An admissions advisor recently told me that she noticed the same phrase—“tears streaming down my face”—showing up in multiple college essays. It didn’t take long to figure out why: students are using AI to write these essays despite clear instructions not to do so. This concerned me for two reasons. Writing the college essay is an exercise in reflection and intellectual development. By outsourcing this to AI, students lose out on the opportunity to understand themselves at a deeper level. Secondly, the college essay differentiates applicants in a sea of perfect GPAs, impressive extracurriculars, and high standardized test scores. With a higher number of AI-generated essays, admissions officers can’t fully scoop out a student’s authentic voice. A blanket ban on using AI to write college essays won’t fix the problem. The real issue is the prompt.
Tuesday, September 01, 2026
Pew: Young Americans grow more wary of AI as job fears rise - Gabriel Tynes, Courthouse News Service
For the first time, a majority of young adults in the U.S. say artificial intelligence leaves them more worried than enthusiastic. According to the Pew Research Center in a survey released Tuesday, 55% of adults ages 18 to 29 are now more concerned than excited over the increasing use of AI in daily life. That’s up from 47% last year and just 31% in 2021, when Pew first started asking the question. Only about one in 10 young adults say they feel more excited than worried. The shift is striking because younger people tend to use AI tools more often than older adults, yet their enthusiasm has cooled the most. Five years ago, a quarter of adults under 30 said they were more excited than concerned. Today that number has dropped to 11%.
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