Age-wise, she could have volunteered last year. However, it is an extremely difficult gig to get (lots of high school students in our area who have aspirations in the medical field)! She sent emails to just about every hospital and medical center in our area. She was invited to apply for three of them and was extremely fortunate to get two of them.
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Same in our area. You have to be min age of 16 to be a hospital volunteer and itās hard to snag a spot. D24 ended up having to volunteer at a hospital a bit of a drive from where we live.
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She was very adamant that her ECs needed to be meaningful to her and that she also had to be able to materially participate. She didnāt want to be that kid who was signed up for a club but the advisor had no clue who she was.
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I thought this interview with Kyla Scanlon was interesting, so hereās a gift link. The topics jump all over the place but touch on AI and social media. Your post made me think of the idea of āfrictionā mentioned.
Edited to remove the huge quote I put in at firstā¦ made the post too long, and really, I thought the whole interview was pretty interestingā¦ you can always skim it if too much 
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So, my personal take on this is that some of this is no different than what I tell my kids today. I have had a very frequent conversation with them that they should challenge everything they read and hear. If their teacher says something, question whether you think thatās right. If you read something in a book, question if you think itās accurate. Push on it. Understand why the author is trying to say what theyāve said. I think this is the same with AI. If you ask a question of the AI bot, then you should question it. In my very personal view (so take all of this with an extra large grain of salt), everyone should do this with everything already, whether you hear it from an authoritative human or an authoritative-sounding AI bot. At some level this can go too far, like if we question what we hear from a medical expert that we might actually want to listen to. But what Iāve been trying to teach my kids is that they should listen to what theyāve heard and then think about it, push on it, research it, and then decide if they think itās right. AI, of course, is a shortcut to something that sounds intelligent, but might not be. Thatās remarkably human to me - people that try to sound intelligent but actually spew nonsense. They should treat them the same. And then when we use an AI to make an argument for us, we should expect to have that same human foibles of bias, inaccuracy, and poor reasoning. So, we probably shouldnāt take it for gospel.
All this said, I get how easy it is to take the shortcut here. My D26 absolutely HATED having to show her work when doing her math homework. She knew that it was important to prove it was her effort and thought, but she hated having to document it. I wonder when teachers in other subjects like history or English will figure out a way to show that type of reasoning before or during the writing of a paper. It must be coming at some point.
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Totally agree with this philosophy of āquestion everything.ā 
My girls both went to a private religious school that is more conservative than we are, so from the age of 5, they both heard me say, āJust because your teacher said so, it doesnāt mean itās true.ā
My cheeky D26 once raised her hand in Bible class in like 2nd grade and told her teacher as much. āMy mom said what youāre saying might not be true.ā
That teacher had absolutely no sense of humor. I used to collect the zany things my kids said and put them on Facebook, and at the end of the year Iād compile them and include the funniest ones with our Christmas letter. Here was one anecdote (from age 5, I think) ā
*D26: āAll we do in Bible class is color, listen to music, pray to God for bad things to happen, and read Bible stories.ā
Me: āYou pray for bad things to happen?ā
D26: āYeah.ā
(I think sheās missing a ānotā in there, but hey, you never know.)*
Well, said teacher got this in a Christmas card, and she CALLED me at home, horrified that I thought she was teaching the children something evil. Absolutely no awareness that, you know, I might have been joking. Or that 5-year-olds say silly things all the time. Yeesh. 
So after said child started mouthing off to her, I was clearly her favorite parent. 
