AI in MBA Admissions: Your Unique Voice Beats Polished Sameness | Ep 115

In this episode of The mbaMission Podcast, mbaMission Senior Consultant Harold Simansky and Managing Director Gavriella Semaya discuss how MBA candidates can use AI responsibly when preparing their applications, without losing their unique voice. They explain that AI detectors are unreliable, offer guidance on responding to schools’ AI disclosure questions, and share that programs are increasingly using spontaneous video components to get a clearer sense of who applicants truly are.

Although AI can help with tasks such as checking grammar, performing surface-level research, and brainstorming, crafting a strong, compelling application requires judgment, perspective, and details that only the candidate can supply. To conclude the episode, Harold and Gavriella offer a straightforward way of testing whether your essays reflect your authentic self.

00:00 Why AI Can Make MBA Essays Sound Generic

01:12 Admissions Readers Notice AI Right Away

02:28 Specificity Always Beats Polished Sameness

04:32 AI Detectors Are Often Wrong

07:37 How to Describe Your AI Use for the Admissions Committee

09:29 AI’s Strengths and Shortcomings

10:44 Why Video Essays Are Increasingly Popular

12:14 How to Stress Test Your Voice

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Transcript

Why AI Can Make MBA Essays Sound Generic

Harold Simansky 0:00

What do I feel comfortable with my clients doing with AI? Listen, certainly anything you can you've been using Google to do, certainly use AI to do.

Gavriella Semaya 0:07

AI has good ideas, maybe it has creative writing ideas, but you don't want to copy it wholesale. Forever, Kellogg has had two essays, two lengthy, you know, deeply reflective essay questions, but now they're up to five video essays, none pre-recorded.

Harold Simansky 0:22

Not only video popular, but it's becoming more popular, a bigger decision point when it comes to acceptance. Today we're tackling a growth concern. How do you prove you're not AI in your MBA application? As MBA applicants lean on tools like ChatGPT and Claude, admissions committees are getting much sharper at spotting AI-generated writing, putting even genuine applicants at risk of sounding inauthentic. I'm joined by Gabriela Samaya to talk about what makes an essay read as AI written, how to stress test your own essays before submitting, and how to use AI responsibly without losing your voice. Subscribe on YouTube or follow on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Admissions Readers Notice AI Right Away

Gavriella Semaya 1:12

So one of the biggest topics in MBA admissions is AI and how it's being used both by applicants, by admissions committees, by the schools themselves, but focusing on the application, because that's obviously what we think about the most. The question I get oftentimes is how do you avoid sounding like AI? It's inevitable, it's out there, everyone is using it. The reality is that it exists, and we need to be mindful of how we how we use it. One of the things I always think of with the admissions essays is sort of singularity. It has to sound like you and no one else. And AI, by definition, surfaces the most common answer. And so I find, I don't know about you, Harold, but I find when a client sends me something, I can almost immediately tell that it's been written by AI. And I'll say, just curious, did you use AI for this?

Harold Simansky 1:59

Right. Listen, I think picking on what you just said, what makes it for a successful essay or a successful application is this notion of specificities, credibility. With this idea here of, okay, can you say something that only you can say that no one else can say? And also how granular are you? It's not just that I like fishing. It's I like fishing, uh, I like um cold water fishing, and I like in particular catching tuna. And I like the And here's why. And here's why.

Gavriella Semaya 2:27

Because

Specificity Always Beats Polished Sameness

Gavriella Semaya 2:28

I like the challenge, because the rough waters are some sort of metaphor for life. But but yeah, I think the why is something, the specificity and and the reasoning that has to come from uh an original point of view. I remember early on when ChatGPT first came out, Jeremy did an experiment where he said, write a Wharton application essay as Jeremy Scheinwald. And it was so funny. It could have been any of us. It just listed, you know, the majors on the front page of Wharton's, you know, curriculum. Um, it was so superficial. And you can imagine being an admissions director and thinking, I've read 10,000 of these. So, you know, when I think about how to use AI, it's a useful resource, but it can't replace your voice.

