I recently joined a webinar to hear from Emily Pacheco, founder of edhub.ai. Emily is considered a leading voice on AI in college admissions. One of the key issues discussed in the webinar was how colleges are handling the use of AI in college admissions essays. Here are a few notes.
Colleges Admissions AI Policies
If I were to try to summarize how college admissions departments are handling students using AI for their college applications and essays, it would be this: they are just as clueless as us.
That’s not a knock on colleges; it’s just the reality of everyone trying to both harness and restrict this new technology in real time. If you are like me, you sometimes think, “I wonder if there’s something they know that I don’t.” For instance, maybe university admissions teams have found an AI detection tool that consistently works. Turns out, that’s not true. Or maybe all colleges are completely banning the use of AI in student applications and essays. That’s not true, either.
The reality is that there are a variety of ways that colleges are enforcing their AI policies for applicants. Here are a few examples.
No AI. Period.
Some colleges, like BYU, are trying to enforce a complete ban on AI in student applications and essays. BYU’s website states, “You may not pay anyone to help you with your application, and you may not use generative AI tools (like ChatGPT) as you compose your responses.* They also state that they use AI-detection tools as part of the application process: “NOTE: We use software tools to analyze the admission essays and activity responses of all students. We may rescind the admission offer of any student whose essay is found to have been generated by AI or otherwise plagiarized.”
I many ways, it would be nice if all colleges could just adopt this policy. “Just ban it!” you might say. “Use AI-detection software and don’t accept the students who are caught using it,” you might argue. And while this would in many ways streamline the process, the issue is not so simple. As many of you know, the minute you open Google Docs, you are using artificial intelligence. “These tools are embedded in the things we are using now,” says Emily. And it’s true. The built-in tools in our writing software programs, and other popular digital writing supplements like Grammarly, are all powered by AI.
Other colleges, like the University of California, are also explicitly stating that they are using AI-detection software. They are also telling students when their essays were detected as using AI, and not accepting these students. Some students have tried to argue that they did not use AI, but have not been reconsidered for admission.
Vague Guidelines
Some colleges, instead of stating a complete ban on AI or giving specific guidelines, have stuck with more generalized and vague policies. The Common Application, the most popular application platform in the market, states the following in its fraud policy:
“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.”
What is “substantive content or output of an artificial intelligence platform?” This is left for the students and colleges to interpret as they see fit. Unfortunately, that doesn’t help students or the counselors, parents, and other professionals trying to advise them.
Specific Guidelines for AI Use
In the webinar, Emily praised Caltech’s Undergraduate and Graduate Admissions AI Policy: Guidelines for Fall 2025 Applicants. In that policy, Caltech provides the following specifics:
What are some examples of unethical uses of AI for Caltech admissions essays?
- Copying and pasting directly from an AI generator
- Relying on AI generated content to outline or draft an essay
- Replacing your unique voice and tone with AI generated content
- Translating an essay written in another language
What are some examples of ethical uses of AI for Caltech admissions essays?
- Using AI tools, like Grammarly or Microsoft Editor, to review grammar and spelling of your completed essays
- Generating questions or exercises to help kick start the brainstorming process
- Using AI to research the college application process
What stands out about guidelines is the examples and specific use cases. Whether or not you agree with these guidelines is a different conversation. What Emily (and I) appreciate is that this college is giving clear direction.
Colleges Using AI In The Admissions Process
In addition to admissions policies, Emily also touched on colleges using AI to read student applications. UNC uses AI in the admissions review process, and other colleges like Virginia Tech are using AI to replace at least one of the human readers. Virginia Tech’s Juan Espinoza calls them a “human read” and an “AI confirmation read”. I never thought I’d be using that language, but that’s where we are in the current landscape!
Stay Up To Date
If you’d like to stay up to date on current trends with AI in Higher Ed, join Emily’s AI In Admissions Special Interest Group on LinkedIn here: AICA LinkedIn Group
A Helpful Note To Students, Parents, and Counselors
I’ll end with what I believe to be helpful advice for students, parents, and counselors. Caltech, after going over the specific guidelines of their AI Admissions Policy, gives this admonishment:
“If you are still wondering whether your use of AI in crafting your application is ethical, ask yourself whether it would be ethical to have a trusted adult perform the same task you are asking of ChatGPT. Would a teacher be able to review your essay for grammatical and spelling errors? Of course! Would that same teacher write a draft of an essay for you to tweak and then submit? Definitely not. Above all else, remember to be authentic to yourself when writing your essays. ”
