ChatGPT can do all of a student’s homework. The chatbot can spit out accurate answers for questions pertaining to English, History, Math, Science, and practically any other subject you might need. It can even write an entire college admissions essay for you.

So, what does this emerging new technology mean for college admissions? How will it change the landscape of academia and the way colleges assess prospective students? Join us as we explore these questions and offer tips to help students prepare for the college application process in this changing academic climate.

What Can ChatGPT Do?

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot designed to predict or generate text in response to a prompt. Prompts can be practically anything, from requesting a simple knock knock joke to a full essay. It can even code computer programs.

OpenAI launched the ChatGPT demo in November 2022. It attracted a huge number of users in just a few days, and the bot currently has over 100 million users, setting the record as the fastest app to reach such an incredible number. 

Anyone can access ChatGPT at any time and that includes high school students. As with any new technology, students will find innovative ways to use it, leaving institutions scrambling to catch up. At the moment, students can use ChatGPT to do all of their homework, write their college admissions essays, and artificially lift their grades. This list may expand as the technology develops and intelligent students derive new use cases for it.

A Shift in College Admissions Requirements

In recent years, many universities decided to offer test optional admissions paths, meaning they no longer required students to submit SAT or ACT scores to be considered for admission. This change occurred largely in response to the pandemic, which shut down exams for a period of time in 2020. 

However, the test optional trend began even before the push from the pandemic. Schools like the University of Chicago switched to test optional admissions as early as 2018 in an effort to make college more accessible to a diverse range of students, including Black, Hispanic, Latino, rural, and first-generation students.

Basically, the idea of going test optional was already there for many schools, but the pandemic provided the necessary catalyst that pushed universities to test out a test optional policy. Over time, many schools either decided to adopt the policy permanently or extend the option as far as 2030. As of 2022, more than 80% of colleges indicated that they would not require SAT or ACT score submissions that year.

With the advent of ChatGPT, all of this is likely going to change. ACT and SAT test scores are now one of the only ways to gain a real sense of a student’s true academic ability without the help of AI. As a result, we’re already witnessing a shift in many schools to start bringing back testing requirements for admissions. Notable examples include MIT, Purdue, Georgetown, and Georgia State University, and the list will only continue to grow.

How Does This Affect Prospective Students?

Prospective students may need to change their application strategies in order to adhere to the coming changes in the college admissions process. Here’s what some of those changes may look like.

Bringing Back Standardized Tests

Students who may have been planning to write off their SAT or ACT exams because their dream school no longer required them may want to start investing their time in studying. Even if your list of schools does not currently require you to submit test scores, they could make policy changes in the coming years as an effort to assess students without the help of AI.

Plus, having good test scores is certainly never a hindrance to your academic career. Let’s say you end up applying to schools who still don’t require test scores. Choosing to submit high scores anyway could set your application apart from others. In any situation, strong test scores will strengthen your application and demonstrate your academic ability to help you secure spots in your ideal schools and scholarship programs.

Writing Creative Essays

Some students have also started using ChatGPT to write their college admissions essays for them. Institutions are already looking for ways to combat this trend by using AI detection software. However, due to ChatGPT’s ability to generate human-like responses, it’s not always possible to detect an essay produced by AI. Still, those who are caught submitting work written by ChatGPT could wind up blacklisted from their dream schools.

College admissions professionals have indicated that many of the essays produced by ChatGPT end up sounding cliché or generic. Students who are stuck at a certain point in their writing process may be tempted to use ChatGPT as a writing tool to give them a basic idea of how to continue on their own. At the end of the day though, a student will have a much greater chance of wowing an admissions board by using their own creativity to craft a compelling essay rather than relying on AI.

It’s worth noting that some colleges may choose to incorporate live essay exams in the future. In this case, students will compose essays on the spot rather than writing their admissions essay over a period of weeks or months prior to submission. If this does occur, the optional writing scores of standardized tests like the SAT and ACT may become even more valuable in the admissions process.

Other Accomplishments

Admissions officers already place a good amount of emphasis on extracurricular activities and achievements outside the academic realm. In the scramble to find other ways to assess prospective students, the emphasis on these types of credentials may increase as well. Students may need to put themselves out there a bit more and strive for standout accomplishments in their community or notable wins at respected competitions.

Test Help From PrepExpert

Preparing for standardized tests is overwhelming, especially if you were previously under the impression that you wouldn’t have to take them. What are the tests like? How often should you study? What should you study? How can you make sure you’re fully prepared and ready to perform to the best of your abilities?

PrepExpert offers a huge variety of SAT and ACT prep courses to empower your studying. Our instructors can answer last minute questions about the material, help you build or stick to a study schedule, and teach you important test-taking strategies that will give you a major advantage on test day.

Check out our full range of courses and sign up today to start improving your scores!