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Should I Use ChatGPT to Write My Essays?

Everything high school and college students need to know about using — and not using — ChatGPT for writing essays.

Jessica A. Kent

ChatGPT is one of the most buzzworthy technologies today.

In addition to other generative artificial intelligence (AI) models, it is expected to change the world. In academia, students and professors are preparing for the ways that ChatGPT will shape education, and especially how it will impact a fundamental element of any course: the academic essay.

Students can use ChatGPT to generate full essays based on a few simple prompts. But can AI actually produce high quality work, or is the technology just not there yet to deliver on its promise? Students may also be asking themselves if they should use AI to write their essays for them and what they might be losing out on if they did.

AI is here to stay, and it can either be a help or a hindrance depending on how you use it. Read on to become better informed about what ChatGPT can and can’t do, how to use it responsibly to support your academic assignments, and the benefits of writing your own essays.

What is Generative AI?

Artificial intelligence isn’t a twenty-first century invention. Beginning in the 1950s, data scientists started programming computers to solve problems and understand spoken language. AI’s capabilities grew as computer speeds increased and today we use AI for data analysis, finding patterns, and providing insights on the data it collects.

But why the sudden popularity in recent applications like ChatGPT? This new generation of AI goes further than just data analysis. Instead, generative AI creates new content. It does this by analyzing large amounts of data — GPT-3 was trained on 45 terabytes of data, or a quarter of the Library of Congress — and then generating new content based on the patterns it sees in the original data.

It’s like the predictive text feature on your phone; as you start typing a new message, predictive text makes suggestions of what should come next based on data from past conversations. Similarly, ChatGPT creates new text based on past data. With the right prompts, ChatGPT can write marketing content, code, business forecasts, and even entire academic essays on any subject within seconds.

But is generative AI as revolutionary as people think it is, or is it lacking in real intelligence?

The Drawbacks of Generative AI

It seems simple. You’ve been assigned an essay to write for class. You go to ChatGPT and ask it to write a five-paragraph academic essay on the topic you’ve been assigned. You wait a few seconds and it generates the essay for you!

But ChatGPT is still in its early stages of development, and that essay is likely not as accurate or well-written as you’d expect it to be. Be aware of the drawbacks of having ChatGPT complete your assignments.

It’s not intelligence, it’s statistics

One of the misconceptions about AI is that it has a degree of human intelligence. However, its intelligence is actually statistical analysis, as it can only generate “original” content based on the patterns it sees in already existing data and work.

It “hallucinates”

Generative AI models often provide false information — so much so that there’s a term for it: “AI hallucination.” OpenAI even has a warning on its home screen , saying that “ChatGPT may produce inaccurate information about people, places, or facts.” This may be due to gaps in its data, or because it lacks the ability to verify what it’s generating. 

It doesn’t do research  

If you ask ChatGPT to find and cite sources for you, it will do so, but they could be inaccurate or even made up.

This is because AI doesn’t know how to look for relevant research that can be applied to your thesis. Instead, it generates content based on past content, so if a number of papers cite certain sources, it will generate new content that sounds like it’s a credible source — except it likely may not be.

There are data privacy concerns

When you input your data into a public generative AI model like ChatGPT, where does that data go and who has access to it? 

Prompting ChatGPT with original research should be a cause for concern — especially if you’re inputting study participants’ personal information into the third-party, public application. 

JPMorgan has restricted use of ChatGPT due to privacy concerns, Italy temporarily blocked ChatGPT in March 2023 after a data breach, and Security Intelligence advises that “if [a user’s] notes include sensitive data … it enters the chatbot library. The user no longer has control over the information.”

It is important to be aware of these issues and take steps to ensure that you’re using the technology responsibly and ethically. 

It skirts the plagiarism issue

AI creates content by drawing on a large library of information that’s already been created, but is it plagiarizing? Could there be instances where ChatGPT “borrows” from previous work and places it into your work without citing it? Schools and universities today are wrestling with this question of what’s plagiarism and what’s not when it comes to AI-generated work.

To demonstrate this, one Elon University professor gave his class an assignment: Ask ChatGPT to write an essay for you, and then grade it yourself. 

“Many students expressed shock and dismay upon learning the AI could fabricate bogus information,” he writes, adding that he expected some essays to contain errors, but all of them did. 

His students were disappointed that “major tech companies had pushed out AI technology without ensuring that the general population understands its drawbacks” and were concerned about how many embraced such a flawed tool.

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How to Use AI as a Tool to Support Your Work

As more students are discovering, generative AI models like ChatGPT just aren’t as advanced or intelligent as they may believe. While AI may be a poor option for writing your essay, it can be a great tool to support your work.

Generate ideas for essays

Have ChatGPT help you come up with ideas for essays. For example, input specific prompts, such as, “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write on topics related to WWII,” or “Please give me five ideas for essays I can write comparing characters in twentieth century novels.” Then, use what it provides as a starting point for your original research.

Generate outlines

You can also use ChatGPT to help you create an outline for an essay. Ask it, “Can you create an outline for a five paragraph essay based on the following topic” and it will create an outline with an introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion, and a suggested thesis statement. Then, you can expand upon the outline with your own research and original thought.

Generate titles for your essays

Titles should draw a reader into your essay, yet they’re often hard to get right. Have ChatGPT help you by prompting it with, “Can you suggest five titles that would be good for a college essay about [topic]?”

The Benefits of Writing Your Essays Yourself

Asking a robot to write your essays for you may seem like an easy way to get ahead in your studies or save some time on assignments. But, outsourcing your work to ChatGPT can negatively impact not just your grades, but your ability to communicate and think critically as well. It’s always the best approach to write your essays yourself.

Create your own ideas

Writing an essay yourself means that you’re developing your own thoughts, opinions, and questions about the subject matter, then testing, proving, and defending those thoughts. 

When you complete school and start your career, projects aren’t simply about getting a good grade or checking a box, but can instead affect the company you’re working for — or even impact society. Being able to think for yourself is necessary to create change and not just cross work off your to-do list.

Building a foundation of original thinking and ideas now will help you carve your unique career path in the future.

Develop your critical thinking and analysis skills

In order to test or examine your opinions or questions about a subject matter, you need to analyze a problem or text, and then use your critical thinking skills to determine the argument you want to make to support your thesis. Critical thinking and analysis skills aren’t just necessary in school — they’re skills you’ll apply throughout your career and your life.

Improve your research skills

Writing your own essays will train you in how to conduct research, including where to find sources, how to determine if they’re credible, and their relevance in supporting or refuting your argument. Knowing how to do research is another key skill required throughout a wide variety of professional fields.

Learn to be a great communicator

Writing an essay involves communicating an idea clearly to your audience, structuring an argument that a reader can follow, and making a conclusion that challenges them to think differently about a subject. Effective and clear communication is necessary in every industry.

Be impacted by what you’re learning about : 

Engaging with the topic, conducting your own research, and developing original arguments allows you to really learn about a subject you may not have encountered before. Maybe a simple essay assignment around a work of literature, historical time period, or scientific study will spark a passion that can lead you to a new major or career.

Resources to Improve Your Essay Writing Skills

While there are many rewards to writing your essays yourself, the act of writing an essay can still be challenging, and the process may come easier for some students than others. But essay writing is a skill that you can hone, and students at Harvard Summer School have access to a number of on-campus and online resources to assist them.

Students can start with the Harvard Summer School Writing Center , where writing tutors can offer you help and guidance on any writing assignment in one-on-one meetings. Tutors can help you strengthen your argument, clarify your ideas, improve the essay’s structure, and lead you through revisions. 

The Harvard libraries are a great place to conduct your research, and its librarians can help you define your essay topic, plan and execute a research strategy, and locate sources. 

Finally, review the “ The Harvard Guide to Using Sources ,” which can guide you on what to cite in your essay and how to do it. Be sure to review the “Tips For Avoiding Plagiarism” on the “ Resources to Support Academic Integrity ” webpage as well to help ensure your success.

