AltruBot: A Pocket-Sized College Essay Advisor
Daunted by college applications, 17-year-old Angel Nicole V. Iniego turned to ChatGPT to create an accessible and affordable college essay advisor.
Angel Nicole V. Iniego
It was towards the end of my junior year of high school that I realized I would have to start my college application essays soon. I was filled with dread. What would I talk about in my essay? Which prompt would I pick? Would my story be strong enough to stand out? Although I had been preparing for the challenges of college applications throughout high school, I was left feeling intimidated.
Around the same time, generative AI was taking the world by storm with the recent release of ChatGPT. I was first introduced to ChatGPT on my seventeenth birthday over burgers and fries. My research advisor encouraged my friends and I to prompt ChatGPT to create a poem. It generated a poem about a frog. Then, we asked it to turn the poem into a song complete with chord progressions. The results were mind-blowing!
Right then, I realized that ChatGPT would be a game-changer for education. Faced with the stress of college applications, I put on my entrepreneurial hat and thought, “How can generative AI aid in college essay preparation?” This idea set the foundation for AltruBot, my summer internship project completed through the Research Science Institute (RSI) program at MIT under the mentorship of the MIT App Inventor lab.
Building a Personal College Essay Advisor
Screenshots from AltruBot, an app that uses generative AI to guide students through writing essays for college applications.
AltruBot is an app that generates outlines for college essays. Using MIT App Inventor’s drag-and-drop blocks and ChatBot component, I brought the concept to life in six weeks with invaluable support from my mentor, David Kim. My vision was to build an AI writing tool with the specific role of a “college essay advisor.” To fine-tune its functionality, I modified it to focus on generating essay outlines.
Once the user interface was polished, we tested AltruBot. We invited current college students who had previously written their college essays without the help of ChatGPT. They were asked to compare their essay-writing experience before and after using AltruBot. Using qualitative and quantitative parameters, we were able to gather interesting results.
We found that AltruBot helped students get started with writing their essays and assisted in providing structure to their work. However, the college students mentioned that the AI-aided essays lacked a human voice.
Overcoming the Anxiety of College Applications
When college application season began, some of my friends came to me for help with their essays. It was the perfect opportunity to showcase AltruBot! One friend said that she didn’t know how to start and was considering abandoning her application altogether. I urged her to try AltruBot. When she told AltruBot about her experience playing chess, it suggested that she select a specific chess match to write about, and make analogies between her sacrifices in the game with the sacrifices she made to succeed academically. With support and feedback from AltruBot, she was able to finish writing an essay that beautifully captured her story! I was overjoyed to see that AltruBot helped my friend succeed in her college application journey.
“I was overjoyed to see that AltruBot helped my friend succeed in her college application journey.”
AltruBot offers a potential solution to the universal challenge of college essays. What initially began as a solution to my personal problem ended as a collaborative journey through college applications and AI. Working on real problems with nuanced technologies like AI can be daunting, but what makes it more manageable is the collective effort towards a better future. By channeling my passion for altruistic, technology-driven solutions, I hope to continue addressing real-world challenges and bringing solutions to those who need them most.
