Can ChatGPT write, or at least improve your medical school application? Artificial
intelligence tools are taking the world by storm, and medical school admissions
is not immune. Here’s the good and bad of how AI is already changing med school apps,
and how you need to prepare. Dr. Jubbal, MedSchoolInsiders.com.
Medical schools have not yet fully adopted AI in the admissions process, but it will continue to be
integrated as the software continues to develop. AI is an impressive tool for categorizing high
volumes of information, and it does appear to be effective at choosing strong candidates.
However, medical schools do need to be wary of implementing AI too quickly,
as it’s possible AI could have ingrained biases. After all, AI is still developed by human beings,
and human beings are inherently biased. It will take a few application cycles to
understand the impact of AI tools on medical school admissions, so students applying soon
likely do not need to worry too much about it right now. However, things
may evolve by the time they reach residency. On the student side, AI tools could potentially
help with the many essays you need to write during the application process. However,
it’s unlikely this ability will revolutionize the application process, as personal statements are,
as the name suggests, incredibly personal. It’s not your way with words that will get
you noticed by admissions committees; it’s your authenticity and unique story.
Adcoms are not looking for poets or novelists. They’re looking for qualified candidates who
possess a strong work ethic coupled with integrity and maturity. While AI tools can help get your
essays started, relying on them exclusively will have you sounding generic and, in a word, robotic.
AI tools could help level the playing field for premeds who can’t afford personalized
essay editing services. However, given the extremely personal nature of medical
school essays, AI can only help so much. The same is true of bots like Grammarly and
other spell checking tools. Grammarly can help ensure your grammar and spelling are correct,
but you cannot rely on it exclusively. Even simple grammar editing tools make
mistakes and can give wrong suggestions. It’s up to you to look at the suggestions,
consider them, and choose which corrections are accurate based on the context of your writing.
Bots do not have a concept of self-perception, nor will they understand how the personal
statement fits in the larger context of your application’s overall narrative. Your
application essays will come off both basic and robotic if you rely heavily on AI. In many cases,
at least for now, what an AI tool writes may require so much editing on your part that you
are better off simply writing it yourself. Strong applicants are unique applicants. AI
tools can't tell your story for you, and they rob you of your own voice. If you are using the tools
to come up with your story, you're going to have a hard time during the next phases of the process
as you continue to answer questions about your journey in secondary applications and interviews.
The best applicants see every single piece of the application process as one more opportunity to
stand out and win over admissions committees. Since ChatGPT and other AI writing tools
are relatively new, it’s unlikely admissions committees are utilizing technology to detect if
your essays are written by an AI. However, these tools are far from perfect, and as AI writing
software improves, so will AI detection software. Assume admissions committees have plagiarism
software and will continue to invest in it as time goes on. Where there’s smoke,
there’s fire. By that same token, where there’s AI writing tools, there’s AI detection software.
Beyond detection software, you also run the risk of having a personal statement that’s too similar
to someone else’s. If you are using software to cut corners, there’s a good chance other premeds
are doing the same. This can result in a number of personal statements that share similar themes,
stories, and sentence structure. It’s possible the similarities may trigger a
program’s plagiarism detection software. If it's not caught in the early phases,
it could be during interviews. You won't be able to speak as clearly about your personal
journey and extracurriculars if you weren't the one who wrote about them. Everything you
include in your application is fair game to be asked about. If you’re unable to speak
about an experience you detailed on your application, that’s an automatic red flag.
However, an admissions committee’s plagiarism software should not be your concern;
all you need to be concerned about is presenting your authentic self
and delivering your application with integrity. A doctor’s code of ethics is sacred. If you’re
going against the core values of what it means to be a doctor before you even get
into medical school, that’s a big problem. Bending or breaking the rules of the medical
profession to become a part of it does not bode well for your future career.
The medical school application process is difficult for a reason. If it’s too easy,
people will be blindsided by the difficulty of medical school. It takes hard work, dedication,
and grit to succeed during the long and arduous application process. The difficulty
of applying is an indicator of whether or not you can handle the rigors of medical school.
There are no hard rules against using AI yet,
but they may be on their way. ChatGPT is relatively new on the scene. It's likely
some schools will make it a policy that you can't use AI to write your essays.
While it would be difficult for schools to enforce this rule, they may be able
to do so with detection software. If you get sloppy about using AI writing tools,
there could be clues that you didn't write it yourself, and you could face consequences.
Check the rules of each school you apply to, and always fall back on the instructions they provide.
If you’re not applying to medical school until a future application cycle, the rules around using
the tools is something to keep your eye on. How AI will be used by admissions committees and the
rules around how students can utilize these tools will continue to evolve in the years to come.
Using AI isn’t all bad. In some ways, it may level the playing field for people who can’t
afford to pay for essay editing services or for those whose upbringing puts them
at a disadvantage when it comes to the English language or writing in general.
These tools can synthesize and organize information, give you ideas for how you
might tell your story, and help with potential sentence structure. But if you use it for class
work and rely on it to write your essays for you, you’re using it wrong. Plug in
beats from the story you want to tell and see how things go. But don’t stop there. Work with the
language and adapt it to your own voice. The story must feel like it's authentically you.
AI tools may also help you save time in other areas of your life, such as emails
and other correspondence, so that you have more time to dedicate to your application.
If you believe AI software will magically generate a persuasive personal statement
without you having to lift a finger, you’re sadly mistaken. Successful personal statements and
medical school essays are authentic. Admissions committees want to see the real you. If you let
a robot do the talking for you, it defeats the purpose. You’re much more likely to come off as
bland and generic as opposed to uniquely you. If AI can successfully and unbiasedly get more
applications sorted in a faster amount of time, that’s a win. It can free up time
for adcoms to further develop other aspects of the application process, like interviews.
On the student side of things, both premeds and medical students need to tread carefully when it
comes to utilizing AI tools for writing. You may be able to use them effectively for synthesizing
notes, drafting correspondence, social media posts, and other simple forms of writing,
but your personal statement is not something you want to cut corners on.
Ultimately, medicine and medical school admissions are still highly human endeavors,
and there are no effective shortcuts. While AI has its place as a tool, it’s easy to be seduced
by unrealistic expectations of its utility. Admissions committees are made up of people,
including doctors, who want to select candidates that will be assets to the incoming medical school
class, and ultimately become great physicians. One of the most powerful ways to wow adcoms is
with a cohesive narrative-based approach to the application, whereby all aspects of your med
school app - from your personal statement, to work & activities, to secondaries, interviews,
and more, all align with your central story. The narrative-based application is what we
specialize in at Med School Insiders, and is what we’ve used to help over 6,000 successful
applicants get into their dream programs. Putting your best foot forward is mission critical in
the competitive landscape of medical school admissions, and even more so if you’re aiming
for a top program or you want to earn merit-based scholarships to reduce your loan burden. If you
want to work with a real physician who has actually served on medical school admissions
committees, who can help coach and guide you on how to stand out and earn the adcom’s approval,
visit us on MedSchoolInsiders.com. There’s a reason we’ve become the fastest growing company in
the space and earned industry-leading satisfaction ratings. We’d love to help you not only become a
future physician, but surpass your expectations of yourself in the process of doing so.
Thank you all so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, check out our playlist on
artificial intelligence in medicine and medical school. Much love, and I’ll see you all there.