AI is the hot new thing, especially in the form of large language models, machines which can create startlingly human-like text and images. We’ve discussed these before, how you shouldn’t use them to write your essays, and whether colleges are using them in turn to review your application. Now, however, we are seeing a new trend: college admissions counselors using, or being replaced with, AI chat bots.
That this is happening is unsurprising; the potential uses and upsides of AI have been quite widely extolled (especially by those selling the tools). But are these new counselors to be trusted? How good is their advice, and is it worth paying for? Is this any different than just asking a chatbot yourself? In this article we’re going to examine how these tools work, and how they compare to a traditional human college counselor.
How AI College Counselors Work
We looked at a number of different companies which are moving to use AI tools. We aren’t going to name any directly here; our goal isn’t to call out or belittle particular companies, but instead look at general trends. These companies on the whole fall into two distinct camps:
- Established consulting companies which are moving towards a more AI-centric model
- New startups which are planning on centering their counseling model on the use of AI agents from the get-go
In most cases, you will be speaking with a counselor and an AI chatbot alike; the AI will handle the majority of your case, while the counselor will check in from time to time. The split of work taken on by the counselor and AI varies, with some companies leaning in much more to using AI agents for everything.
AI tools are being used in other places as well, and here they can be more insidious. The most alarming are the ones used to help students draft essays, the same way college counselors do. There is and remains a major difference between human writing and that generated through these models, and colleges are increasingly on the lookout for AI-generated text in students’ admissions materials. We aren’t certain how, if at all, these companies plan to address this, as no mention of it is made on their sites.Ìý
The Potential Issues With AI Counselors
We mentioned this briefly, but now we’re going to go over potential issues that come from relying on an AI counselor. These issues stem in large part from how AI works; they are simply inherent to the current state of the technology, and not something which can ever be fully controlled for or ironed out. Others are structural issues; we’ll go through each in sequence, and explain how each one can hurt your chances of college acceptance.
AI Hallucinations in Research and Advice
One of the main purposes of a college counselor is to help you research potential colleges, and give you advice on which are best suited to your needs. We help students compare colleges, give them information about special programs (like UPenn’s Jerome Fisher or Berkeley’s MET), and generally explain the nuances of college admissions.
Now, an AI can do this as well, to a point. The primary issues are twofold: that AIs are all trained on old data, and that these AI agents inevitably hallucinate. AIs are trained on existing data; that’s how it works. This means, however, that they aren’t able to keep up with recent changes; newly announced programs or ones which are shuttered are completely unknown to them. We have a dedicated researcher to keep our materials up to date, so we can always give our students the most relevant information, but AI tools aren’t able to self-update in the same way.
In addition to out-of-date information, AIs hallucinate. Even when given careful guidelines and instructions not to, they create information from whole cloth with no relation to reality. Since this is how they generate all of their results, there is no way to avoid this. This can lead to the AI counselor recommending programs which don’t exist, or facets of university life which have never been a thing. Needless to say, if you are relying on expert advice to choose which program and college are the best fit for you, you want that advice to be as accurate as possible.
AI Essay Advice and Plagiarism
College counselors walk a fine line when helping students with their essays. We are here to advise and support, to counsel, to lead students to interesting thoughts and help them frame their ideas and arguments. We don’t write essays for students; that would be unethical. We help them create the best writing they can. This is the moral thing, but it also produces what colleges are looking for: they want to know who you are, what your dreams and passions are, not those of your counselor.
While we know you would never intentionally cheat on your college essays, AI tools make it very easy to do so, no matter how many guidelines are in place. The temptation is there, driven by doubt in your own writing, stress from the application process, or the mountain of other work you have to do. A good counselor helps you manage this, making the application process something you can handle; an AI agent doesn’t have this deft touch, and can easily lead to an essay that doesn’t come from you.
AI Detector Tools
This is the other side of the previous point: colleges are increasingly wary of students using AI in their applications and essays, and are turning to detector tools to ferret this out. These tools are not perfect, but they are quite good. Many of them will, however, ping on essays that use AI in any way, from full writing to simply rewording what you wrote. This isn’t always a direct rejection from colleges, but with how important essays are in admissions (especially to top schools) it can seriously hurt your chances.
