The advent of AI tools like ChatGPT has caused waves in college admissions, as students use them to research school and draft essays, and more and more colleges take strong stances against their usage. Recently, however, a new use of these tools, and a new problem caused by this use, has arisen: using AI tools to write . It is easy to understand why parents and students are turning to these tools, but it is equally clear why doing so is a mistake. We鈥檝e written about financial aid appeals before, but in this article, we鈥檙e going to discuss how new AI tools impact these letters, the issues that they cause when they鈥檙e used this way, and how you should approach your own financial aid appeals. Let鈥檚 jump right in!
Why Parents Turn to AI Tools for Financial Aid Appeals
Every college and university is required by law to allow students and parents to request a re-evaluation of their financial aid award in light of changing personal circumstances. Thai is tied to being able to access federal aid dollars, which no school wants to lose. Each school has their own specific process for this, but they generally involve reaching out to the financial aid office in question and submitting a letter detailing what鈥檚 gone wrong, and documentation supporting the claim.
The novel twist in this arrangement is that interested parents and students are increasingly using AI tools to compose their appeal letters. The reasons for this are multifaceted; each person who uses the tools has their own. Broadly, however, they make writing text easier and faster, even if the text that鈥檚 created has significant holes in it. If parents are expecting a rejection for their appeal anyway, then there is a 鈥渨hy not?鈥� sort of approach. After all, what鈥檚 the worst that can happen?
This is somewhat sensible on face value, especially for those parents who did not attend college themselves, and who see AI tools as a legitimate source of knowledge; something the companies which make these tools are quick to promote. Faced with an overly byzantine system, why not turn it all over to machines and hope for the best.
This, unfortunately runs into many of the problems inherent with these generative tools. Just as essays written with generative AI tend to have significant structural and quality issues, so too do these appeals often lack core components that financial aid officers need; we鈥檒l examine how that happens next.
The Issues With AI-Generated Financial Appeal Letters
Anyone who has used AI generation tools knows that it can make some very flowery language, but often has a tenuous connection with reality at best. This is one of the primary issues when asking these tools to write a letter for you. These letters need to be direct, cover all necessary information, and clearly specify how your changed circumstances require more aid.
The letters financial aid offices are getting now, in contrast, are frequently extremely vague. They are written to convey urgency, but don鈥檛 include the needed details; what exactly happened, what sort of funding is no longer available, and just how much more aid they might need.
In addition to these, AI does have a known issue of inventing information. Even if all of the information a family puts in is correct and complete, the AI can change it, sometimes drastically. This is due to how the generative AI works; it isn鈥檛 a malicious thing, but an inevitable result of how it processes and outputs data. In these cases, however, where every detail matters a lot, this can lead to incorrect assessments, or even fully incorrect data going to aid offices.
Because aid offices are obligated to process these requests, and because financial aid officers mostly want to help students, this leads to a significant increase in back-and-forth communications between these offices and families as they try to clarify this information. What may have been resolved in a single well-written letter can now take two or three, each of which must be parsed; and if AI is used in subsequent letters as well, issues can grow and compound upon each other.
The ease of using AI to generate letters is also inducing more students to send them in, hoping for some extra aid. This is an understandable impulse, especially given how expensive college is, but creates even more work for an already overstretched aid office.
How much any particular college is impacted depends on their own methods of handling aid appeals. Those who have dedicated forms to fill out with needed attachments have seen a much smaller increase in appeals, while those who accept requests via email have seen far more come in.
Those colleges who have seen a marked increase in appeal volume are now dealing with significant delays answering these appeals, both those written with the help of AI and those which aren鈥檛. This can be quite stressful for students and parents, since the choice of which school to attend is quite often impacted heavily by how much aid is forthcoming, and until an appeal is answered, there鈥檚 no way to know the number.
How This Impacts You
It is entirely understandable why you may want to appeal your financial aid offer, and why so many turn to AI when doing so. We hope that the above sections have highlighted the issues that arise from doing this; while AI can save time in the short term, in the long run it just makes more work for both you and the financial aid office.
Here are the steps you should take if you are interested in appealing your financial aid award, and want the best chance of having it granted. There are no guarantees of course, most appeals are denied, but these are the steps we follow with the families we work with:
Read each school鈥檚 guidelines. What each college accepts as reasons for an appeal, and the documentation they need, differ slightly. While the broad strokes are the same, the specific information you need to get them matters. You can generally write one letter and edit it for each school, but you will need to edit it, sometimes substantially, if you are appealing your aid awards at multiple schools.听
Be clear and direct in your letter. Colleges will outline exactly what information they need to complete an appeal. Provide them with that information; what has changed in your circumstances, or not been considered, and why does that warrant a reconsideration of your aid award. Be explicit with what you want and what you need from them.
Include supporting documentation. Most colleges explicitly require this. If you want your appeal to be granted, you will need to include documentation for what has changed in your financial circumstances. These can be submitted as pdfs, but any point you make in your appeal letter should have proof to back it up.
Anticipate failure. Most financial aid appeals are rejected. This is especially true if you are just sending out appeals in the hopes that they reconsider, without significant new material to report. The financial aid offices want to help students, but at most colleges there is only limited aid available, and they are unable to assist everyone, even though they want to.听
Communicate promptly. If you followed the above steps, then the office should have all of the information they need to process your appeal on the first review of it. On the chance that they do not, be sure to communicate with them promptly to supply any additional information they may need from you.
Final Thoughts
Colleges are expensive, and so appealing the financial aid awards they provide is often a final hope for families, a chance to escape some of the crushing costs of tuition. It is understandable that parents may turn to AI for assistance in this, but we hope that this article has shown why this is a mistake, and what measures you can take instead to improve your chances.
If you are looking for advice on applying to universities generally, or building a list of schools which maximizes your chances of getting an aid award, then 吃瓜官网 can help. Our mentors are experts at every aspect of the admissions process, and are highly skilled at finding the right schools to fit each student鈥檚 particular needs, from desired major to need for aid. Schedule a free consultation today to learn how we can help you.