Harold Simansky 3:10

No, and also I tell people AI gets you to a B. At the end of the day, it can write a you know, better than mediocre. Yeah, better than mediocre, really a pretty good essay. But at the same point, the schools that most people are applying to, a B is simply not going to do it. So, what really requires you to do is everything you just said, which is sort of being specific, being singular, and the the why, and also the why being something, again, to really load up on this is very personal. It's coming from a place that, again, only you can talk about. That what and it doesn't necessarily mean it has to be overwrought. It doesn't necessarily mean it has to be self-revealing.

Gavriella Semaya 3:45

No, but you and I might have completely different, you know, values or whys for cold water fishing. I have zero interest in fishing, but if I did, it would presumably be a different sort of reasoning or point of view than you might have.

Jeremy Shinewald 3:59

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Gavriella Semaya 4:31

But let's

AI Detectors Are Often Wrong

Gavriella Semaya 4:32

talk about some of those supposed telltale takeaways, right? There's all this talk about AI detectors.

Jeremy Shinewald 4:36

Yes.

Gavriella Semaya 4:37

And from what we can tell, they're getting better, but for the most part, they're pretty terrible. I mean, I think I've had, you know, really original essays that, again, this was a specific experience that somebody had growing up in Kashmir. You know, there aren't like thousands of these out there. And it still said it was 83% AI generated. And I think the admissions committees know that. Between the sort of instinctive flat affect, if you can talk about affect in writing of an AI essay, and then knowing that the detectors are not great indicators, the admissions committees are cognizant of it. But I remember that New York Times article, um, I don't remember if it was a year ago or two years ago, that came out where they listed certain grammatical or syntactical things that supposedly were clear indicators of AI. It was overuse of M-dashes, overuse of that sentence structure of, you know, not only, but also. And I thought to myself at that time, I love a good M-dash. It can really change the tone or the cadence of an essay. I'm not going to give up M-dashes because, you know, the New York Times said it's a telltale sign, but be thoughtful about it.

Harold Simansky 5:43

Yeah. But listen, AIs are great at grammar. There's no question about it. I sometimes use them to check grammar as well. They're absolutely great at grammar. But again, finding that unique story, that is something that only you can do. And AI is not going to pop out Hemingway at the end of the day. It just unless you tell it to.

Gavriella Semaya 6:02

If you say write this essay like Hemingway, it might.

Harold Simansky 6:05

Yeah, yeah, that's true, I suppose. You know, when I write my great novel, just we'll see how far I can get with uh using AI. But at the end of the day, AI, I don't know. For me, I own there's almost this cringe factor, which is I'll read something and I'm like, like it didn't move me in any sort of way. It was just like sort of going to work. I'll read this thing. I'm like, yeah, okay, it's fine.

Gavriella Semaya 6:27

It's flat. It is so strange to me how you know, three different clients can send me totally different essays, but written with AI and the same sort of flat tone. Um, there's something robotic about it.

Harold Simansky 6:40

That's right. But I will to sort of circle back this notion of AI detectors. I had a client of mine, very nervous guy. He wrote an essay. At that point, he put it through the AI detector. Zero. It was zero percent written by AI. At that point, again, very nervous guy. He went to a different AI detector, 100% written by AI. So at that point, I finally basically said to him, Come on, Bob, you got to stop it. You're gonna make all of us crazy. And he's like, fine, I'll just put it in, send it in. He got accepted as Stanford. So at the end of the day, whether Stanford thought it was 100% written by AI or they thought it was 0% written by AI, they seemed to have liked it. And again, why did they like it? They liked it because he was telling only a story, a story that only he could tell. Um, yes, he was creative. He was creative in some unique ways, but at the end of the day, you read it and you recognize I know, I now see who Bob is. I don't have to wonder. He doesn't look like that other person two seats down.

Gavriella Semaya 7:36

Let's also

How to Describe Your AI Use for the Admissions Committee

Gavriella Semaya 7:37

talk about how the schools are starting to integrate AI into the applications and how they're reacting to it, right? One one um sort of trend that we've seen is schools including some sort of of clause or question, have you used AI in this uh in your application? And if so, how? Harvard, I think, says cite your resources, which is a strange way, in my opinion, to ask about it. But clients are often nervous. You know, do I say that I've used it? Do I check that box? And and if so, what do I say about it? And what I usually say is, you know, it almost raises suspicion if you say no, I didn't use it at all groups. But, you know, uh say yes, but I didn't use it for idea generation. I use it for grammatical checks, I use it for information, for research purposes. And I think that's that's reasonable.

