if your experience is coming from teaching college freshmen, then that's a sample that's significantly above average among high school graduates. I think only about 1/2 of all high school graduates go on to further their education, and that includes community colleges.

and I agree with your assessment -- while it's true that in a long conversation, chatgpt veers off and doesn't keep a coherent line of thought, it is not noticeably worse than the average conversation I have with people.