AI Use in College Essays: What Top 30 Admissions Offices Will (and Won’t) Allow

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the landscape of college admissions. (And the world! But we’re focused on admissions.) Students are turning to AI for help with brainstorming, structuring, and even writing their essays (which we will never support—but more on that later).  

In an effort to provide clarity on their admissions expectations, and to make sure your work is your own, many colleges are instituting AI policies. We know it’s hard to keep track of which schools allow it, which schools forbid it, and which allow it only within certain parameters, so we put together this list of AI policies from the top 30 colleges and universities to help you understand your options. 

For the tl;dr version, scroll to the chart at the bottom of the article. 

Reminder: Please double-check all school websites directly as these policies are changing all the time; although we try our best to keep up with current policies, we are also busy working one-on-one with students!

What do the top 30 American universities say about AI? 

1. Princeton University

Though Princeton doesn’t have an official AI policy on the date of this publication, admissions does remind applicants that you must check a box on your application saying your work is yours alone. 

2. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT has no official AI policy. Keep checking their website in case this changes! 

3. Harvard

Harvard has no official AI policy at the time of posting. Check back for updates! 

4. Stanford

While Stanford has no official AI policy as of the time of writing, it does have guiding principles, which include an “AI golden rule,” which is to, “use or share AI outputs as you would have others use or share AI output with you.” 

5. Yale

Similarly, Yale has no official AI policy yet, but admissions reminds applicants that you must sign a statement affirming that your work is your own—and submitting work written by AI would be a violation. In this article and podcast, they reiterate that the goal of the personal statement is to share about yourself, not to demonstrate your advanced writing skills, and AI can’t write a personal essay about your life nearly as well as you can (if at all!). 

6. California Institute of Technology

CalTech’s AI policy includes this helpful page, Ethical Use of AI Guidelines for Fall 2025 Applicants, which specifies how applicants may or may not use AI. Applicants may use AI to do research, pose brainstorming questions, or check grammar and spelling. Applicants may not use AI to outline the essay, draft text, or translate the essay from another language. As a general rule, CalTech suggests that AI can do anything you’d ask an adult to help you with; for example, you might ask your mom to check your spelling, but you wouldn’t ask her to write a whole draft for you (we hope!). Like many other schools, CalTech reminds you that your goal in your essay-writing is to be authentic and creative.

7. Duke

Duke has no official AI policy yet, but they have included “unauthorized use of AI” as a form of cheating in their Academic Dishonesty policies. Notably, admissions has decided to stop scoring admissions essays based on writing style, and now focuses on content and insight into who the unique person is behind the application; they say they can no longer trust that the essay is a reflection of a student’s writing ability.

8. Johns Hopkins

Johns Hopkins has no official AI policy for applicants; however, in their Admissions FAQ, they echo CalTech, suggesting you use AI exactly as you would a human: You may use it for help putting together your application, but you should not be copying and pasting AI-generated content into your essay. Like other schools, they emphasize the importance of authentic self-expression and original ideas—things you can’t get from AI alone. 

9. Northwestern

By now, you know what to expect: Northwestern has no official AI policy at the time of writing, but does mention unauthorized AI use as a form of cheating in their Basic Standards of Academic Integrity, so you can draw your own conclusions from that stance.  

10. University of Pennsylvania

UPenn has no official AI policy at the time of posting. Check back later! 

11. Cornell

Cornell’s policy allows limited use of AI. They emphasize that the essays are a place to share “your words, your voice, your story,” so admissions can get to know you. Like CalTech, they urge ethical use of AI, meaning you may use AI to research schools, brainstorm topics, and check grammar and spelling. You may not use AI to outline your essay, draft content, translate your essay from another language, or create images for a portfolio. 

12. University of Chicago

UChicago offered no official AI policy at the time of writing. Keep checking their website for updates! 

13. Brown

Brown University has a strict policy against AI use. Per their website, “the use of artificial intelligence by an applicant is not permitted under any circumstances in conjunction with application content.” They do allow you to use AI to check basic spelling and grammar, as you would use any other software. Admissions reminds applicants that you have to sign a statement saying all your work is your own. In case you think you won’t get caught, Brown has started verifying applicants’ credentials to deter admissions fraud. 

14. Columbia

At the time of writing, Columbia has no official AI policy. However, current students are warned that, unless AI is expressly allowed by the professor, any AI use for assignments or exams will constitute plagiarism.

15. Dartmouth

Dartmouth has no official AI policy as of posting. However, in a podcast interview, the dean of admissions said students can use an AI tool to help get organized, but they should write their essays themselves: “Because ChatGPT or not, if you don’t know the story you’re trying to tell, you can’t tell it. So what’s the narrative theme you want to connect to your transcript?”   

16. UC Los Angeles

Though UCLA has no official AI policy as of the time of writing, the UC system has all applicants sign a Statement of Integrity that includes the following: “Students may receive advice on content and editing, including the use of generative artificial intelligence software to assist with readability, but content and final written text must be their own.” 

