What generic AI gets wrong with this prompt
The curiosity essay reads as the friendliest of HBS’s three, and generic AI treats it that way — which is the mistake. Here’s what it produces.
It opens with lifelong curiosity and never lands
“I’ve always been curious about how things work” — generic AI reaches for the identity claim because identity claims are the most common opener in its training data. But a lifelong disposition is exactly what this prompt is not asking for. One example, the question says. The broader the curiosity, the less the committee learns about you.
Ask your AI — “What is the single, specific thing my draft says I was curious about? If the answer is a field or a theme instead of a question I chased, where did the draft go broad?”
It shows the interest but not the pursuit
Generic AI writes that you found something fascinating and then jumps to what you learned — because the fascination is in your inputs and the chase steps live only in your memory. Demonstrated curiosity is verbs. What did you read, ask, build, visit, break? The gap between interested and went-and-found-out is the whole essay.
Ask your AI — “List the concrete actions my draft shows me taking to pursue this curiosity, in order. Where does the trail go thin?”
It bolts on growth as a closing sentence
“This experience profoundly shaped my growth” — the model asserts the second half of the question rather than answering it, because your actual change isn’t in the text it was given. Growth that arrives only in the last line reads as a formality. The influence should be traceable — something you do or see differently now, because of the chase.
Ask your AI — “What specifically do I do or think differently as a result of this pursuit? Where does the draft show that difference, rather than announce it?”
It reaches for your oldest story
Prompted with curiosity, generic AI often digs up childhood wonder — taking apart the radio at age eight — because that’s the genre’s stock imagery. A decades-old anecdote can be a charming opening beat, but it can’t demonstrate who you are now, and this essay is evidence for a committee deciding who you’ll be in a classroom next fall.
Ask your AI — “How old was I in the main example of this draft? What has the reader learned about the person applying this year?”