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The Future of AI in the Classroom

ChatGPT and other generative AI models are here to stay, so it’s worthwhile to learn how you can leverage the technology responsibly and wisely so that it can be a tool to support your academic pursuits. However, nothing can replace the experience and achievement gained from communicating your own ideas and research in your own academic essays.

About the Author

Jessica A. Kent is a freelance writer based in Boston, Mass. and a Harvard Extension School alum. Her digital marketing content has been featured on Fast Company, Forbes, Nasdaq, and other industry websites; her essays and short stories have been featured in North American Review, Emerson Review, Writer’s Bone, and others.

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College Admissions , College Essays

ChatGPT has become a popular topic of conversation since its official launch in November 2022. The artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot can be used for all sorts of things, like having conversations, answering questions, and even crafting complete pieces of writing.

If you’re applying for college, you might be wondering about ChatGPT college admissions’ potential.  Should you use a ChatGPT college essay in your application ?

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know much more about ChatGPT, including how students can use it responsibly and if it’s a good idea to use ChatGPT on college essays . We’ll answer all your questions, like:

• What is ChatGPT and why are schools talking about it?
• What are the good and bad aspects of ChatGPT?
• Should you use ChatGPT for college essays and applications?
• Can colleges detect ChatGPT?
• Are there other tools and strategies that students can use, instead?

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get started!

Schools and colleges are worried about how new AI technology affects how students learn. (Don't worry. Robots aren't replacing your teachers...yet.)

What Is ChatGPT and Why Are Schools Talking About It?

ChatGPT (short for “Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer”) is a chatbot created by OpenAI , an artificial intelligence research company. ChatGPT can be used for various tasks, like having human-like conversations, answering questions, giving recommendations, translating words and phrases—and writing things like essays. 

In order to do this, ChatGPT uses a neural network that’s been trained on thousands of resources to predict relationships between words. When you give ChatGPT a task, it uses that knowledge base to interpret your input or query. It then analyzes its data banks to predict the combinations of words that will best answer your question. 

So while ChatGPT might seem like it’s thinking, it’s actually pulling information from hundreds of thousands of resources , then answering your questions by looking for patterns in that data and predicting which words come next.  

Why Schools Are Concerned About ChatGPT

Unsurprisingly, schools are worried about ChatGPT and its misuse, especially in terms of academic dishonesty and plagiarism . Most schools, including colleges, require students’ work to be 100% their own. That’s because taking someone else’s ideas and passing them off as your own is stealing someone else’s intellectual property and misrepresenting your skills. 

The problem with ChatGPT from schools’ perspective is that it does the writing and research for you, then gives you the final product. In other words, you’re not doing the work it takes to complete an assignment when you’re using ChatGPT , which falls under schools’ plagiarism and dishonesty policies.  

Colleges are also concerned with how ChatGPT will negatively affect students’ critical thinking, research, and writing skills . Essays and other writing assignments are used to measure students’ mastery of the material, and if students submit ChatGPT college essays, teachers will just be giving feedback on an AI’s writing…which doesn’t help the student learn and grow. 

Beyond that, knowing how to write well is an important skill people need to be successful throughout life. Schools believe that if students rely on ChatGPT to write their essays, they’re doing more than just plagiarizing—they’re impacting their ability to succeed in their future careers. 

Many Schools Have Already Banned ChatGPT

Schools have responded surprisingly quickly to AI use, including ChatGPT. Worries about academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation have led many high schools and colleges to ban the use of ChatGPT . Some schools have begun using AI-detection software for assignment submissions, and some have gone so far as to block students from using ChatGPT on their internet networks. 

It’s likely that schools will begin revising their academic honesty and plagiarism policies to address the use of AI tools like ChatGPT. You’ll want to stay up-to-date with your schools’ policies. 

ChatGPT is pretty amazing...but it's not a great tool for writing college essays. Here's why.

ChatGPT: College Admissions and Entrance Essays

College admissions essays—also called personal statements—ask students to explore important events, experiences, and ideas from their lives. A great entrance essay will explain what makes you you !  

ChatGPT is a machine that doesn’t know and can’t understand your experiences. That means using ChatGPT to write your admissions essays isn’t just unethical. It actually puts you at a disadvantage because ChatGPT can’t adequately showcase what it means to be you. 

Let’s take a look at four ways ChatGPT negatively impacts college admissions essays.

#1: ChatGPT Lacks Insight

We recommend students use u nexpected or slightly unusual topics because they help admissions committees learn more about you and what makes you unique. The chat bot doesn’t know any of that, so nothing ChatGPT writes can’t accurately reflect your experience, passions, or goals for the future. 

Because ChatGPT will make guesses about who you are, it won’t be able to share what makes you unique in a way that resonates with readers. And since that’s what admissions counselors care about, a ChatGPT college essay could negatively impact an otherwise strong application.  

#2: ChatGPT Might Plagiarize 

Writing about experiences that many other people have had isn’t a very strong approach to take for entrance essays . After all, you don’t want to blend in—you want to stand out! 

If you write your essay yourself and include key details about your past experiences and future goals, there’s little risk that you’ll write the same essay as someone else. But if you use ChatGPT—who’s to say someone else won’t, too? Since ChatGPT uses predictive guesses to write essays, there’s a good chance the text it uses in your essay already appeared in someone else’s.  

Additionally, ChatGPT learns from every single interaction it has. So even if your essay isn’t plagiarized, it’s now in the system. That means the next person who uses ChatGPT to write their essay may end up with yours. You’ll still be on the hook for submitting a ChatGPT college essay, and someone else will be in trouble, too.

#3: ChatGPT Doesn’t Understand Emotion 

Keep in mind that ChatGPT can’t experience or imitate emotions, and so its writing samples lack, well, a human touch ! 

A great entrance essay will explore experiences or topics you’re genuinely excited about or proud of . This is your chance to show your chosen schools what you’ve accomplished and how you’ll continue growing and learning, and an essay without emotion would be odd considering that these should be real, lived experiences and passions you have!

#4: ChatGPT Produced Mediocre Results

If you’re still curious what would happen if you submitted a ChatGPT college essay with your application, you’re in luck. Both Business Insider and Forbes asked ChatGPT to write a couple of college entrance essays, and then they sent them to college admissions readers to get their thoughts. 

The readers agreed that the essays would probably pass as being written by real students—assuming admissions committees didn’t use AI detection software—but that they both were about what a “very mediocre, perhaps even a middle school, student would produce.” The admissions professionals agreed that the essays probably wouldn’t perform very well with entrance committees, especially at more selective schools.  

That’s not exactly the reaction you want when an admission committee reads your application materials! So, when it comes to ChatGPT college admissions, it’s best to steer clear and write your admission materials by yourself. 

Can Colleges Detect ChatGPT?

We’ve already explained why it’s not a great idea to use ChatGPT to write your college essays and applications , but you may still be wondering: can colleges detect ChatGPT? 

In short, yes, they can! 

Software Can Detect ChatGPT

As technology improves and increases the risk of academic dishonesty, plagiarism, and mis/disinformation, software that can detect such technology is improving, too. For instance, OpenAI, the same company that built ChatGPT, is working on a text classifier that can tell the difference between AI-written text and human-written text .  

Turnitin, one of the most popular plagiarism detectors used by high schools and universities, also recently developed the AI Innovation Lab —a detection software designed to flag submissions that have used AI tools like ChatGPT. Turnitin says that this tool works with 98% confidence in detecting AI writing. 

Plagiarism and AI companies aren’t the only ones interested in AI-detection software. A 22-year old computer science student at Princeton created an app to detect ChatGPT writing, called Zero GPT. This software works by measuring the complexity of ideas and variety of sentence structures.  

Human Readers Can Detect ChatGPT 

It’s also worth keeping in mind that teachers can spot the use of ChatGPT themselves , even if it isn’t confirmed by a software detector. For example, if you’ve turned in one or two essays to your teacher already, they’re probably familiar with your unique writing style. If you submit a college essay draft essay that uses totally different vocabulary, sentence structures, and figures of speech, your teacher will likely take note.

