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Editor’s Note: I’m Brian Fobi, founder of Gurufi.com, where my team and I help applicants craft compelling, authentic MBA and graduate-school essays. At Gurufi, we help clients “un-AI” their essays, but for people who can’t afford our services, we’re writing this series of free blog posts with tips, pitfalls to avoid, and insights I’ve gained from helping MBA applicants for the last 19 years.
In the first part of this series, I discussed the danger you put yourself in if you use A.I. to write your personal statement. TLDR: schools are now far better equipped to detect inauthentic or machine-generated work and for the first time, they’re all expressing that they’re worried about this. But even if detection didn’t exist, even if no one ever checked, there’s a deeper reason why you shouldn’t use AI to write your personal statement: they create crappy essays.
They’re not good. They are not personal. They are not insightful. They are not you.
When a Personal Statement works, it feels like the reader has met you. You’re on the page; I know what you value, and I get a sense of your personality. A great personal statement illuminates who you are as a thinker, a leader, a colleague, and a human being. They’re supposed to reflect the hard work of clarifying your values, your mistakes, your growth, your ambitions, and the inflection points that shaped you. AI cannot supply any of that.
Let’s dive into why.
AI Is Designed to Produce “Average,” Not Exceptional, Writing
A common misconception is that AI produces strong writing because the surface-level polish is so clean. No grammatical errors, clear structure, relatively sophisticated vocabulary… that’s a great essay, right? Well, for many applicants, AI-generated text feels like “good writing.” But here’s the uncomfortable truth that most people don’t realize: AI is engineered to generate statistically average text.
Large language models are not trained to write the most original, insightful, or emotionally rich response. They are trained to predict the next most likely word, given everything they’ve seen before. The result is a polished but generic essay that mirrors thousands of other essays written by applicants with the same goals, aspirations, and experiences. By definition, and through the structures of these algorithms, AI creates average, forgettable essays.
In the course of doing the GMATClub MBA Podcast, I’ve spoken with admissions officers from most of the top schools, and while some remain a bit guarded about their exact techniques for AI-detection, what they all say is that admissions officers can detect AI-produced writing from a mile away. They’ll tell you that AI essays sound smooth but empty; they “check all the boxes” but say nothing new; they lack genuine vulnerability or specificity; and they feel formulaic, even when they are technically correct. It's oatmeal, unbuttered toast, unseasoned chicken. You forget about these bland, indistinguishable, and rote essays the moment you put them down.
The core reason is that AI is a powerful tool that offers shortcuts for tedious, repetitive work. But, most of the important work for a personal statement comes before you begin typing out your first draft. At their core, these essays want to know who you are as a leader, and why? What experiences shaped your goals? What motivates your professional trajectory? How have your successes and failures taught you something real?
To get at these questions, you need to do some hard thinking. It requires reflection, self-examination, and the kind of uncomfortable assessments about your life and goals that an AI can’t do. When I work with clients, I urge them to do some brainstorming exercises that are designed to produce insights that you may not have previously known you had!
Admissions officers don’t want a well-crafted paragraph. They want evidence that you’ve thought deeply about your purpose, your direction, and your identity. Without that work, even the prettiest writing collapses under scrutiny.
The Process Matters: Reflection Produces Your Best Material
The most damaging misconception about AI in essay writing is the belief that the final text is what matters most. It’s not. The process of thinking—really thinking!!!—about your story is what unlocks the insights that separate winning essays from the rest.
When clients come to us for help with their essays, the most important work is not the writing itself; it’s digging into their story, asking pointed questions, and putting them in a spot that forces them to think beyond their prepared, canned answers. That’s where the gold is!
We recognize that not everybody can afford our services, and if that’s you, please check out the video about brainstorming above. When I work with clients one-on-one it’s the thing that they often express the most skepticism about, but afterward it’s what they said helped their essays the most! In addition, before you start writing, also grab a notebook and just sketch some ideas for the following questions, as the answers your produce for yourself will often help you to craft a compelling personal statement:
- Tell me about a moment you realized you were leading, not following.
- What was the setback that taught you resilience?
- Tell me about a value you didn’t know you held until it was tested.
- Tell me about an unexpected influence that shaped your worldview. Could be a person, thing, event, accomplishment, or place.
- Give me the exact experience that crystallized your post-MBA goals.
If you found that valuable, dig even deeper by jotting down notes in response to these questions:
- What was the hardest decision you made in the last five years, and why?
- When did you first demonstrate leadership in a way that surprised you?
- What’s a moment you’re proud of that very few people know about?
- What has failure taught you about your own strengths or blind spots?
- How did you choose your long-term goal, and what events led you there?
- Which experience fundamentally changed the way you see the world?
- What is something you struggled with that shaped your professional identity?
When clients go through this process, the transformation is immediate. Their stories sharpen.
Their insights deepen, and they are ready to write a fantastic essay that moves the needle. Never just start with the promptsfor the schools you’re interested in. Begin by doing the work of clarifying your thoughts, goals, and aspirations!
If you want expert help bringing your personal statement to life, consider working with us at Gurufi.com. For more than 15 years, we’ve helped thousands of applicants craft authentic, compelling, and original essays that stand out for their clarity and insight. Whether you need brainstorming support, structural guidance, or a full revision, our team of experienced editors can help you produce work that truly reflects who you are.
In Part III, we’ll look at how AI can be used responsibly and powerfully to enhance your writing without compromising authenticity, ethics, or voice.
