Coaching for Personal Writing
About
Team: Aidan Z. Fitzsimons, Dr. Liz Gerber, Dr. Duri Long
As more students turn to general-purpose AI tools like large language models (LLMs) to help draft college application essays and job applications, questions arise about how these technologies shape student voice, access, and self-expression. Many students—especially those without access to personalized college coaching—are experimenting with AI to receive writing feedback, generate ideas, or polish their essays. Our research aims to understand these emerging practices and design tools that better support students’ development, authenticity, and agency in the college admissions process.
So far, our findings suggest that AI tools can both help and hinder students. Some students use these tools to gain confidence or refine their writing, while others find that AI can push them toward overly generic, emotionally exaggerated, or identity-reducing narratives. Our academic research highlights how LLMs can reinforce cultural storytelling patterns—such as “overcoming adversity” tropes for marginalized identities—and how access to high-quality support is unevenly distributed.
Publications
Fitzsimons, A.Z., Gerber, E., and Long, D. (2025, June). AI constructs gendered struggle narratives: Implications for self-concept and systems design. In Proceedings of the 2025 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, (pp. 2290-2301). https://doi.org/10.1145/3715275.3732156
Fitzsimons, A.Z., Gerber, E., and Long, D. (2025, June). Pressure to use AI for college admissions: implications for adolescent self-concept and intelligent coaching design. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Creativity and Cognition, (pp. 975-987). https://doi.org/10.1145/3698061.3726909