Table of Contents
- Why Will a ChatGPT SOP Get You Rejected?
- Want Proof? Let’s Experiment with ChatGPT
- But It Looks Good To Me! Why Aren’t These SOPs Effective?
- Is ChatGPT Completely Useless Then?
- Ethical Dilemma: ChatGPT SOPs Are Anti-Intellectual
- Conclusion
Apparently, artificial Intelligence isn’t very smart. Really, I mean it. Not that the idea of AI is dumb — it’s redefining the future of civilization. Yet some of these AI coming out today, yeesh, they’re about as intelligent as a bag of hammers, and this is blatantly obvious to anyone who’s ever read a ChatGPT statement of purpose.
Listen, I know you thought about it. I did too! It was intimidating thinking that an AI could write brilliant SOPs in thirty seconds. I’d be out of a job! But then I did some experimenting with ChatGPT myself, and four words sprung to mind:
Banal. Boring. Completely useless.
I admit, it’s technologically impressive, watching a robot write an essay so quickly. It’s cool in the way that Atari was cool when I was a kid. But if you’ve thought about asking our diligent AI friend to write a statement of purpose for you, please, take my advice:
Don’t.
It’s a guaranteed rejection.
Let’s talk about why.
Why Will a ChatGPT SOP Get You Rejected?
There are two reasons why ChatGPT is useless for shaping graduate admissions essays. The first guarantees automatic rejection. The second just makes you look…dumb.
- It Counts As Plagiarism
Shortly after ChatGPT went superfamous in December, it took about 5 minutes for an undergrad to write a program that determines — with 99% accuracy — when a body of text has been written by AI. In fact, OpenAI has built this watermarking function into ChatGPT itself!
What does this mean for college admissions?
Universities already use AI platforms like Turnitin to detect plagiarized text. So, you can bet your application fees they’re preparing to deal with the inevitable flood of AI-written essays. The second you hit submit, they’ll flag you as a cheater.
You’d be better of flushing your application fees down the toilet.
- The SOPs Are Awful
The essays that ChatGPT writes aren’t even essays at all. They’re nonsensical “anti-writing.” They do the opposite of what a good SOP should do: persuade a committee of PhDs that you’re going to achieve unique and amazing goals in their program.
Certainly, a ChatGPT statement of purpose will be grammatically correct and follow an organized structure. But while the ability to write with good grammar may get you an A in 10th-grade English, it doesn’t qualify you for graduate study.
Intelligence does.
The problem is: these essays are are definitely, statistically “average.” They reflect the tendencies and content of far more rejected applications than accepted. After all, the AI isn’t learning off of a data set of SOPs accepted to MIT and Harvard. That’s proprietary information. The applicants and admissions offices don’t give that away. So, our AI buddy uses the only information it has…all of the thousands of bad sample essays published across the Internet.
In fact, these AI essays defy nearly ALL of my advice for writing SOPs that schools like Oxford and Stanford adore. It’s uniqueness that makes an SOP great. These ChatGPT essays are the opposite of unique. And trust me — being average is not a stellar strategy for getting admitted to your dream school.
Want Proof? The ChatGPT Statement of Purpose in Action
Let’s experiment. I’m going to give ChatGPT a series of instructions to see how well it writes an SOP. You can be the judge of the quality of the writing!
Round 1: Bad Results
Instructions given to ChatGPT:
“Write a personal statement for the Johns Hopkins University Biomedical Engineering PhD program, for a student with 3 years of undergraduate research experience in tissue engineering at Empire State University and a 4.0 GPA.”
Output:
Dear Admissions Committee,
I am writing to express my interest in pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. My passion for this field has been driven by my experiences in tissue engineering research during my undergraduate studies at Empire State University. Over the past three years, I have had the opportunity to work on various projects that have allowed me to delve into the complexities of regenerative medicine and explore innovative solutions to address unmet medical needs.
With a 4.0 GPA, I am confident in my ability to succeed academically in your rigorous program. However, what sets me apart is my hands-on experience in the field of tissue engineering and my eagerness to contribute to the advancement of this field. I am particularly interested in the cutting-edge research being conducted at Johns Hopkins and would be honored to join the team of renowned biomedical engineers in furthering our understanding of how to engineer functional tissues for clinical applications.
I believe that a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins would provide me with the resources, mentorship, and opportunities I need to achieve my career goals. I am eager to collaborate with fellow students, faculty, and industry partners to tackle the challenges of developing next-generation medical technologies. I am confident that I will thrive in the supportive and dynamic environment of Johns Hopkins and make valuable contributions to the Biomedical Engineering community.
