College applications
College essay AI rules
Rules read on November 1, 2026. Updated November 2, 2026.
We read the AI rules of 14 colleges on 1 November 2026. None bans a spelling and grammar check. None lets AI write your essay. Rules on brainstorming and outlines differ, so read your college's page.
Check your college's current page. Rules change each year, and this table is our short reading of them, not the rule itself. Each college name links to its page. If you can't tell, ask the admissions office.
The rules, college by college
| College | Date on the page | Spelling and grammar check | AI brainstorming | AI outlining | AI feedback on your draft | AI-written text |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Common App (all member colleges) | August 2023 | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not addressed | Fraud if passed off as your own |
| University of California | No date | Proofreading encouraged; tool not named | Not addressed | Not addressed | People may offer suggestions | Answers must be yours alone; AI not named |
| Brown | No date | Allowed (the only exception) | Not allowed (blanket rule) | Not allowed (blanket rule) | Not allowed (blanket rule) | Not allowed |
| Caltech | Fall 2027 cycle | Allowed on a completed essay | Allowed (questions or exercises to start) | Not allowed | Not addressed | Not allowed |
| Cornell | No date | Not addressed for AI | Not addressed for AI | Not allowed | Not addressed for AI | Not allowed |
| Georgia Tech | No date | Implied OK (edit) | Allowed | Not addressed | Allowed | Not allowed |
| Johns Hopkins | No date | Allowed (basic proofreading) | Allowed before writing | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not allowed |
| Northwestern | Updated 9/23/25 | Allowed on completed essays | Allowed (topics) | Not addressed, but AI finishing your outline is a problem | Not addressed | Not allowed |
| Notre Dame | No date (2026-27 cycle) | Allowed | Allowed before writing | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not allowed |
| Penn | No date | Allowed | Not addressed | Allowed (organizing your thoughts) | Not addressed for AI | Not allowed |
| Princeton | 1 Sep 2026 | Implied OK | Discouraged | Not addressed | Not addressed | Discouraged |
| Tufts | No date | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not addressed | Strongly discouraged |
| USC | No date | Implied OK (improving a sentence) | Allowed | Not addressed | Allowed | Not allowed |
| Vanderbilt | No date | Allowed | Allowed | Not addressed for AI | Allowed, by comparison with a parent or peer | Not allowed |
| WashU | No date | Allowed on completed essays | Not allowed | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not allowed |
| Yale | No date | Allowed | Allowed at the start | Not addressed | Not addressed | Not allowed |
"Not addressed" means we didn't find it on the pages we read, not that it's allowed. None of the 14 requires disclosing AI use, and none mentions AI detectors or dictation. We also read the Common App's application affirmations, where you confirm your application is your own work. Princeton's row is advice from the Dean's blog, not a rule list.
Colleges not in the table
These 14 are the colleges where we found a statement, so the counts don't describe all colleges. We found no AI statement on the pages we read for Duke, Emory, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, NYU, Rice, Stanford, UChicago, UNC, UT Austin and Wake Forest. They may have one elsewhere. We couldn't read Columbia, Dartmouth, Michigan or UVA. Check with each one directly.
How this applies to TomFiction
No college has approved TomFiction or any tool like it, and we can't promise anything about admission. Based on the table:
- Spelling, grammar and punctuation fixes in Polish: allowed or implied at 12 of the 14, and barred at none. No college names word-choice changes, so read each one and keep your own voice.
- The coach's questions: unclear. AI brainstorming is allowed at 8, barred or discouraged at 3, and not addressed at 3. Letting the coach place your own words with Add it is closer to structure help, and rules differ on that too.
- Write's plan and Put it in my doc: skip them for an application essay. AI-written or AI-drafted text is barred or discouraged at all 14. No college says whether a draft built only from your own answers still counts, and the closest rules treat the tool's drafting as the problem.
- Say it (talking instead of typing): no college mentions dictation. If you need it, ask the admissions office.
- Private AI self-check: no college mentions detectors. Detectors can be wrong, and this isn't a way to pass anything.
Fix the typos. Keep the essay yours.
TomFiction is a grammar checker and essay coach for Google Docs in Chrome. It uses an AI model. Free; Pro week with no card.
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