Additionally , admissions committees and readers may be able to spot ChatGPT writing, too. ChatGPT (and AI writing, in general) uses more simplistic sentence structures with less variation, so that could make it easier to tell if you’ve submitted a ChatGPT college essay. These professionals also read thousands of essays every year, which means they know what a typical essay reads like. You want your college essay to catch their attention…but not because you used AI software! 

If you use ChatGPT responsibly, you can be as happy as these kids.

Pros and Cons of ChatGPT: College Admissions Edition

ChatGPT is a brand new technology, which means we’re still learning about the ways it can benefit us. It’s important to think about the pros and the cons to any new tool …and that includes artificial intelligence!

Let’s look at some of the good—and not-so-good—aspects of ChatGPT below. 

ChatGPT: The Good

It may seem like we’re focused on just the negatives of using ChatGPT in this article, but we’re willing to admit that the chatbot isn’t all bad. In fact, it can be a very useful tool for learning if used responsibly !

Like we already mentioned, students shouldn’t use ChatGPT to write entire essays or assignments. They can use it, though, as a learning tool alongside their own critical thinking and writing skills.

Students can use ChatGPT responsibly to:

• Learn more about a topic . It’s a great place to get started for general knowledge and ideas about most subjects.
• Find reputable and relevant sources on a topic. Students can ask ChatGPT for names and information about leading scholars, relevant websites and databases, and more. 
• Brainstorm ideas for assignments. Students can share the ideas they already have with ChatGPT, and in return, the chatbot can suggest ideas for further exploration and even organization of their points.
• Check work (that they’ve written themselves!) for errors or cla rity. This is similar to how spell- and grammar-checking software is used. ChatGPT may be even better than some competitors for this, because students can actually ask ChatGPT to explain the errors and their solutions—not just to fix them. 

Before you use ChatGPT—even for the tasks mentioned above—you should talk to your teacher or school about their AI and academic dishonesty policies. It’s also a good idea to include an acknowledgement that you used ChatGPT with an explanation of its use. 

This guy made some bad decisions using ChatGPT. Don't be this guy.

ChatGPT: The Bad

The first model of ChatGPT (GPT-3.5) was formally introduced to the public in November 2022, and the newer model (GPT-4) in March 2023. So, it’s still very new and there’s a lot of room for improvement .  

There are many misconceptions about ChatGPT. One of the most extreme is that the AI is all-knowing and can make its own decisions. Another is that ChatGPT is a search engine that, when asked a question, can just surf the web for timely, relevant resources and give you all of that information. Both of these beliefs are incorrect because ChatGPT is limited to the information it’s been given by OpenAI . 

Remember how the ‘PT’ in ChatGPT stands for “Pre-trained”? That means that every time OpenAI gives ChatGPT an update, it’s given more information to work with (and so it has more information to share with you). In other words, it’s “trained” on information so it can give you the most accurate and relevant responses possible—but that information can be limited and biased . Ultimately, humans at OpenAI decide what pieces of information to share with ChatGPT, so it’s only as accurate and reliable as the sources it has access to.

For example, if you were to ask ChatGPT-3.5 what notable headlines made the news last week, it would respond that it doesn’t have access to that information because its most recent update was in September 2021!

You’re probably already familiar with how easy it can be to come across misinformation, misleading and untrue information on the internet. Since ChatGPT can’t tell the difference between what is true and what isn’t, it’s up to the humans at OpenAI to make sure only accurate and true information is given to the chatbot . This leaves room for human error , and users of ChatGPT have to keep that in mind when using and learning from the chatbot.

These are just the most obvious problems with ChatGPT. Some other problems with the chatbot include:

• A lack of common sense. ChatGPT can create seemingly sensical responses to many questions and topics, but it doesn’t have common sense or complete background knowledge.
• A lack of empathy. ChatGPT doesn’t have emotions, so it can’t understand them, either. 
• An inability to make decisions or problem solve . While the chatbot can complete basic tasks like answering questions or giving recommendations, it can’t solve complex tasks. 

While there are some great uses for ChatGPT, it’s certainly not without its flaws.

Our bootcamp can help you put together amazing college essays that help you get into your dream schools—no AI necessary.

What Other Tools and Strategies Can Help Students Besides ChatGPT?

While it’s not a good idea to use ChatGPT for college admissions materials, it’s not the only tool available to help students with college essays and assignments.

One of the best strategies students can use to write good essays is to make sure they give themselves plenty of time for the assignment. The writing process includes much more than just drafting! Having time to brainstorm ideas, write out a draft, revise it for clarity and completeness, and polish it makes for a much stronger essay. 

Teachers are another great resource students can use, especially for college application essays. Asking a teacher (or two!) for feedback can really help students improve the focus, clarity, and correctness of an essay. It’s also a more interactive way to learn—being able to sit down with a teacher to talk about their feedback can be much more engaging than using other tools.

Using expert resources during the essay writing process can make a big difference, too. Our article outlines a complete list of strategies for students writing college admission essays. It breaks down what the Common Application essay is, gives tips for choosing the best essay topic, offers strategies for staying focused and being specific, and more.

You can also get help from people who know the college admissions process best, like former admissions counselors. PrepScholar’s Admissions Bootcamp guides you through the entire application process , and you’ll get insider tips and tricks from real-life admissions counselors that’ll make your applications stand out. Even better, our bootcamp includes step-by-step essay writing guidance, so you can get the help you need to make sure your essay is perfect.

If you’re hoping for more technological help, Grammarly is another AI tool that can check writing for correctness. It can correct things like misused and misspelled words and grammar mistakes, and it can improve your tone and style. 

It’s also widely available across multiple platforms through a Windows desktop app, an Android and iOS app, and a Google Chrome extension. And since Grammarly just checks your writing without doing any of the work for you, it’s totally safe to use on your college essays. 

The Bottom Line: ChatGPT College Admissions and Essays

ChatGPT will continue to be a popular discussion topic as it continues evolving. You can expect your chosen schools to address ChatGPT and other AI tools in their academic honesty and plagiarism policies in the near future—and maybe even to restrict or ban the use of the chatbot for school admissions and assignments.

As AI continues transforming, so will AI-detection. The goal is to make sure that AI is used responsibly by students so that they’re avoiding plagiarism and building their research, writing, and critical thinking skills. There are some great uses for ChatGPT when used responsibly, but you should always check with your teachers and schools beforehand.

ChatGPT’s “bad” aspects still need improving, and that’s going to take some time.Be aware that the chatbot isn’t even close to perfect, and it needs to be fact-checked just like other sources of information.

Similarly to other school assignments, don’t submit a ChatGPT college essay for college applications, either. College entrance essays should outline unique and interesting personal experiences and ideas, and those can only come from you.  

Just because ChatGPT isn’t a good idea doesn’t mean there aren’t resources to help you put together a great college essay. There are many other tools and strategies you can use instead of ChatGPT , many of which have been around for longer and offer better feedback. 

What’s Next?

Ready to write your college essays the old-fashioned way? Start here with our comprehensive guide to the admissions essays.  

Most students have to submit essays as part of their Common Application . Here's a complete breakdown of the Common App prompts —and how to answer them.

The most common type of essay answers the "why this college?" prompt. We've got an expert breakdown that shows you how to write a killer response , step by step. 

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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Can ChatGPT get into Harvard? We tested its admissions essay.

ChatGPT’s release a year ago triggered a wave of panic among educators. Now, universities are in the midst of college application season, concerned that students might use the artificial intelligence tool to forge admissions essays.

But is a chatbot-created essay good enough to fool college admissions counselors?

To find out, The Washington Post asked a prompt engineer — an expert at directing AI chatbots — to create college essays using ChatGPT. The chatbot produced two essays: one responding to a question from the Common Application, which thousands of colleges use for admissions, and one answering a prompt used solely for applicants to Harvard University.

We presented these essays to a former Ivy League college admissions counselor, Adam Nguyen, who previously advised students at Harvard University and read admissions essays at Columbia University. We presented Nguyen with a control: a set of real college admissions essays penned by Jasmine Green, a Post intern who used them to get into Harvard University, where she is currently a senior.

We asked Nguyen to read the essays and spot which ones were produced by AI. The results were illuminating.