Thank you for considering my application. I look forward to the opportunity to further discuss my qualifications and interest in the program.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Reaction:
I’m somewhat bewildered. Why does ChatGPT think a statement of purpose should be written as a letter? It must have read instructions from European universities, which call their admissions essays a “letter of motivation.”
Regardless, it is nice, clean writing, if not boring. The problem however (and this is a BIG problem, as we’ll see shortly), is that this “essay” doesn’t convey any information that isn’t already available in the 34-word instructions I provided as input.
Round 2: Better (But Still Bad) Results
New Instructions:
“Write a statement of purpose for the Johns Hopkins University Biomedical Engineering PhD program, for a student with 3 years of undergraduate research experience in immunoengineering at Empire State University, a 4.0 GPA, and a deep interest in Dr. Rachel Karchin’s work in computational immuno-oncology.”
Output:
Dear Admissions Committee,
I am writing to express my strong interest in pursuing a PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, with a focus on computational immuno-oncology under the mentorship of Dr. Rachel Karchin. My passion for this field has been fueled by my three years of undergraduate research experience in immunoengineering at Empire State University, where I have developed a deep understanding of the complex interactions between the immune system and cancer.
I am particularly drawn to Dr. Karchin’s work in computational immuno-oncology and am eager to contribute to her research endeavors. Her cutting-edge work in developing predictive models of the immune response to cancer treatments, combined with her passion for translational research, aligns perfectly with my own interests and career goals. I believe that her guidance and mentorship, as well as the resources and opportunities offered by the Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering department, will allow me to achieve my full potential as a researcher.
With a 4.0 GPA, I am confident in my ability to excel academically in your demanding program. Furthermore, I am eager to collaborate with other students, faculty, and industry partners to tackle the challenges of developing innovative treatments for cancer. I am excited by the prospect of being part of the Johns Hopkins community and contributing to its tradition of excellence in biomedical engineering.
I am grateful for the opportunity to apply for the PhD program at Johns Hopkins University and I look forward to the opportunity to further discuss my qualifications and interest in the program.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Reaction:
What’s with the letter format?! Seriously, ChatGPT, an essay is not a letter!
However, I AM quite pleased that ChatGPT structured this essay according to my advice. It must be reading WriteIvy! We’ve got a brief introduction that connects the applicant’s 3 years of undergrad research to Dr. Karchin’s work at JHU. It goes into a “Why This Program” section, then “Why I’m Qualified,” then a nice tight conclusion.
Well done, ChatGPT!
But…unfortunately…this SOP is still stupid.
As far as I can tell, in 257 words, it doesn’t convey any more information than that which I provided in the 45-word instructions. It seems (at first) like it’s elaborating on Dr. Karchin’s research when it describes her “cutting-edge work in developing predictive models of the immune response to cancer treatments.”
But is that really an elaboration? No. It’s just defining “computational immuno-oncology.” It’s not adding new information at all. It’s just fluffing things up with extra words.
Thus, it appears to me that the function of ChatGPT is to say in 250 words what a real human would say in 50. We have a word for that — “bullshitting” — and I promise you, it’s not an effective way to write, nor to get into graduate school.
But It Looks Good To Me! Why Aren’t These SOPs Effective?
As the SOP Starter Kits (for master’s and PhD applicants) teach us, an effective, persuasive statement of purpose answers 4 questions:
- What problems do you want to solve, but need more education to do so?
- Why are you interested in solving these problems?
- How will you use this program’s resources to learn to solve these problems?
- What convincing proof do you have that you’re 100% ready to pursue this goal as a graduate student?
Which of those 4 questions does our ChatGPT statement of purpose answer?
- Not at all. Not even close.
- Not really. Not in a convincing way, at least. The introduction does say the applicant has a passion for this field fueled by three years of undergraduate research experience and a deep understanding of immune system-cancer interactions. But EVERY applicant can say the same thing!
- It does state that the applicant wants to work with Dr. Karchin. But how? Solving what problems? Using which techniques or methods? A good SOP goes far beyond just naming a professor and copy-pasting her research profile.
- Uhhh…no. A 4.0 GPA and 3 years of research experience are nice, but hundreds of similar applicants get rejected every year. Again…a good SOP goes further.
Still not convinced? Compare our ChatGPT statement of purpose to this essay — arguably the best PhD SOP I’ve ever seen — and tell me which sounds more impressive to you?
One of them sounds like it was written by an absolute rock star genius. The other sounds like it was written by, well…a robot.