17. UC Berkeley

UC Berkeley has no official AI policy yet, but just like for UCLA, all applicants sign the UC Statement of Integrity that includes the following: “Students may receive advice on content and editing, including the use of generative artificial intelligence software to assist with readability, but content and final written text must be their own.” If UC admissions thinks a student plagiarized their essay from AI, they could disqualify that student from admissions. 

18. Rice

Rice offers no official AI policy yet. Keep checking for updates! 

19. Notre Dame

While Notre Dame has no official AI policy for applicants, their Generative AI Policy for Students reminds them that representing work that they did not produce as their own, including AI-generated work, constitutes academic dishonesty and is a violation of the Honor Code.   

20. Vanderbilt

Vanderbilt has a limited use policy on AI. They know some students may use it to help prepare their application, but they stress: “Students should understand that it would not be proper to ask a teacher or parent to come up with the essay topic or to re-write an essay for the student. Likewise, AI should never be used to replace independent thinking on the part of the applicant. As applicants complete the essay portions of the application, they should always use their own voice and write about their own life experiences.” 

21. Carnegie Mellon

Carnegie Mellon has a limited use AI policy. They allow applicants to use it as a “supplementary tool to enhance your writing (i.e., grammar and spelling checks, suggested structural or vocabulary improvements)” but caution students to consider the risks of using AI, as there may be a case for plagiarism if your essays resemble any published work. 

22. University of Michigan

While UMichigan has no official AI policy, admissions reminds applicants that they must abide by the Common App’s fraud policy, which prohibits the use of AI to generate content. (See below for more details!)

23. Washington University in St Louis

WashU has a limited use AI policy. You may use AI to check your spelling or clarity, as you might ask an adult for help. You may not use AI to write content. 

24. Emory

Likewise, Emory has a limited use AI policy. You may use AI to edit your work or organize your ideas. You may not use AI to generate content. Emory’s AI policy highlights the importance of sharing your personal experiences and worldview in your own authentic voice. Admissions reminds applicants that academic standards at Emory are high, and that using AI without explicit permission from an instructor is a violation of the Honor Code. 

25. Georgetown

Georgetown’s strict policy forbidding the use of AI is only visible once you have started your application. They have you sign a statement which includes the following: “…the applicant understands that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to complete any portion of the application, including essays, is prohibited.” They remind applicants that Georgetown has the right to rescind admission or dismiss a student from the university if they find out that any application info was incomplete, inaccurate, or false. 

26. University of Virginia

UVA has a limited AI use policy. Applicants may use AI to brainstorm topics or check grammar and spelling. Applicants may not use AI to generate any writing. UVA reminds applicants that the point of the essay is to share “your voice, your ideas, and your very personal reflection on how your experiences have shaped you.” They also point to the honor statement that all applicants must sign, emphasizing that signing this pledge means you are asserting that your application is your original work and not a product of AI. 

27. University of North Carolina Chapel Hill

UNC Chapel Hill offers no official AI policy yet. Keep checking for updates! 

28. University of Southern California

USC has no official AI policy, though the school urges students to use AI as a tool and not as a replacement for their own voice and efforts.  

29. UC San Diego

UCSD has no official AI policy, though they do state that current students may not use AI unless explicitly authorized by a professor. Like the other UC schools on this list, UCSD follows the entire UC system, which has all applicants sign a Statement of Integrity that includes the following: “Students may receive advice on content and editing, including the use of generative artificial intelligence software to assist with readability, but content and final written text must be their own.” 

30. New York University

NYU has no official AI policy, but only allows current students to use AI if the instructor explicitly says so.  

In Conclusion

We also want to highlight the Common App’s policy, which counts using AI to draft substantial content for your essay as fraud. Per their website, fraud includes: “Submitting plagiarized essays or other written or oral material, or intentionally misrepresenting as one’s own original work: (1) another person’s thoughts, language, ideas, expressions, or experiences or (2) the substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform, technology, or algorithm.”

WHEW, that was a lot of information! If your eyes are crossing and you can’t quite remember everything you just scrolled past, here’s a handy chart to help you: 

There you have it, folks! Of the top 30 universities in the US, 21 schools (70%) don’t yet have an AI policy articulated, while two schools (7%) do not allow AI at all. The remaining eight schools(27%) allow limited use of AI, which generally means that applicants may use it for brainstorming and editing, but not for generating new content. None of the schools have explicitly declared it AI open season, so we recommend you take care not to rely too heavily on ol’ Clippy (remember him? Just us?) as you work on your essay. After all, the college essay is one of your few chances to speak to admissions in your own voice. Your unique perspective and quirks just may be your ticket to admission and put you ahead of a stack of otherwise similarly qualified candidates.

As always, the best way to ensure you have the most accurate, up-to-date information is to do the research yourself! Before you sit down to write your essays, visit each university’s website to make sure you have a clear understanding of their policies and expectations. 

And don’t forget, your human friends at CEA are here to help you through this essay writing process. Happy writing!