Introduction
Most universities have said nothing official about AI in admissions essays. But a handful have published clear guidelines and they’re worth understanding because they represent the clearest thinking in the field right now.
Caltech: The most detailed policy
Caltech has the most thorough policy of any major US university. Its admissions office draws a sharp line between permitted and prohibited uses.
Permitted: using tools like Grammarly for grammar and spelling, using AI to generate brainstorming questions, and researching the application process. Prohibited: copying from an AI generator, using AI to outline or draft an essay, replacing your voice with AI-generated content, and notably using AI to translate an essay written in another language.
The policy offers a useful self-test: ask yourself whether it would be ethical to have a trusted adult perform the same task. Caltech explicitly asks students to be authentic.
Princeton: A strong advisory, not a formal ban
Princeton’s Dean of Admission, Karen Richardson, addressed AI directly in a blog post: “AI is not inherently bad, but I caution against it in your college application.” She adds that applicants must sign an attestation verifying the work is theirs alone. Princeton has no formal written AI policy, but its position is clear – an AI-generated essay, in the dean’s own words, is “not going to be nearly as good or authentic.”
MIT: No policy, but a clear message
MIT has not issued a formal admissions policy. But the writing faculty addressed the question directly in a widely-read admissions blog post, comparing the AI debate to the calculator debate in mathematics education. Their conclusion: for writing meant to develop communication skills, students need to do the work themselves. The implication for admissions essays is clear even if the rule is not.
Purdue: A different bet entirely
Not every school is drawing a hard line. In late 2025, Purdue University announced that starting with the Class of 2026, all undergraduates will be required to complete an AI working competency as a graduation requirement, the first university in the country to mandate AI literacy at this scale. Purdue isn’t telling applicants to avoid AI. It’s telling students they’ll be expected to use it well.
The other side: Schools using AI to read your essays
Here’s where it gets interesting. Some of the same universities asking students to write authentic essays are now using AI to evaluate them.
Virginia Tech debuted a hybrid essay review system in 2025, one human reviewer paired with an AI model trained by the university’s own researchers. The reason was scale: a record 57,622 first-year applications were submitted for fall 2025, a 10.2% increase over the previous year. Vice provost Juan Espinoza further stressed that AI confirms human scores and all final decisions are made by trained admissions professionals.
UNC Chapel Hill has gone further, and longer. Its Office of Undergraduate Admissions uses AI to generate data points on applicants’ essays and transcripts (evaluating writing style, grammar, and academic rigor), so that human readers can focus on content. Essays are scored on a scale of one to four. No admissions decisions are made by AI alone, but the scoring has been in place since at least 2019.
A practical framework
Given the range of policies, here’s a simple way to think about it:
- Use AI freely for: brainstorming angles, building an application timeline, researching programs, grammar and spell-check.
- Use AI with caution for: structural feedback and tone adjustments, only if the final writing is entirely your own.
- Don’t use AI for: generating a first draft, outlining your essay, or “improving” your voice into something smoother and blander. That’s the part that gets applications flagged.
Conclusion
The rules governing AI in college applications are still being written. Schools are figuring this out in real time, and the policies that exist today may look different next year. What will not change is the purpose of the essay itself: to give admissions readers a reason to believe that you, specifically, belong in their incoming class. No tool can do that for you.