Is ChatGPT Completely Useless, Then?
Honestly, I was kind of impressed with ChatGPT. Though the SOPs it gave me were stupid, I think that with enough finetuning, and extremely detailed input from the user, it might actually produce a solid, C- or B-grade essay. That’s remarkable.
Yet, therein lies the problem:
The output depends on the input.
To get our little AI buddy to produce a meaningful essay, one that encapsulates all of your unique work and intelligence, one that can persuade a committee of PhDs that you’re truly special…we’d have to feed it piles of information about you and only you.
That means, to get it write an SOP that’s really, truly persuasive…we’d first have to write an SOP about you!
Ostensibly, there will come a day when you can upload your resume, tell ChatGPT to highlight 3 target professors, and draw connections between you past work and future career goals. But even then, we have two major problems.
The first is that apps like Turnitin will still flag the essay as AI-generated, and you’ll be automatically rejected.
The second problem, however, is far more serious…
Ethical Dilemma: ChatGPT SOPs Are Anti-Intellectual
It’s easy to call someone lazy, dishonest, and unethical for using an AI to write their application essays. For most folks, it looks like blatant cheating.
But…there is a curious counterargument.
Don’t we already use AI tools to speed along our work? Don’t we already use Grammarly and Quillbot to smooth out our sentences? Doesn’t computational biology itself depend on machine learning to help researchers skip billions of hours of work? Isn’t this basically what the entire field of Computer Science is trying to accomplish?
Yes.
Every day, AI gives us new methods to parse, curate, and utilize data in ways that amplify our own native intelligence. But, if you think writing your SOP is no different, then you’re starting with the wrong assumption.
This implies that you see the statement of purpose as a menial, unimportant task, an act of drudgery required for you to move beyond and get to the real work. It means you see the SOP as little different from the CV or filling out the application forms.
This is a problem.
If you feel this way, it means you’re completely ignoring the reality that you’re participating in the zero-sum game of graduate admissions. You’re competing. There are also other competitors, and you’ll all be compared based on your ability to convey meaningful, intellectual arguments. If other competitors consider the SOP as a deadly important task, yet you treat it as a menial, thoughtless drudgery…I promise you, you will not win.
Much more insidious, however: if you consider the SOP as little more than drudgery, and you believe it’s something a robot can do for you, then it means you’re abdicating intellectual responsibility.
Instead of thinking about this task, you’re choosing not to think at all.
Is this the type of scholar you are — one who’s willing to let others do the thinking? What does that say about you and your potential? Why would a graduate school admit someone who prefers to just let others do the thinking? Who’s happy to skip the hard work and take short cuts?
What would academia, and science in general, look like if everyone just skipped the hard parts? It wouldn’t be pretty. We’d look a lot more like a cargo cult than a global community of scholars.
Sure, a ChatGPT statement of purpose might be efficient. But being efficient isn’t your job. Being smart, working hard, and solving problems — that’s your job — and this essay is just one of many beautiful problems you’re going to solve in your long career.
If you want to solve problems and be a real success, then I suggest you heed the words of Jerry Seinfeld:
Conclusion
The people who created ChatGPT are geniuses. Ilya Sutskever is one of the world’s greatest deep-learning scientists. Sam Altman is one of the world’s greatest tech entrepreneurs. But the AI they created isn’t a genius, and if you use it, you’ll only make yourself look silly, while making them look even smarter.
If you want to write a stellar SOP, one worthy of admission to your dream school, then follow Jerry Seinfeld’s advice and do it the hard way, because it’s the only way.
Luckily, the hard way isn’t that hard! I’ve already given you the roadmap in the free PhD and Master’s SOP Starter Kits, as well as the Master’s SOP Formula Online Course.
Currently, there are at least 50+ PhD and Master’s students at Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and Oxford who used those resources to help them get admitted. They didn’t let ChatGPT write their essays. The chose this strategy because it’s the best way.
I hope you’ll choose it too.
Then again, if anybody wants to build an AI that only learns from successful WriteIvy essays (and can give you feedback on your first draft)…let me know. I’ll invest in your startup immediately.
—–
Are you a Master’s applicant who wants to write essays the best way?
TRY OUT THE MASTER’S SOP FORMULA ONLINE COURSE
A complete A-Z blueprint for writing brilliant statements of purpose that fill you with confidence, flood your inbox with admission offers, and launch your career as a high-achieving graduate student. As one alumnus said: “It was so detailed with all the supporting material it felt like I was working with a real coach!” Learn more here.