Harold Simansky 8:22

Yeah, I mean, listen, there's this incredible tension here when it comes to AI. And you see it at Harvard Business School. I think Harvard Business School just told its students, hey, start with AI. When you when you start doing case prep, start with AI. So the notion here that this great business institution is gonna then ask you if you've used AI, and the expectation is you say no. It's essentially they're asking you, did you use right, did you you did you use the tool that we're suggesting you to use? Did you use something that everyone is using now? You can't really say no.

Gavriella Semaya 8:52

Right. And so many schools are priding themselves on their AI integration, right? Morton has their AI for business major now. So again, I think the other thing that was interesting is with recommendation letters, right? Um, you can't really control recommenders. The schools certainly can't control recommenders, but I remember I think it was Yale SOM that had a statement saying um, you know, we we advise against using AI and recommendation letters. And then at the bottom there was a little asterisk that said this this clause was entirely written by AI. But it it also, to your point, goes to show you like they're using it too, but in thoughtful ways.

AI’s Strengths and Shortcomings

Harold Simansky 9:29

No, listen, I I think that's right. And so what can AI do for you, actually? If you're and what do I feel comfortable with my clients doing with AI? Listen, certainly anything you can you've been using Google to do, certainly use AI to do.

Gavriella Semaya 9:42

Or spell check for that matter.

Harold Simansky 9:44

That's right, that's right. Or grammarly even. And we've even had uh one of the deans of admissions that was on our podcast earlier, she said forthrightly, we have stopped even thinking about AI. Because the real yeah, the reality is it's just another tool that students use, including, you know, admissions consultants. It's just another tool that students use. So frequently, though, what I tell folks is okay, go out there, give it a try, because I'm familiar enough with it. I know when I see it, and again, you're gonna give me something that's vanilla is something that sounds exactly like the person who gave me a previous essay.

Gavriella Semaya 10:19

And and there might be AI has good ideas, maybe it has creative writing ideas, but you don't want to copy it wholesale, right? It's something to me, I tell my clients, you can use it for inspiration. You can use it for research, but with research specifically, I always say double check it because you know the AI does hallucinate. It does hallucinate. And the last thing you want to say is mention, you know, Wharton's AI for entrepreneurship major when that's not what it's called. Right, right.

Harold Simansky 10:42

Right. No, it no, I think that's right

Why Video Essays Are Increasingly Popular

Harold Simansky 10:44

then.

Gavriella Semaya 10:44

One thing we can talk about is how schools are adapting in terms of incorporating different non-written components into their applications, right? We saw Kellogg this year, forever Kellogg has had two essays, two lengthy, you know, deeply reflective essay questions. And now they've gone to one that is very straightforward. It's essentially just, you know, what are your goals and how will Kellogg help you get there? How will you contribute to Kellogg? But now they're up to five video essays, none pre-recorded, right? That you all have to, you know, have to do them all spontaneously. And so you can see that they're getting away from things that are pre-scripted or pre-written.

Harold Simansky 11:20

No, no, yeah. In fact, not only video is it popular, but it's becoming more popular, a bigger decision point when it comes to acceptance. Which I think in many ways, that's great. At the end of the day, it allows people to really be themselves, getting back to this point again and again, again. Who are you? What motivates you? How are you different from other people? Are you specific about it? Are you singular? I love that word. Are you singular?

Gavriella Semaya 11:45

I think it's also it's interesting for international students for whom English might not be their native language to put more emphasis on the videos. And it sort of does raise the question we always tell our international clients, you know, to your point, it's it's not going to be proused. Your essay shouldn't be, you know, at a level of language that your spoken language is incongruous, right? And so the video almost forces that even more. Um, and at the end of the day, you're not going to writing school. You're going to business school. And so, you know, that's right. It's not a creative process, right? Right.

How to Stress Test Your Voice

Harold Simansky 12:14

It's not a creative writing process right now. It's a process of them getting to know you in a very genuine and authentic way. I think that's it. And is AI a tool for that or is it an obstacle for that? Well, at some point you do cross that line. There's no question about it. And and how do you know when you cross that line? It's read it out loud, give it to a friend to read, and say to them, Does this sound like me? Do you know who this person is?

Jeremy Shinewald 12:39

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