Can you figure out which one was written by a human?

Who wrote this?

Since kindergarten, I have evaluated myself from the reflection of my teachers. I was the clever, gifted child. I was a pleasure to have in class. I was driven and tenacious - but lazy? Unmotivated? No instructor had ever directed those harsh words at me. My identity as a stellar student had been stripped of its luster; I was destroyed.

Computer science and college admissions experts say that AI-created essays have some easy tells — helpful for admissions officers who are prepping for an uptick in ChatGPT-written essays.

Responses written by ChatGPT often lack specific details, leading to essays that lack supporting evidence for their points. The writing is trite and uses platitudes to explain situations, rather than delving into the emotional experience of the author. The essays are often repetitive and predictable, leaving readers without surprise or a sense of the writer’s journey. If chatbots produce content on issues of race, sex or socioeconomic status, they often employ stereotypes.

At first, Nguyen was impressed by the AI-generated essays: They were readable and mostly free of grammatical errors. But if he was reviewing the essay as part of an application package, he would’ve stopped reading.

“The essay is such a mediocre essay that it would not help the candidate’s application or chances,” he said in an interview. “In fact, it would probably diminish it.”

Here is how Nguyen evaluated ChatGPT’s essay.

Nguyen said that while AI may be sufficient to use for everyday writing, it is particularly unhelpful in creating college admissions essays. To start, he said, admissions offices are using AI screening tools to filter out computer-generated essays. (This technology can be inaccurate and falsely implicate students, a Post analysis found .)

But more importantly, admissions essays are a unique type of writing, he said. They require students to reflect on their life and craft their experiences into a compelling narrative that quickly provides college admissions counselors with a sense of why that person is unique.

“ChatGPT is not there,” he said.

Nguyen understands why AI might be appealing. College application deadlines often fall around the busiest time of the year, near winter holidays and end-of-semester exams. “Students are overwhelmed,” Nguyen said.

But Nguyen isn’t entirely opposed to using AI in the application process. In his current business, Ivy Link, he helps students craft college applications. For those who are weak in writing, he sometimes suggests they use AI chatbots to start the brainstorming process, he said.

For those who can’t resist the urge to use AI for more than just inspiration, there may be consequences.

“Their essays will be terrible,” he said, “and might not even reflect who they are.”

About this story

Jasmine Green contributed to this report.

The Washington Post worked with Benjamin Breen, an associate professor of history at the University of California in Santa Cruz who studies the impact of technological change, to create the AI-generated essays.

Editing by Karly Domb Sadof, Betty Chavarria and Alexis Sobel Fitts.

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How ChatGPT (and other AI chatbots) can help you write an essay

ChatGPT  is capable of doing many different things very well, with one of the biggest standout features being its ability to compose all sorts of text within seconds, including songs, poems, bedtime stories, and essays . 

The chatbot's writing abilities are not only fun to experiment with, but can help provide assistance with everyday tasks. Whether you are a student, a working professional, or just getting stuff done, we constantly take time out of our day to compose emails, texts, posts, and more. ChatGPT can help you claim some of that time back by helping you brainstorm and then compose any text you need. 

How to use ChatGPT to write: Code | Excel formulas | Resumes  | Cover letters  

Contrary to popular belief, ChatGPT can do much more than just write an essay for you from scratch (which would be considered plagiarism). A more useful way to use the chatbot is to have it guide your writing process. 

Below, we show you how to use ChatGPT to do both the writing and assisting, as well as some other helpful writing tips. 

How ChatGPT can help you write an essay

If you are looking to use ChatGPT to support or replace your writing, here are five different techniques to explore. 

It is also worth noting before you get started that other AI chatbots can output the same results as ChatGPT or are even better, depending on your needs.

Also: The best AI chatbots of 2024: ChatGPT and alternatives

For example,  Copilot  has access to the internet, and as a result, it can source its answers from recent information and current events. Copilot also includes footnotes linking back to the original source for all of its responses, making the chatbot a more valuable tool if you're writing a paper on a more recent event, or if you want to verify your sources.

Regardless of which AI chatbot you pick, you can use the tips below to get the most out of your prompts and from AI assistance.

1. Use ChatGPT to generate essay ideas

Before you can even get started writing an essay, you need to flesh out the idea. When professors assign essays, they generally give students a prompt that gives them leeway for their own self-expression and analysis. 

As a result, students have the task of finding the angle to approach the essay on their own. If you have written an essay recently, you know that finding the angle is often the trickiest part -- and this is where ChatGPT can help. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Copilot: Which AI chatbot is better for you?

All you need to do is input the assignment topic, include as much detail as you'd like -- such as what you're thinking about covering -- and let ChatGPT do the rest. For example, based on a paper prompt I had in college, I asked:

Can you help me come up with a topic idea for this assignment, "You will write a research paper or case study on a leadership topic of your choice." I would like it to include Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid, and possibly a historical figure. 

Also: I'm a ChatGPT pro but this quick course taught me new tricks, and you can take it for free

Within seconds, the chatbot produced a response that provided me with the title of the essay, options of historical figures I could focus my article on, and insight on what information I could include in my paper, with specific examples of a case study I could use. 

2. Use the chatbot to create an outline

Once you have a solid topic, it's time to start brainstorming what you actually want to include in the essay. To facilitate the writing process, I always create an outline, including all the different points I want to touch upon in my essay. However, the outline-writing process is usually tedious. 

With ChatGPT, all you have to do is ask it to write the outline for you. 

Also: Thanks to my 5 favorite AI tools, I'm working smarter now

Using the topic that ChatGPT helped me generate in step one, I asked the chatbot to write me an outline by saying: 

Can you create an outline for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

After a couple of seconds, the chatbot produced a holistic outline divided into seven different sections, with three different points under each section. 

This outline is thorough and can be condensed for a shorter essay or elaborated on for a longer paper. If you don't like something or want to tweak the outline further, you can do so either manually or with more instructions to ChatGPT. 

As mentioned before, since Copilot is connected to the internet, if you use Copilot to produce the outline, it will even include links and sources throughout, further expediting your essay-writing process. 

3. Use ChatGPT to find sources

Now that you know exactly what you want to write, it's time to find reputable sources to get your information. If you don't know where to start, you can just ask ChatGPT. 

Also: How to make ChatGPT provide sources and citations

All you need to do is ask the AI to find sources for your essay topic. For example, I asked the following: 

Can you help me find sources for a paper, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

The chatbot output seven sources, with a bullet point for each that explained what the source was and why it could be useful. 

Also:   How to use ChatGPT to make charts and tables

The one caveat you will want to be aware of when using ChatGPT for sources is that it does not have access to information after 2021, so it will not be able to suggest the freshest sources. If you want up-to-date information, you can always use Copilot. 

Another perk of using Copilot is that it automatically links to sources in its answers. 

4. Use ChatGPT to write an essay

It is worth noting that if you take the text directly from the chatbot and submit it, your work could be considered a form of plagiarism since it is not your original work. As with any information taken from another source, text generated by an AI should be clearly identified and credited in your work.

Also: ChatGPT will now remember its past conversations with you (if you want it to)

In most educational institutions, the penalties for plagiarism are severe, ranging from a failing grade to expulsion from the school. A better use of ChatGPT's writing features would be to use it to create a sample essay to guide your writing. 

If you still want ChatGPT to create an essay from scratch, enter the topic and the desired length, and then watch what it generates. For example, I input the following text: 

Can you write a five-paragraph essay on the topic, "Examining the Leadership Style of Winston Churchill through Blake and Mouton's Managerial Leadership Grid."

Within seconds, the chatbot gave the exact output I required: a coherent, five-paragraph essay on the topic. You could then use that text to guide your own writing. 

Also: ChatGPT vs. Microsoft Copilot vs. Gemini: Which is the best AI chatbot?

At this point, it's worth remembering how tools like ChatGPT work : they put words together in a form that they think is statistically valid, but they don't know if what they are saying is true or accurate. 

As a result, the output you receive might include invented facts, details, or other oddities. The output might be a useful starting point for your own work, but don't expect it to be entirely accurate, and always double-check the content. 