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I totally agree with you regarding questioning what one gets from AI and doing the research/thinking, etc. And, I still think that even with that there is a danger in not developing some of the skills and work required to be a quality researcher, thinker and writer if one uses AI too much/too soon. One of the benefits of AI as a tool, is it quickly finds things for you that may take a long time or a lot of work for you to find or synthesize yourself. I canāt exactly put my finger on it, but in the learning/developing process, I think there is something to be gained in the struggle for information, ideas, ways to express something from the abyss of oneās brain that is lost when AI gives you a starting point from jump. I know, even today as a more senior level person, it is much easier for me to take a draft someone more junior has written, and then change/revise, edit, criticize it, than it is sometimes to start from the blank page myself. But, often when Iām starting from a blank page, I have epiphonies, discoveries and productive thoughts ideas (that arise among the dead ends and frustrations), that I would not have if just responding to something that is given to me. I have to dig deeper when Iām starting from scratch often. And, I worry that young people will lose something in not digging deep in that way. Just like I worry that they have already lost something by never being bored like I was as a kid. There is a certain creativity and ingenuity and inventiveness that comes from struggle and the need to figure it out without easy clues. So, while your question everything mantra is a great way to deal with the illusion of correctness of AI (and often people, articles and books as you say), it doesnāt really get at my deeper concern for how it may impact kids development long term in ways I canāt exactly put my finger on. I may be wrong, but I have a strong feeling that they very well may lose something significant if they donāt have to struggle through from scratch.And, since I know youāll question my premise, would love to hear your take on it.
By the way, in addition to teaching my kid some version of your question what you read and hear philosophy, I also teach my kid that one of the most valuable things you can get as a learner is other people respectfully questioning your assertions and conclusions. I teach her that it is equally important to be open to the possibility that youāre wrong or have more to learn, especially about the things you think you āknow.ā And, nobody has the market on knowledge cornered. Good feedback/questioning could come from a teacher, a peer, or anyone really. Take the feedback. Take the questioning and figure out whether they could be right. Whether you might be missing something, and if so, to adapt your view, perspective or conclusion. Or, through the process of being open to the feedback even when she still believes sheās right, thinking through the feedback may help strengthen or clarify the reasoning of her position, or her communication of it in the future. If you are truly seeking knowledge, you need to welcome disagreement and the possibility that you donāt yet have the answer.
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I agree with what youāre expressing here - that part of learning is the struggle and that if you skip that part, then you learn less. I broadly agree with this, but I think that itās not the only way to learn and is only part of the learning process. I liken it to learning math as an engineer. At some point, you transition from learning to build the proofs of math concepts to just learning the math to get the job done. While it might be interesting and even potentially more beneficial to learn the intricacies of how a mathematical formula was developed, at some level the engineer just needs to learn the formula and enough of its origin to know when it applies and when it doesnāt. I donāt necessarily need to experience the pain of trying to derive an engineering equation from first principles even if it would help my learning and understanding the equation better.
I think in a similar way that AI can potentially overly create shortcuts so that we donāt learn and canāt say when something applies and when it doesnāt. We need to know enough to make sure that the answers we get make sense. Maybe itās like learning to use a calculator. We need to know enough math to say that the calculator is giving me a wrong answer because Iāve either mistyped the problem or performed a calculation incorrectly. So I need to know how the math works, but I can use the tool to speed up the process. Similarly, I think we need to know enough to figure out when AI is giving us a bad answer. That still means we need to know a fairly large amount of stuff ourselves so that we can figure out when we think itās wrong.
On the idea that you have better ideas when you come up with them yourself versus editing or revising, personally I think this goes both ways. I find editing much easier than the original creation. But I do find that reading what someone says is much better at bringing my own ideas into focus. I donāt think particularly well isolated by myself, but do much better when interacting with others, hearing their thoughts and responding with my own. The discussion itself is enlightening, and a document-based discussion (where I edit someoneās work or they edit mine) is equally enlightening to me. But I can see this going both ways where some prefer to have their own thoughts before being presented with others.
Just adding that I love this! 100% agree.
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I posted this a couple months ago, but worth reposting ā another member here at CC suggested putting a complex prompt like this into AI to help with the college search:
Using a comprehensive and nuanced fit framework, compare the Computational Media major at Georgia Tech and the Games and Simulation major at Miami University across the following dimensions:
ā¢ Academic Environment
ā¢ Social and Emotional Culture
ā¢ Personal Growth & Identity
ā¢ Support Systems
ā¢ Long-term Fit
ā¢ Cultural & Regional Fit
ā¢ Values Alignment
ā¢ Lifestyle Preferences
ā¢ Career & Network Alignment
ā¢ Community Size & Feel
Highlight subtle but meaningful differences between the two institutions, carefully noting areas of concern or potential downsides that might not be immediately apparent. Clearly articulate how each dimension might uniquely influence a studentās daily life, sense of belonging, and long-term personal development. Present this analysis in a detailed side-by-side comparison chart, concluding with a concise yet insightful TL;DR summary that specifically addresses how a student might determine the best personal fit rather than simply identifying the ābetterā school.
