How to Ethically Use AI to Enhance Your Personal Statement

In the past few years, there’s been a lot of discussion around ChatGPT and other AI tools in the news. From creating content to analysing data and searching for insights on a particular topic, it’s a complete game changer to so many industries, and academia is no exception.

Many students might be tempted to use AI when it comes to writing their personal statement but worry whether doing so will be considered cheating. The answer isn’t straightforward, so here, we’ll take a look at some of the ways you can use AI to support your application in an ethical way, and enhance your chances of getting an offer.

Effective ways to use AI in your application

Brainstorming ideas

While we don’t recommend using AI to write your personal statement from scratch, it can be a useful tool for generating ideas about topics that are relevant to your chosen subject. You can then incorporate your own opinions or experiences to make them unique to you. Another idea is to ask ChatGPT to list the skills that a certain course might be looking for, so you can then think about how they apply to you.

Spotting important trends

AI is great for providing a new angle on your academic experiences too, like exploring industry trends. Digital marketing experts at Artemis Marketing explain that “AI can analyse enormous volumes of data in real-time, so they’re an excellent resource for identifying trending topics within your industry. These tools can sift through news articles, social media activity [and] search engine data…to pinpoint emerging trends before they become widely recognised.”

Refining your language

The University of Sheffield advocates the use of AI for refining your grammar and phrasing: “Generative AI can be a very useful tool to help you improve both your general and academic English. It can be used to check the correctness of your written or spoken work, give feedback on your English and as a tool to help you develop your understanding of grammar and improve your vocabulary range. You can also use it to help you prepare for different academic situations where language can be a challenge.”

If you don’t have a natural knack for writing, having AI act as your own interactive thesaurus can be a great way to boost your confidence, so you know you’re phrasing things in the right way before you submit your statement.

Keeping a consistent writing style

You want your statement to stand out, so perfecting your tone is essential. Maybe you’re striving for professionalism, enthusiasm, or perhaps you want to reflect the values and style of the institution you’re applying to. AI can be a fantastic way of maintaining a consistent writing style throughout your personal statement that fits the tone of voice you’re looking for.

The “don’ts”: Unethical uses of AI

Generating your entire statement

Naturally, the most serious misuse of AI is asking it to generate your entire personal statement through AI prompts. Not only does this fundamentally misrepresent your abilities, thoughts, and experiences, but AI-produced writing tends to be generic and formulaic, failing to capture the unique perspectives and experiences that make applications memorable and compelling. This means your statement will lack the genuine voice and personal insight that admissions committees are looking for.

Modern AI plagiarism detection tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and universities are implementing these systems to identify artificially generated content, so your AI statement will likely be caught out.

Fabricating experiences or skills

Using AI to manufacture experiences or skills you don’t really have is dishonest and goes against the very purpose of a personal statement. AI can’t verify your claims, and creating false narratives about your background, achievements, or motivations for applying for the course is fundamentally unethical.

These types of fabrications are likely to be exposed during the verification processes anyway, so it’s not worth the risk. Instead, be honest about your experience and showcase why it’s valuable to your dream university.

Losing your authenticity

It’s essential that your personal statement is authentically you, so always start your first draft yourself before utilising AI in any way, even if it’s just for ideas. This will capture your natural way of expressing ideas and the core narrative that’s exclusive to you and your experiences. Once you have this draft, you can then use AI to refine it without the risk of it becoming unrecognisable to who you are or what you want to say.

University approaches to AI in admissions

The topic of AI in university admissions is changing quickly, and institutions are still developing comprehensive policies regarding how students use artificial intelligence in their applications. A constant across institutions, however, is their focus on authenticity and their desire to understand genuine student voices and independent thought processes.

No amount of AI enhancement can substitute for genuine personal insight, authentic experiences, and the unique perspective that only you can provide. Using AI ethically as a tool for refinement rather than creation will help you take advantage of its benefits while ensuring your personal statement remains genuinely yours.