GRAND RAPIDS, Mich — The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise among students, showing up in everything from writing assignments to organizing study schedules. As the pros and cons are weighed, the latest reason to enlist a computer's help is finding ways to cover tuition.
"I think scholarships is a great example of how AI can be a double-edged sword," said Joey Sitarski, a sophomore at the University of Michigan. "It can be dangerous, but there's also a lot of benefit it can have."
In the growing world of AI, students often find themselves having it carry their workload, including scholarship essay writing. Sitarski has seen many of his classmates utilize AI in this process, raising concerns.
"I think we're now transitioning into an age where the essay is almost a little invalidated because people are just typically putting it into a prompt generator," Sitarski said. "I question at a certain point if it starts impacting the students who don't want to use AI."
Jennifer Finetti, the director of student advocacy with ScholarshipOwl, an online service, says AI has become a game-changer in this area.
"We've done a lot of surveys that show that students are using AI to write essays for their college applications," Finetti said. In response, the company created an AI assistant to guide students through the scholarship essay writing process.
"When students generate an essay draft with our AI essay assistant, it's actually going to be relevant to the essay prompt, and it's going to be relevant to the student because we pull information from the students' profile and include that in the essay," Finetti explained.
However, Greg Goglin, the director of cybersecurity and data science at Ferris State University, emphasizes the importance of maintaining the human element in successful scholarship essays.
"It's an advancement in technology, but it doesn't necessarily create a better essay," Goglin said. "You're not going to get that kind of a personal response, necessarily, that's accurate and really heartfelt from generative AI."
Finetti says the key is to not leave the essay up to the computer entirely. "We actually require students to edit their essay before they submit it, so they're not able to just hit send," she said. "It really benefits the student to customize that essay and make it their own."
For students like Sitarski, it will be a balancing act between pride and production. "I wish I had something like that in the beginning of my scholarship writing days," he said.
Professor Goglin warns students to be cautious as they utilize AI tools in the future.
This story was initially reported by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy
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