With this in mind, the issue with an AI tool assisting in your essay drafting becomes all the more apparent. Even if you just have the AI tool clean up the grammar and phrasing (something we always do with our students), it still puts its distinctive spin on it, something which is increasingly a turn-off for admissions officers. While trying to help, this could instead greatly injure your chances of admission.
Context Windows and Personalized Advice
AI agents do not have memories the way people do. They can remember specific pieces of data, but only so much (and the more they remember the more it costs). This means, inevitably, that all conversations and advice end up being somewhat generic. Now, there’s nothing wrong with generic advice; this blog is full of that, and we think it’s quite useful (and have been told as much from those who’ve found it). But there’s a difference between getting generic advice from a blog and being given generic advice from a counselor you’re supposedly working with.
One of the major benefits of working one-on-one with the counselor is how personalized the advice you get is to you and your situation. We can factor in concerns about financial aid, or location, or simple dislike of a state. We can remember comments from a brainstorming session months later when we need a topic for another supplemental. AI can do parts of it, but its adaptability and memory will always be more limited than that of a person, and it will never fully measure up.
Directly Comparing Human and AI Counselors
While we’ve discussed some of the potential downsides AI counselors can have compared to humans, we think it would be helpful to lay it all out visually as well. Here are different factors which can influence your college application experience, and how each kind of counselor impacts them:
| AI Counselor | Human Counselor | |
| Cost | Varies by company; some will have being cheaper as a selling point, while others will be just as expensive as a human counselor | Can be quite expensive, especially if you look at higher-end counselors |
| Knowledge | They know everything that’s on the internet; which includes all of the terrible advice as well as the good | Depends on their past experience, but trained professionals often have years of that |
| Experience | AI agents are designed to be agreeable. This can be quite nice, but is not what you need in college applications. You need someone to tell you how realistic your goals are, where your essay needs changing, and whether a plan isn’t working | How good a human counselor is depends entirely on the humans in question; some are quite excellent, others are far less well suited for the role. They are, however, able to give you advice specific to you, and your situation |
| Outcomes | AI counselors are a very new thing; we don’t yet know what outcomes they have. Any students working with them are, in a way, test cases | Reputable counselors keep track of their successes, and you can find them on their website or in a consultation with them. There are no guarantees, but they will let you know what you’re getting into |
What Kind of Counselor is Right for You?
The college admissions process is hard, stressful, and one of the most important things for shaping your future. It’s no wonder so many students look to third party counselors to help them with it, or that new startups in the AI sector have seen the possibility of value in this field. The task that falls to you, now, is choosing the right counselor to meet your needs.
We’ll admit right now we’re biased in this advice, but based on the rest of the article, we think our doubts about AI counselors are well-founded. This isn’t to say that all human counselors are a good fit for you, or even necessarily good at their jobs, but that AI-based counselors have significant structural issues that simply do not (or should not) occur if you work with a human.
AI is a remarkable tool, and while it does have some uses for counselors (we use it to create transcripts of our Zoom meetings, for instance), not every tool is right for every task. You may get some mileage out of using an AI tool, even a dedicated AI college counselor, but it is likely to give you advice or guidance which is worse than what you would get from a human counselor.
When reviewing potential counselors, look for ones who are able to build upon your strengths, and who can mesh with your needs and personality. Be wary of those who promise the moon; there’s nothing certain in college admissions. The best counselors tell you your odds realistically, and then give you the best possible chance to achieve your goals. You may have to meet with several to find a good fit; that’s normal. Finding the right counselor for your needs is probably the best single way to increase your odds of acceptance to a great college.
Final Thoughts
The field of college admissions changes frequently, new trends arising, new rules from various state or federal governments, or new directions colleges want to go. AI has precipitated any number of these changes, and we expect it to do more in the future. We hope that this article has given you the insight you need to understand how AI counselors work, and what they can and cannot do for you. It is in the end your choice which counselor works best for your situation; our goal here is to give you all the information you need to make an informed choice.
If you have questions about what working with us looks like, or want to see if we’re a good fit for your needs, schedule a free consultation today. We love meeting new students, and helping them find the right plan and college to fit with their aspirations.
