Want To Get Into A Top College? Better Crush The Essay

With affirmative action outlawed, and use of SATs in decline, selective colleges are paying ever more attention to essays. ChatGPT poses a challenge.

_{By Emma Whitford, Forbes Staff}

Seventeen-year-old senior Ethan Rivera is finding the college application season at his Livingston, New Jersey high school stressful—and competitive. “It’s very hostile,” he says, “everybody’s on top of each other about their own process.” One question students pester each other with: What did you write about in your essay?

It’s with good reason that students are particularly focused on the personal essay this year, because some of the most desirable colleges are, too. When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in June, Chief Justice John Roberts left open one window through which colleges can still consider race in their admissions decisions—if a student chooses to write about “how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”