Not long ago, a prospective client I had had a few conversations with told me they were going to work with another consultant because they were charging less for comprehensive services that utilized AI to streamline the college research and comparison process. I wished that parent well, of course, and went on with my work.
Here’s why I think families should take pause relying on AI, though, to guide them through the rigorous college research and application process:
- AI can be a helpful tool to think through multiple angles of a problem or even edit your writing for wordiness. Colleges know applicants take it further than that, though, and employ AI checkers to suss out AI-driven student writings. A real professional does the work to help a student hone their natural writing voice into something mature and beautiful without the ethical red flags AI writing raises to schools.
- AI is trained on ALL available information it scrubs from the Internet. This includes outdated information from college websites, unfounded opinions found on websites like Quora and Reddit, and even parent forums where there is little to no moderating oversight over whether what’s said about a college, its programs, its expenses, etc. are true or correct. To be blunt, sometimes it’s flat wrong. Would you want the biggest, most expensive decision of your life to be informed by data scrubbed from a troll/sarcastic/intentionally incorrect reply on Quora and a university’s published policies from 2022? I sure wouldn’t.
- Times are changing rapidly, especially among US colleges being increasingly threatened by funding cuts and other political consequences, and AI is not able to keep up. It doesn’t read bias in articles well, and it often regurgitates information that is no longer relevant. Good college counselors are people who stay abreast of the news and inform our clients accordingly.
College counseling is most valuable to students and their families where there is a genuine human touch. In my practice, I build a relationship with every student in order to help them build their best possible application. This includes truly getting to know each kid as an individual in order to every one rise off the page as a worthy, strong, three-dimensional candidate whose voice is their own. It also includes serving as a support system to them during times when they’re stressed and need reassurance that everything will be okay. I also am a support system to parents, many of whom face their own worries throughout the process.
College counseling is most valuable to students and their families when real people advocating for them build relationships with universities and can pick up the phone to call and ask clarifying questions.
College counseling is most valuable to students and their families when they are served by real professionals with niche expertise: people who participate in private professional forums with other colleagues in the field, people who take on hours of continuing education every year, people who take the time to visit colleges both in person and virtually in order to be our students’ best advocates.
AI is increasingly ingrained in our daily lives and has some worthy practical applications, but college advising is absolutely not where it is most trustworthy or valuable. Please consider these elements carefully if you’re considering making an investment in college counseling for your child’s future.