LifeLaunchr

The The New York Times had a piece recently on what AI is doing to writing and creativity. It's worth your time.

The short version: when students write in their own words, even imperfectly, the ideas are better. More original. More interesting. AI-polished writing tends to iron all of that out.

This is why Soar, our new AI college and career planning assistant, keeps counselors and mentors in charge of the writing process. AI can support students. It shouldn't be doing their thinking for them.

Your student's essay needs to sound like your student. Full stop.

Read the piece: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/27/opinion/writing-creativity-ai.html

Here's a tip I keep giving and students keep ignoring.

Don't use fancy words just to sound smart in your college essay. Admissions officers know exactly when a student is trying too hard. It doesn't impress them. It makes the writing feel fake.

The best essays sound like the actual person who wrote them. Clear. Specific. Real.

Strong ideas in plain language beat weak ideas dressed up every single time.

If your student is working on essays this summer, now is the time to get the foundations right. Visit https://www.lifelaunchr.com/ and schedule a free initial consultation.

My latest Substack is about something I think about a lot: the difference between a tool that seems useful and one that students will actually use.

When I built Soar, I wasn't trying to build something impressive. I was trying to build something that works at 10pm when a student is stuck and their counselor isn't available.

The hard part of that is invisible to most people. That's what the post is about.

Worth a read if you're a parent, a student, or anyone who works in this space: https://open.substack.com/pub/swamistakeoncollege/p/the-switch-on-the-wall-the-hard-part?r=u1kmb&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web