I work in university admissions and the programs require a motivation letter. While absolutely hating writing Cover letters or motivations myself, I do see the advantages for admission (although I absolutely hate the system).

Mainly it is a great way to give applicants with weaker grades a shot. And a good motivation letter where I get a feeling for who they are will put them almost always automatically higher in my recommendations. However, I am so sick of the same ChatGPT motivation. And it is always the same. Oh you honed your ability to do this? Your drawn because of that? I have read your letter 50 times before. And I don’t mean the contents. Let’s be real, most do not have an inspiring story about why they want to study, and that is okay, the program sounding good is a perfectly valid reason. But show me who you are (or what you want me to think who you are). I really developed an adverse reaction to these AI letters. I hate them because I know I’m reading a robots “thoughts”. By all means use the tools available to polish but don’t polish out your personality.

This will lead to motivation letters being abolished. And while for most people that’s great and a CV should speak for itself it will remove chances to get into a prestigious program for people who are not perfect or had the luck to grow up rich.

Thank you for that link!

It’s so weird, that you can’t even buy it here. Hopefully they add it again soon.

I only got robbed once in my life.

First day of vacation, the sun is shining and I’m walking down a street in Porto. Bakeries are advertising their freshly baked goods. Happily I enter one, see above sign, chuckle and proceed to buy one of these delicious looking pastries. I leave the bakery, in my hands is a pastel de nata. Tasty. With a big smile I continue my walk down the street. I turn my head and admire some flowers. Then it hits me. Quite literally. Something hit me in my face, and the bag of pastries is pulled out of my hands. I stand there, baffled. The people around me stare at me. I look at my hands, still trying to process what happened. The dude next to me stares at me, I look at him, looking for my pastry. He points at a seagull. There I see it: a freaking seagull flying away with my pastry. It dived down, mid flight and stole the bag I held in my hands. The hit in my face was its wing. I got robbed by a seagull.