[82lsju]

I have a friend who is an English Lit professor (not at Stanford)
He & colleagues are struggling with how to detect & prevent students from using AI to write their papers.
Anyone know what Stanford admissions doing in regard to application essays?
If no effective detection in place it diminishes the relevance of essays in my mind.

I now no longer assign any out-of-class writing.  All essays are written in class.  I do not allow electronic devices in the classroom.  And if you think this is harsh--the students seem to like it, based on their evaluations.  AI has indeed destroyed the term paper.  But maybe the term paper deserved to be destroyed.

As far as Stanford admissions essays are concerned, there is more to worry about than AI.  Professional essay writers abound, and thousands of successful applicants post their essays online after they are admitted. 

I am of the opinion that interviews are superior to essays since they assure a degree of authenticity.  But yes, they are subjective.  Every single aspect of the admissions process is subjective.  Even "quantitative" test scores are subjective, since it is a subjective debate as to whether they carry any meaning or predictive value.  But at least with the interview, the evaluator is subjectively reacting to something that is real, as opposed to an essay reader subjectively reacting to something that may be fake.

Spoken as a former Stanford essay admissions reader.  (But very long ago.)

if they would interview all applicants finding people to do ~55,000 interviews might be challenging, as well as having any sort of uniform reporting/grading of the interviews.  Maybe they do a "first cut" to weed out the obvious "no" applicants to cut down on the number of interviews....

[82lsju]

I have a friend who is an English Lit professor (not at Stanford)
He & colleagues are struggling with how to detect & prevent students from using AI to write their papers.
Anyone know what Stanford admissions doing in regard to application essays?
If no effective detection in place it diminishes the relevance of essays in my mind.

I now no longer assign any out-of-class writing.  All essays are written in class.  I do not allow electronic devices in the classroom.  And if you think this is harsh--the students seem to like it, based on their evaluations.  AI has indeed destroyed the term paper.  But maybe the term paper deserved to be destroyed.

As far as Stanford admissions essays are concerned, there is more to worry about than AI.  Professional essay writers abound, and thousands of successful applicants post their essays online after they are admitted. 

I am of the opinion that interviews are superior to essays since they assure a degree of authenticity.  But yes, they are subjective.  Every single aspect of the admissions process is subjective.  Even "quantitative" test scores are subjective, since it is a subjective debate as to whether they carry any meaning or predictive value.  But at least with the interview, the evaluator is subjectively reacting to something that is real, as opposed to an essay reader subjectively reacting to something that may be fake.

Spoken as a former Stanford essay admissions reader.  (But very long ago.)

if they would interview all applicants finding people to do ~55,000 interviews might be challenging, as well as having any sort of uniform reporting/grading of the interviews.  Maybe they do a "first cut" to weed out the obvious "no" applicants to cut down on the number of interviews....