Smart college applicants know not to let artificial intelligence agents write their entire personal statement but might shudder at the idea of ignoring these tools entirely. How much is too much? Amy and Mike invited educator Razi Hecker to explore how much AI is just right in the college essay.

What are five things you will learn in this episode?

1. Should students avoid AI entirely when writing their college application essays?

2. At what points in the writing process can AI be most helpful?

3. What tasks can be AI-assisted and which ones should never be?

4. Is there a danger that use of AI might be detected by essay readers?

5. Why is a main thesis so critical for effective college essays?

MEET OUR GUEST

Razi Hecker is a Harvard graduate (Cum Laude, B.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations) and a creative writer whose work appears in literary journals, news outlets, and the most recent edition of 50 Successful Harvard Application Essays.

With over 2,000 hours of college essay coaching and 10+ years in education and creative writing, Razi helps students transform personal experiences into powerful, memorable admissions narratives. His students have been accepted to every Ivy League school, as well as Stanford, MIT, and Caltech. This past year alone, over 70% of Razi's top retainer students were admitted to at least one Ivy. Those who didn't landed spots at other elite institutions such as Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, UC Berkeley, and Washington University.

Find Razi at League Bound Consulting.

LINKS

Common App Fraud Policy

Can prospective students use generative AI to help with their application to Cornell?

AI Is Taking Over College Admissions

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COLLEGE ESSAYS IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

MAKING YOUR COLLEGE ESSAYS COUNT

WRITING RHETORICALLY IN ADMISSIONS ESSAYS

ABOUT THIS PODCAST

Tests and the Rest is THE college admissions industry podcast. Explore all of our episodes on the show page.

ABOUT YOUR HOSTS

Mike Bergin is the president of Chariot Learning and founder of TestBright, Roots2Words, and College Eagle. Amy Seeley is the president of Seeley Test Pros and LEAP. If you're interested in working with Mike and/or Amy for test preparation, training, or consulting, get in touch through our contact page.