5. Use ChatGPT to co-edit your essay

Once you've written your own essay, you can use ChatGPT's advanced writing capabilities to edit the piece for you. 

You can simply tell the chatbot what you want it to edit. For example, I asked ChatGPT to edit our five-paragraph essay for structure and grammar, but other options could have included flow, tone, and more. 

Also: AI meets AR as ChatGPT is now available on the Apple Vision Pro

Once you ask the tool to edit your essay, it will prompt you to paste your text into the chatbot. ChatGPT will then output your essay with corrections made. This feature is particularly useful because ChatGPT edits your essay more thoroughly than a basic proofreading tool, as it goes beyond simply checking spelling. 

You can also co-edit with the chatbot, asking it to take a look at a specific paragraph or sentence, and asking it to rewrite or fix the text for clarity. Personally, I find this feature very helpful. 

Rote automation is so last year: AI pushes more intelligence into software development

Chatgpt vs. copilot: which ai chatbot is better for you, the best ai chatbots: chatgpt isn't the only one worth trying.

Two professors who say they caught students cheating on essays with ChatGPT explain why AI plagiarism can be hard to prove

• Two philosopher professors said they caught their students submitting essays written by ChatGPT.
• They said certain red flags alerted them to the use of AI.
• If students don't confess to using the program, professors say it can be hard to prove.

A few weeks after the launch of the AI chatbot ChatGPT , Darren Hick, a philosophy professor at Furman University, said he caught a student turning in an AI-generated essay . 

Hick said he grew suspicious when the student turned in an on-topic essay that included some well-written misinformation.

After running it through Open AI's ChatGPT detector , the results said it was 99% likely the essay had been AI-generated. 

Antony Aumann, a religious studies and philosophy professor at Northern Michigan University, told Insider he had caught two students submitting essays written by ChatGPT .

After the writing style set off alarm bells, Aumann submitted them back to the chatbot asking how likely it was that they were written by the program. When the chatbot said it was 99% sure the essays were written by ChatGPT, he forwarded the results to the students.

Both Hick and Aumann said they confronted their students, all of whom eventually confessed to the infraction. Hick's student failed the class and Aumann had his students rewrite the essays from scratch.

'It was really well-written wrong'

There were certain red flags in the essays that alerted the professors to the use of AI. Hick said the essay he found referenced several facts not mentioned in class, and made one nonsensical claim. 

"Word by word it was a well-written essay," he said, but on closer inspection, one claim about the prolific philosopher, David Hume "made no sense" and was "just flatly wrong."

"Really well-written wrong was the biggest red flag," he said.

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For Aumann, the chatbot just wrote too perfectly. "I think the chat writes better than 95% of my students could ever," he said. 

"All of a sudden you have someone who does not demonstrate the ability to think or write at that level, writing something that follows all the requirements perfectly with sophisticated grammar and complicated thoughts that are directly related to the prompt for the essay," he said.

Christopher Bartel, a professor of philosophy at Appalachian State University, said that while the grammar in AI-generated essays is almost perfect, the substance tends to lack detail.

He said: "They are really fluffy. There's no context, there's no depth or insight."

Hard-to-prove plagiarism  

If students don't confess to using AI for essays, it can leave academics in a tough spot.

Bartel said that some institutions' rules haven't evolved to combat this kind of cheating. If a student decided to dig their heels in and deny the use of AI, it can be difficult to prove. 

Bartel said the AI detectors on offer were "good but not perfect." 

"They give a statistical analysis of how likely the text is to be AI-generated, so that leaves us in a difficult position if our policies are designed so that we have to have definitive and demonstrable proof that the essay is a fake," he said. "If it comes back with a 95% likelihood that the essay is AI generated, there's still a 5% chance that it wasn't." 

In Hick's case, although the detection site said it was "99% certain" the essay had been generated by an AI, he said it wasn't enough for him without a confession.

"The confession was important because everything else looks like circumstantial evidence," he said. "With AI-generated content, there is no material evidence, and material evidence has a lot more weight to it than circumstantial evidence."

Aumann said although he thought the analysis by the chatbot would be good enough proof for disciplinary action, AI plagiarism was still a new challenge for colleges.

He said: "Unlike plagiarism cases of old where you can just say, 'hey, here's the paragraph from Wikipedia.' There is no knockdown proof that you can provide other than the chat says that's the statistical likelihood."

Axel Springer, Business Insider's parent company, has a global deal to allow OpenAI to train its models on its media brands' reporting.

• Main content

How you should—and shouldn’t—use ChatGPT as a student

February 16, 2023

It’s the new artificial intelligence tool everyone’s talking about—a chatbot designed to change how we write. But if you ask it for help on your uni assessments, is that considered cheating? Let’s see what the universities are saying.

As a uni student, you’ve probably heard all the debates about ChatGPT . This ground-breaking conversational chatbot can answer any question, write whole paragraphs in seconds, and analyse problems in a remarkably human-like way. 

It’s an exciting invention, because it will revolutionise the way we interact with computers. But there’s a lot of controversy around the tool too. For a start, some students have realised ChatGPT could write their assessments for them.  

Obviously, this isn’t great. Universities all agree this is a form of cheating, and students giving this a go are opening themselves up to serious academic penalties. They’re also not forming any original opinions in their future area of expertise and turning in some pretty poorly written assignments. 

But there’s no denying AI tools like ChatGPT, Jasper and Grammarly are here to stay. And they can be genuinely helpful in your school and working life, if you use them correctly.  

So how can you lean on artificial intelligence during your studies, without crossing any ethical lines? Here are some helpful dos and don’ts to guide you, based on what we see different universities doing. We even asked ChatGPT for help with this article, just to show you how it can be done.

ChatGPT dos

Do ask for research guidance before writing an essay.

Getting started is often the hardest part when you’re writing an essay or prepping for an exam. Some universities suggest using ChatGPT as a remedy for your procrastination. You can ask the tool where you should kick off your research on a particular topic, and it will point you to relevant resources. 

As an example, when we asked: “ What academic resources could I use to research the ethics of artificial intelligence for university students? ” it came back with a list of industry journals, books and websites that should be accessible through a university library login. Talk about a time saver!

Do use it when brainstorming

Universities like Flinders University, the University of Adelaide, and the University of South Australia will allow students to use ChatGPT as a writing prompter for assignments , if they disclose it. The benefit to this approach is that you get a jumping off point, but you still need to build your own argument and do the critical thinking.

To give you an idea of this in action, we asked the tool: &ldquo\I have to write an essay about the ethics of artificial intelligence tools in the academic world. Can you give me some thought starters to help direct my writing?”

It gave us 6 possible directions to take things. One answer was: “ Definition of AI in the academic context: Start by defining AI and its different forms and applications in the academic world. Discuss how AI tools are increasingly being used in various academic fields and the potential benefits they offer .” 

Do ask questions about study material you don’t understand

Some universities recognise the value of ChatGPT as a student support service. It can instantly explain topics you’re unsure about, which could save you from needing to email your tutor every time you have a question. If there’s an academic term or piece of jargon you don’t recognise in an assessment, you can ask ChatGPT to summarise it for you in plain speak. 

Do use it to proofread your work

The tool can also proofread your final draft for grammatical errors, issues with your sentence structure and readability, and provide suggestions for improvement. This is similar to what AI-powered writing assistant Grammarly does. This is an ethical approach some unis prefer because it encourages you to make your work better, but you have to take the next steps. 

Do cite any AI assistance in your reference list

If you do use an AI tool for idea or text generation, it's almost guaranteed your uni will want you to cite it as a source in your final references. While most referencing styles don’t have a format for ChatGPT usage yet, your tutors will have a recommendation around how to handle it. The University of Queensland  suggests using the reference style you would use for personal correspondence . 

Rules around this will change as the technology evolves, so be sure to keep up to date with your university’s academic integrity policy (more on this below). 

ChatGPT don’ts

Don’t ask ai software to write essays for you.

The fact is, if you ask ChatGPT to write an assessment for you, that’s a form of plagiarism. And your teachers will figure out what you’re doing. 

