essays - 1 required, 2 optional for this application cycles… originally it has 4 possible essays to rate (personal statement, 3 Duke essays) ---- moreover, Princeton approach is really good. it asks the student to upload the high school graded paper in english… kind of verifying the student’s writing ability.
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Hmm, will more applicants have consultants or AI write their essays?
more consultant’s help in writing is for sure… now more AI’s help writing… In the middle of application process, Duke announces this new approach… it might learn from Duke’s ED application process… so Duke starts to implement this in RD?
I think Duke will just check the essay for evidence of adversity/heritage issues. That’s all.
if that is the case, Duke’s optional essays are all not needed, just use commonapp 650 word essay enough for this purpose.
Hence those essays are indeed optional…
One can’t say, on the one hand we have no idea who wrote these essays and on the other, we will use them to learn about the applicant. I don’t think it would be possible to learn anything of value about the applicant, other than a factual statement about heritage/poverty, if you do not know the author
Duke level school like Hopkins only require 1 essay (350 words) in addition to commonapp personal statement. that kind is meeting Harvard law suit case— asking your personal experience and identity in your life…
Colleges were fooling themselves if they thought college essays were a representation of a students writing. Even before AI they went through rounds and rounds of edits. Schools like Princeton and Williams ask for a graded paper to get around this.
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I see a lottery on the horizon…
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Repeated your thought!
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As a parent of a very smart, active at school and friendly student who is naturally quiet and very reserved, I hate the video requirement. I think it’s the worse nightmare of a lot of kids and not a great measure of the kind of community member nor type of student these kids are.
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Again, that’s not really the issue. Not every kid has a good support system, but the ones that that do, know to put their writing through the passes. That’s not cheating. That’s good practice and how real world writing is done. It doesn’t mean content is made up.
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Are they though?
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I think it depends upon the applicant’s SES. For middle/upperclass applicants, there will be a presumption consultants were used and the essays disregarded. The disadvantaged may be using AI, but an essay that wasn’t AI generated by a disadvantaged applicant would really stand out.
Believe or not, that glimpse 90 second video introduction seems a trend, Duke is one of the big proponents to adopt this (listed in Duke’s admission website to recommend the applicants to submit)… this is a way to validate the student’s ability in personality, communication etc. Visually helps admission officers to make the application a live… InitialView