This has actually proven quite useful for us as D26 compares similar niche majors at different schools because itās impossible to find and synthesize all the information online ā but of course, weāre also taking it with a grain of salt.
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I agree with you here. I think you are right on all of this. I think my struggle with AI for the kids is the worry that potentially through no fault of their own, there may be too much shortcutting and not enough learning of the fundamentals they need first. But I have no disagreement with anything you laid out in your response.
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Just has to lean in on the coaching experienceā¦ Young kids, different abilities, different mental ages,boys and girlsā¦ then there is the adult management - other coaches, athletic directors/program directsā¦ and PARENTS.
Anybody who has ever coached kids sports will understand the value there (and anybody who has ever been a bit more of a passive sports parents whoās watched the not so passive sports parents hover over the coaches) - just has to do a brief reminded to get their brain to remember those observations.
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S23 was at the beginning of the AI revolution. He is not a writer by any stretch of the imagination and often came to me for help yet he was doing very well in his public speaking class with no input from me. I was horrified to learn that he had been using this shiny new tool called ChatGPT to write his speeches. He didnāt think it was wrong- to him it was like using a calculator- after all, he was the one actually delivering the presentation. I quickly put a kibosh on it for several obvious reasons, but at the same time, the kids were able to get away with it because the teachers and admins were just learning about AI and didnāt have a way to detect it yet.
Fast forward to today- D26 uses AI sparingly; she is actually scared to use it for any writing because the school is so rigorous in reviewing their work. She was actually falsely accused of using it in French and I know it wasnāt true because Iām the one that helped her!
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Iāll push back on there not being a way to detect AI. College professors are very good at spotting cheating. The course syllabi should be very clear on the use of AI and every student should familiarize themselves with the policy for each individual class. Most schools donāt mess around with academic dishonesty.
My D was a course grader for a chemical engineering o chem class during covid and there was rampant cheating on the first exam. The professor gave the class a warning and ended up working with IT to put all kinds of safe guards into the subsequent quizzes and exams. Some students still thought they could outsmart the prof. Needless to say, they caught a number of students. I believe one was expelled because they uncovered egregious long term cheating across the board. Other students received a 0/F for the class which was permanently on their transcript since it was after the add/drop period. They either had to retake to course (which was a prerequisite for the next chemistry class in the series so it could have potentially added time for graduation) or switch majors. And, it was a small department and word spread quickly on who cheated.
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Oh no- I didnāt mean to imply there isnāt a way to spot AI NOW. D26ās teachers are extremely vigilant and adept at detection. But at the time S23 was in HS- ChatGPT was brand new and most teachers were just learning how to deal with it. There were no rules at all in place for AI use.
My concern is that in the rigorous question prevent cheating, some students are being accused when it isnāt true.
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If her teacher thinks she has a good shot, just wait and see how it goes! Youāll have time to add some RD schools if needed.
So I was able to convince S26 to embrace two true safeties - in-state safeties - that he/we are more comfortable and familiar with versus the other OOS true safeties. So his list is complete - for now!
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I think college vine does a good job slotting schools into different levelsā¦for example, the ones they claim are safeties likely have a higher possibility of acceptance than those labeled targets and targets have higher chances than those labeled reaches. BUT the actual percentages I have ZERO faith in. I am assuming everything that is a hard target or above is a reach.
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Yep. Their definition of ātargetā is 15-70% chance of admission, with 15%-45% being āhard targetsā. Iād personally think a target is something like 40%-80%.
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Itās a very stressful process and we havenāt even gotten to the hard parts yet! We are trying to keep expectations realisticā¦but Iām not even sure what realistic really is!
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I canāt even imagine how much stuff our kids will need next year when they head off to school. D26 is heading off for her first of two college campus extended stays. She will be gone for a week back for one day then gone for two weeks and she is actually a light packer, but wow that was still a lot of stuff I pulled out of the closet that I had been slowly acquiring!! I guess I have a head start for next year! She is driving with a friend to the first college it is about 5 hours away. This is the farthest she has driven on her own, surprisingly I am not stressed about it, maybe that will change tomorrow when she heads out.
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