Universities are already coming up with new measures to identify AI-generated text. Plagiarism detection software like Turnitin is being upgraded to tackle this issue, while a new tool called AICheatCheck has been developed specifically in response to AI cheating in Australia. 

While AI-generated text might sound passable to the untrained eye, it lacks personality, insight and, sometimes, logic. ChatGPT itself says that, “ As an AI language model, I'm not designed to replace human writers. My language capabilities are limited to what I have been trained on and I do not have the ability to generate new ideas or insights that come from human experiences and perspectives .” 

Qualified university tutors grade hundreds of assessments every year. They’ll be able to tell that your language patterns are robotic. And the consequences you face when getting caught aren’t worth the risk.

Don’t blindly trust AI-generated information

OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, has been upfront about the fact that ChatGPT’s answers aren’t always accurate. Sometimes, the chatbot straight up lies. When Marcel Salathe, a digital epidemiologist, asked the tool to give him a list of epidemiology references, the bot invented some . After he challenged this, ChatGPT responded, “ I can only provide information based on the text I have been trained on... I am not able to detect when my responses are incorrect or out-of-date .” 

In other words, don’t rely on ChatGPT as a primary source of information. Check multiple sources to verify what it tells you. 

Don’t do anything that violates your university’s academic integrity policy

Finally, it’s crucial to remember that different universities have different stances on AI tools. Some will encourage you to use ChatGPT as a resource, while others may ban it altogether. You should familiarise yourself with your uni’s academic integrity policy to see what side of the fence it sits on. This policy outlines what counts as academic misconduct and plagiarism. You’ll generally find it on your university’s website or learning management system if you’re an online student. 

It’s important not to violate this policy when writing an assessment, because you could face serious academic penalties if caught, like a failing grade or termination of your enrolment. And no one wants that! 

Consider how ChatGPT will be used in the real world

Controversial or not, we have to face the truth: AI tools like ChatGPT will have their place in the future of work. Some fields like marketing, justice and healthcare are already testing how this innovation could make certain tasks easier. 

Provided you're following the rules set out by your university, it can’t hurt to experiment with the tool now, so you’re familiar with its ethical applications. ChatGPT could support and even boost your career in unexpected ways. It’s all about how you use it. 

Browse  thousands of courses from leading Australian universities.

Or complete the form on this page to chat to an advisor about study options.

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A.I. Could Be Great for College Essays

Every year, the artificial intelligence company OpenAI improves its text-writing bot, GPT. And every year, the internet responds with shrieks of woe about the impending end of human-penned prose. This cycle repeated last week when OpenAI launched ChatGPT —a version of GPT that can seemingly spit out any text, from a Mozart-styled piano piece to the history of London in the style of Dr. Seuss . The response on Twitter was unanimous: The college essay is doomed. Why slave over a paper when ChatGPT can write an original for you?

Chatting with ChatGPT is fun. (Go play with it !) But the college essay isn’t doomed, and A.I. like ChatGPT won’t replace flesh and blood writers. They may make writing easier, though.

GPT-3, released by OpenAI in 2020, is the third and best-known version of OpenAI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer—a computer program known as a large language model. Large language models produce language in response to language—typically, text-based prompts (“Write me a sonnet about love”). Unlike traditional computer programs that execute a series of hard-coded commands, language models are trained by sifting through large datasets of text like Wikipedia. Through this training, they learn patterns in language that are then used to generate the most likely completions to questions or commands.

Language is rife with repetition. Our ability to recognize and remember regularities in speech and text allows us to do things like complete a friend’s sentence or solve a Wordle in three tries. If I asked you to finish the sentence, The ball rolled down the … you’d say hill, and so would GPT-3. Large language models are, like people, great at learning regularities in language, and they use this trick to generate human-like text. But when tested on their ability to understand the language they produce, they often look more like parrots than poets.

Gary Marcus, an emeritus professor at NYU and the author of Rebooting AI , is a vocal critic of the idea that bots like GPT-3 understand what they’re writing . In a recent preprint (an academic paper that hasn’t been peer-reviewed), Marcus and two co-authors used OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 to demonstrate the limitations of large language models. DALL-E 2 , like GPT-3, responds to text-based prompts. But instead of producing language, it creates images. DALL-E 2 was trained to learn associations between images and their captions to produce entirely new images based on the text users enter. If you ask it for, say, “an impressionist painting of Albert Einstein surfing” you get the four images below.

Not bad, right? DALL-E 2 was recently used to win an art competition .

But as Marcus and his co-authors point out in their paper , DALL-E 2 doesn’t understand the relationship between the words that users enter. If, for instance, you ask it to produce an image of “an old man talking to his parents,” you get four images of three people talking. The AI fails to understand that, however old the old man looks, the people he’s talking to must, by definition of being his parents, look older.

Compared with DALL-E 2, ChatGPT appears to have a better grasp of the text users enter and the responses it spits out. This might be why the Internet responded to its release so enthusiastically. ChatGPT “is causing jaws to drop and brows to furrow,” wrote Axios .

I had trouble stumping it with some classic riddles from cognitive psychology. Take the Lily Pad problem:

Prompt: A lily pad, in a pond, doubles in size every day. On the 20 th day, it covers the entire pond. On what day did it cover half the pond?

ChatGPT: A lily pad in a pond that doubles in size every day will cover half the pond on the 19 th day, one day before it covers the entire pond.

The A.I. got that the question described exponential growth—a phenomenon that, as the pandemic demonstrated, many humans fail to understand. But I did fool ChatGPT with the bat and ball problem made famous by Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow :

Prompt: A bat and ball cost $1.10. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?

ChatGPT: If the bat costs $1 more than the ball, and the bat and ball cost $1.10 in total, then the ball must cost $1.10 - $1.00 = $0.10.

The correct answer is 5 cents. (Trust me.)

ChatGPT might fail at tests of reasoning, but it’s great at generating humanlike text to different lengths and in various styles. This brings us back to the college essay—an easy task for ChatGPT, many commentators claimed on Twitter. “We’re witnessing the death of the college essay in realtime,” tweeted one Google employee . Ethan Mollick, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania, had ChatGPT write an essay question , create a grading rubric for said question, answer the question, and grade its own answer. (It got an A minus.) How could the essay not be doomed?

This isn’t the first time that large language models have been predicted to fell the essay or worse. “To spend ten minutes with Sudowrite [a GPT-3-based A.I.] is to recognize that the undergraduate essay, the basic pedagogical mode of all humanities, will soon be under severe pressure,” wrote journalist Stephen Marche in a 2021 New Yorker piece. (On Tuesday, Marche wrote an article for the Atlantic titled “ The College Essay Is Dead .”) And in 2019, when GPT-2 was created, OpenAI withheld it from the public because the “fear of malicious applications” was too high .

If any group were to put an A.I. to malicious use, essay-burdened undergraduates would surely be the first. But the evidence that A.I. is being used to complete university assignments is hard to find. (When I asked my class of 47 students recently about using A.I. for schoolwork, they looked at me like I was mad.) It could be a matter of time and access before A.I. is used more widely by students to cheat; ChatGPT is the first free text-writing bot from OpenAI (although it won’t be free forever). But it could also be that large language models are just not very good at answering the types of questions professors ask.

If you ask ChatGPT to write an essay contrasting socialism and capitalism, it produces what you expect: 28 grammatical sentences covering wealth distribution, poverty reduction, and employment stability under these two economic systems. But few professors ask students to write papers on broad questions like this. Broad questions lead to a rainbow of responses that are impossible to grade objectively. And the more you make the question like something a student might get—narrow, and focused on specific, course-related content—the worse ChatGPT performs.

I gave ChatGPT a question about the relationship between language and colour perception, that I ask my third-year psychology of language class, and it bombed . Not only did its response lack detail, but it attributed a paper I instructed it to describe to an entirely different study. Several more questions produced the same vague and error-riddled results. If one of my students handed in the text ChatGPT generated, they’d get an F.

Large language models generate the most likely responses based on the text they are fed during training, and, for now, that text doesn’t include the reading lists of thousands of college classes. They also prevaricate. The model’s calculation of the most probable text completion is not always the most correct response—or even a true response. When I asked Gary Marcus about the prospect of ChatGPT writing college essays his answer was blunt: “It’s basically a bullshit artist. And bullshitters rarely get As—they get Cs or worse.”

If these problems are fixed—and, based on how these models work, it’s unclear that they can be—I doubt A.I. like ChatGPT will produce good papers. Even humans who write papers for money struggle to do it well. In 2014, a department of the U.K. government published a study of history and English papers produced by online-essay writing services for senior high school students. Most of the papers received a grade of C or lower. Much like the work of ChatGPT, the papers were vague and error-filled. It’s hard to write a good essay when you lack detailed, course-specific knowledge of the content that led to the essay question.

ChatGPT may fail at writing a passable paper, but it’s a useful pedagogical tool that could help students write papers themselves. Ben Thompson, who runs the technology blog and newsletter Stratechery, wrote about this change in a post about ChatGPT and history homework. Thompson asked ChatGPT to complete his daughter’s assignment on the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes; the A.I. produced three error-riddled paragraphs. But, as Thompson points out, failures like this don’t mean that we should trash the tech. In the future, A.I. like ChatGPT can be used in the classroom to generate text that students then fact-check and edit. That is, these bots solve the problem of the blank page by providing a starting point for papers. I couldn’t agree more.

I frequently used ChatGPT while working on this piece. I asked for definitions that, after a fact-check, I included. At times, I threw entire paragraphs from this piece into ChatGPT to see if it produced prettier prose. Sometimes it did, and then I used that text. Why not? Like spell check, a thesaurus, and Wikipedia, ChatGPT made the task of writing a little easier. I hope my students use it.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate , New America , and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

15 Ways College Students Can Use ChatGPT

Ai is changing the world.

People often freak out when new technologies catch on and change the status quo. The wheel, radio, television, cameras, automobiles!? All of these innovations came with a chorus of naysayers hysterically predicting the end of the world. So of course, some folks have been equally concerned about ChatGPT and AI technology.

But for college students, tools like ChatGPT can actually aid in their education. From helping you edit papers to preparing for your first post-college job interview, AI technology can help.

Throughout this page, we've outlined 15 ways that college students can use ChatGPT to make college life easier.

15 Ways College Students Can Use ChatGPT To Make Life Easier

• Narrowing down what college to attend
• Essay writing help
• Generating practice problems to help students study
• Choosing a college major
• Research Assistant
• Learning another language
• Mental health support
• Resume building
• Financial Aid
• Homework help
• Help with learning style
• Interview prep
• Decision-making
• Time management
• It can be fun, too

1. Narrowing down what college to attend

While ChatGPT can't evaluate which specific school is right for you , AI tools can point you toward some schools worth considering. By simply asking ChatGPT to assist in finding the right school and describing what you’re looking for, you'll receive a relatively comprehensive list of things you could consider, including academic programs, rankings , campus culture, location, and financial aid opportunities.

Even though this list is helpful enough, ChatGPT can help more if you offer specific prompts. Consider noting your skills, prospective major, price, and location to help the AI technology offer a more personalized and detailed list of colleges. From there, you can begin to do your own research and campus visits to narrow down the best school for you.

In the following example, we've used the following prompt:

"What are the best schools for me: strong computer science program, public school, located in Maryland"

Here's the result:

2. Essay writing help 

Now, let's preface this section with a note on ethics: just because ChatGPT can assist in essay-writing doesn't mean you should turn in an AI-generated essay. Plus, your college instructors have access to evolving and sophisticated programs that can spot AI-crafted essays. ChatGPT is a tool and likely spits out prose that feels artificial.

Still, ChatGPT can assist you with essay writing. Whether you're searching for more information on a topic, you need help brainstorming essay topics, or you want to evaluate the quality of your writing, AI technology can help. And that’s where you can take the reigns and do the actual writing of the essay.

ChatGPT prompt:

"List unique essay ideas about Let Us Now Praise Famous Men for undergraduate history class"

3. Generating practice problems to help students study

Whether you're taking a college-level calculus class or a course on American poetry, AI can generate practice problems or questions that can enhance your studying or test your knowledge. Like any ChatGPT prompt, you'll want to be very specific about what you want. Additionally, you can also copy and paste sections of a reading and ask it to write review questions.

"Write review questions for Chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby"

4. Choosing a College Major based on career goals

Just like ChatGPT can assist in your college search , AI can help you choose a college major. When using AI, be sure to include career goals in the prompt. Also, consider including skills and interests—this information can narrow the focus of potential college majors.

"List ideal undergraduate degrees for future lawyer. Above average math and science skills."

5. Research Assistant

When crafting the perfect essay, research can be a challenging and laborious task. But because ChatGPT can plumb the depths of the internet to find helpful information, finding great sources for essays has gotten much more manageable. That said, be sure to double-check the sources AI provides since the free and original version of ChatGPT could only use data from two years ago. More recent updates or paid versions have given the tool access to real time internet. We provided a sample prompt with ChatGPT results below.

"List of academic articles about the Cuban Missile Crisis"

6. Learning Another Language

Whether you're completing foreign language requirements or preparing for a study abroad excursion, AI technology can help you learn a new language. By conversing with AI like ChatGPT, you can practice grammar, learn vocabulary, and enhance your writing skills. As we've discussed before, be sure to be specific with your prompts.

"List of practical travel-related phrases for American student traveling to France"

7. Mental Health Support

College is often a stressful time , and tending to your mental health can result in a more fulfilling and memorable college experience. While there's no better mental health support than from a licensed professional, AI can point you in the right direction. From locating mental health providers to offering some tips and tricks to handling the stress of finals, ChatGPT can help. Additionally, your campus has professionals on hand who can help. All you have to do is ask.

"What are some proven ways to manage stress during final exams?"

8. Building a resume

Maybe you're applying for a summer internship, or perhaps you're about to graduate. Either way, crafting a solid resume is essential if you want to be a competitive applicant. ChatGPT [t1] can offer guidance and suggestions on elements like content and language. Additionally, ChatGPT can provide feedback on language clarity, grammar, and overall professionalism.

"List attributes of a quality resume"

9. Finding and Applying for Financial Aid

ChatGPT can provide guidance on finding and applying for college financial aid . From helping you understand different types of aid to advising on completing the FAFSA , AI technology can help. Still, it's wise to get valuable information from the source—if you're wondering about a scholarship deadline, check the application. Or, if you have questions when filling out the FAFSA, be sure to speak with a professional. ChatGPT is, after all, still a robot.

"List of five tips for writing a standout scholarship application essay"

10. Essay and homework feedback

AI can offer helpful feedback by offering suggestions on structure, clarity, coherence, grammar, and style. Additionally, it can help identify areas that need improvement while providing ways to strengthen arguments and improve writing. Remember, tools like ChatGPT are just that: a resource that shouldn't replace human review. So don’t think you can get away with having it actually do your homework.

"List argument ideas why Lyndon Johnson was an effective president"

11. Explaining assignments in a different way more conducive to a student’s learning style

Sometimes your instructors will offer instructions that might as well be written in an unintelligible foreign language. Or maybe it’s just not explained in the way that your brain likes to think. Thankfully, ChatGPT and other AI tools can help translate. If you need something translated to accommodate your learning style, just copy the text into ChatGPT and prompt it to rewrite it in a more conversational tone.

"Reword in a conversational tone: Analyze the socio-political factors that contributed to the outbreak of World War II and assess their impact on global geopolitics during the 20th century"

12. Interview Preparation

As we discussed previously, ChatGPT can help you craft a standout resume, but the help doesn't stop there. AI can also help you prepare for your job interview. If you include specific job details, ChatGPT can reply with some interview tips and potential interview questions.

"List of possible interview questions for admin job in the admissions department at a small private college"

13. Decision-Making

Chat CPT can offer some practical assistance when you're pressed to make important decisions and will clearly lay out the pros and cons, if you ask. Now, AI is indeed artificial, so you should probably also rely on the advice of friends and family. But this is an interesting tool that can provide some unbiased help.

ChatGPT prompt: 

"Should I work and enjoy my summer vacation or complete an unrequited internship? Pros and cons."

14. Time Management

ChatGPT can provide advice on effective time management, productivity techniques, and strategies for organizing coursework and assignments. You can offer a specific prompt with your time management challenge, and AI will do its work.

"I'm struggling to complete all my required college-level history reading. Five tips for effective reading"

15. It can be fun, too

Sure, ChatGPT can be a practical tool to help you navigate your college experience. But it can be fun, too. From nightlife tips in a new city to crafting entertaining rap lyrics, ChatGPT can exist as a tool for amusement and useful, everyday knowledge.

"What are the best museums in Philadelphia?"

We've said it once, and we'll repeat it: ChatGPT isn't intended as a substitute for the real work you do in college. Using AI to write things for you is plagiarism and comes with all the same consequences. That said, ChatGPT can be a useful tool if used ethically.

Additionally, ChatGPT has a lag in data, so it may not always be able to provide you with the most up-to-date data – especially if you’re using the free version. Be sure to verify any information that ChatGPT provides.

ChatGPT FAQ

• In most cases, it's highly unlikely that a college or institution can determine if you've used ChatGPT for basic assistance. However, technology is evolving, and plagiarism detection programs are becoming increasingly sophisticated. There are tools you can run essays and assignments through to check for signs of AI. You can use ChatGPT as a tool, but it's worthwhile to take pride in your work and write things for yourself.
• While ChatGPT can provide helpful information and suggestions, it is never recommended to directly use it to write college essays. You must develop your own ideas, critical-thinking skills, and writing abilities. After all, you are in college to learn and develop skills you’ll use for the rest of your life. Use ChatGPT as a resource for guidance and inspiration, but ensure your essay reflects your original voice.
• Alongside ChatGPT, it's worth utilizing other, more traditional resources. Popular sources include libraries, academic databases, writing centers, and your instructor's office hours. AI is a great tool, but nothing beats the help you can get from human-to-human instruction.
• ChatGPT can assist you in what seems like endless ways. From answering questions and exploring ideas to research support and study planning, ChatGPT can help. This AI tool can also review your essays, help you prepare for exams, and help you learn another language.
• ChatGPT is a tool, and using it for academic purposes is not inherently considered cheating. However, it's important to adhere to academic integrity guidelines set by your institution and ensure that you use ChatGPT ethically and responsibly.

• Research Guides

AI Use in Academic Research

• How Can I Use Prompts Effectively?
• Background/History
• Roles: Ways to Use AI
• A Deeper Tech Dive
• AI Tools for Academic Research
• Library Research Skills
• How Will This Impact Future Careers?
• SMC Library Presentation
• Wharton Presentation
• Policies on GenAI
• Articles and Guidance
• Books in our Collection
• Other LibGuides We Like
• Share Your Feedback

Know the Pros and Cons

• Tallking to AI: Prompts
• Other Vulnerabilities
• A Sample Prompt

A prompt is an expression, sentence, or series of sentences that give the AI its specific task. Ex: “What’s a good research topic for Latin American History?” For best results, rephrase and refine your prompt.

Check out — A LIBRARY of Prompts

From ai for education..

Prompting Tips

[source: university of manitoba ].

• Clear, specific, and detailed 
• Use complete sentences and be polite. 
• Provide context. 
• Indicate format.
• Table, figure, 📚🔍📖 
• Open-ended questions 
• Rephrase and provide feedback. 
• For each new topic, start a new chat.

I am a college undergraduate student majoring in Communications. I was assigned a paper to write on the subject of public relations methods following the introduction of TikTok into mass culture. What impacts should I cover in this paper?

⇒ Remember, each time you perform a search, you will get different responses from GenAI.

Bias Issues

Mit techonology review article: “these six questions will dictate the future of generative ai”.

Will we ever mitigate the bias problem?

How will AI change the way we apply copyright?

How will it change our jobs?

What misinformation will it make possible?

Will we come to grips with its costs?

Will doomerism continue to dominate policymaking?

Generative AI was trained on the internet and so has inherited many of its unsolved issues, including those related to bias, misinformation, copyright infringement, human rights abuses, and all-round economic upheaval.

Bias has become a byword for AI-related harms, for good reason. Real-world data, especially text and images scraped from the internet, is riddled with it, from gender stereotypes to racial discrimination. Models trained on that data encode those biases and then reinforce them wherever they are used.

Chatbots and image generators tend to portray engineers as white and male and nurses as white and female. Black people risk being misidentified by police departments’ facial recognition programs, leading to wrongful arrest. Hiring algorithms favor men over women, entrenching a bias they were sometimes brought in to address.

Two major sources for ChatGPT training are Wikipedia and Reddit, both platforms that host information ranging from neutral fact reporting to the expression of strong opinions and biases.

  Documentary film:  Coded Bias  

• "CODED BIAS explores the fallout of MIT media lab researcher Joy Buolamwini's startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her journey to push for the first-ever legislation in the U.S. to govern against bias in the algorithms that impact us all. "--Coded bias website.

Article: "How AI reduces the world to stereotypes"

Rest of World analyzed 3,000 AI images to see how image generators visualize different countries and cultures.

Financial Times  article: "Google pauses AI image generation of people after diversity backlash"

Grounded result availability.

Are your results grounded in the literature—do the responses you get include links to further investigate and verify the information provided? This feature is available in Microsoft CoPilot (powered by GPT-4) and in ChatGPT-4. Some sources for results are provided so you can verify the information.

Language Translation

ChatGPT can be used for machine translation, allowing researchers to access and understand research materials in multiple languages

Hallucinations 

[source: https://summer.harvard.edu/blog/should-i-use-chatgpt-to-write-my-essays/].

One of the misconceptions about AI is that it has a degree of human intelligence. However, its intelligence is actually statistical analysis, as it can only generate “original” content based on the patterns it sees in already existing data and work. Generative AI uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to analyze vast amounts of textual data to determine patterns in words and phrases. Generative AI models often provide false information — so much so that there’s a term for it: “AI hallucination.” This may be due to gaps in its data, or because it lacks the ability to verify what it’s generating. As the LLMs develop, experts say the hallucination factor will mostly disappear. These tools can also generate wrong information when they are trained on outdated data.  

[source: https://medium.com/@dlaytonj2/chatgpt-show-me-the-data-sources-11e9433d57e8]

Privacy concerns.

Website Security Intelligence advises that “if [a user’s] notes include sensitive data ... it enters the chatbot library. The user no longer has control over the information.” While your ChatGPT account can be deleted, all your prompts and questions belong to OpenAI and become a part of a larger library of data being collected.  

Intellectual property 

[source: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4333415] ChatGPT can generate text which may be copyright protected. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the use of the model complies with intellectual property laws and regulations, such as obtaining permission from copyright holders when necessary. 

The following prompt was entered into Gemini. 

What are the pros and cons of using chatgpt for college research writing.

ChatGPT can be a helpful tool for college research writing, but it's important to be aware of both its strengths and weaknesses:

Brainstorming and Outlining: ChatGPT can help you generate ideas for your research topic, suggest relevant sources, and even draft an outline for your paper.

Overcoming Writer's Block: If you're stuck getting started, ChatGPT can help break the ice by writing introductory paragraphs or transitions.

Finding Sources (with limitations): ChatGPT can point you towards relevant articles and studies, though it may not be able to access the latest information or provide direct links (depending on the version).

Accuracy and Bias: ChatGPT may not always provide accurate information, and its sources can be biased. It's crucial to fact-check everything it generates.

Plagiarism: Content generated by ChatGPT is not your own writing and shouldn't be submitted as such. You should paraphrase and use the information it provides as a springboard for your own research and writing.

Academic Tone: ChatGPT may struggle to perfectly capture the formal tone and style required for academic writing. You'll likely need to revise its output significantly.

Overall, ChatGPT can be a useful tool to supplement your research and writing process, but it shouldn't replace critical thinking, thorough research, and proper citation practices.

[4/22/24, 8:15pm | created with Gemini]

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