Which Colleges Ban AI Help on Essays?

Of the 115 schools whose admissions pages we have checked, four publish a policy that bars AI help on application essays outright: Brown University, Villanova University, Brigham Young University, Claremont McKenna College. Every other school we checked either permits feedback on writing you did yourself, or publishes no AI-specific rule at all.

That is a narrower answer than the question usually assumes. Most schools with a published policy are not banning AI; they are banning AI-written text, which is a different rule with a different line. Both are below, quoted from the schools themselves.

The schools that prohibit it

These are the entries whose own words rule out AI involvement with application content, feedback included. Each quote is taken from the school’s published page on the date shown.

A note on how we read these. Where a school’s wording is ambiguous, we take the stricter reading. Brigham Young University, for example, grants an explicit review carve-out to people and extends no equivalent to AI, so we treat it as a prohibition even though a narrower reading is arguable. Being wrong in the other direction costs a student their offer.

What most published policies actually say

29 of the schools with a verified policy permit AI in some form while prohibiting AI-written or AI-revised text. The line they draw is about authorship: who produced the words you submit. Feedback on an essay you wrote sits on the permitted side of it.

• Caltech · Permits grammar and spelling review and brainstorming prompts; substantive AI feedback is not addressed
• University of California (all campuses) · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Yale University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Harvard University · No explicit rule on AI feedback; we read the published fraud standard as permitting it
• Johns Hopkins University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Northwestern University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Cornell University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Columbia University · No explicit rule on AI feedback; we read the published own-work standard as permitting it
• Vanderbilt University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Carnegie Mellon University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• University of Michigan · Permits thoughtful AI help (brainstorming, outlining, proofreading); prohibits pasting AI-written text
• Washington University in St. Louis · Permits grammar and spelling review only; substantive AI feedback is not addressed
• Emory University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• University of Virginia · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• New York University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Tufts University · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• Georgia Tech · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text
• University of Pennsylvania · Permits AI help likened to a counselor's (organizing thoughts, grammar checks); prohibits AI-generated responses
• University of Notre Dame · Permits spelling and grammar review and pre-writing brainstorming; substantive AI feedback is not addressed
• Swarthmore College · Permits brainstorming and feedback on readability, spelling, and mechanics; prohibits AI drafting, rewriting, or tone changes
• Bowdoin College · Permits AI brainstorming and feedback on a written draft; prohibits AI drafting, rewriting, or tone changes
• Boston College · Permits AI as a guide; prohibits copying AI-produced content into the application
• Boston University · Permits AI tools that support your original ideas; prohibits AI-written essays
• Fordham University · Permits AI in its proper place, such as brainstorming ideas or polishing a draft; cautions against AI-manufactured content
• University of Rochester · Acknowledges AI may help with topic ideas and editing or refining; discourages AI-composed essays
• University of Wisconsin-Madison · No disqualification for AI use and no AI detection; strongly discourages having AI write the essay for you
• University of Washington · Explicitly permits an AI tool reviewing your writing; the essay must remain your own original work
• University of Georgia · Permits AI like any other general writing aid; the submitted essay must be your own work
• University of Connecticut · Permits AI feedback; prohibits AI-written text

The largest group publishes nothing

79 of the 115 schools we checked publish no AI-specific policy for application essays, and 3 have a rule that is reported but not published anywhere we can verify. That is the honest state of things as of August 11, 2026, and it is worth saying plainly rather than filling the gap with a guess.

Silence is not permission. With no published rule, the Common App’s own fraud policy and the school’s general integrity expectations still apply: the essay must be your own work. Getting feedback that leaves you the author is a different act from submitting text you did not write, but where a school has stated nothing, that distinction is yours to make and yours to verify.

How to check your own school

Every school we have checked has a page of its own, including the ones that publish nothing, so you can see the quote and the date rather than take our word for it. Start at the policy directory, or search your school by name.

If your school is not listed, look for “artificial intelligence” on its admissions FAQ, its application instructions, and its writing-supplement page, in that order. Those three places hold nearly every policy we found. Policies change between cycles, so confirm before you rely on anything here.

Where this leaves you

If you are applying to one of the four schools above, do not run your essay through any AI tool, ours included. CollegeEssayPanel stops a review before the panel reads your essay when you name one of them as a target school, and returns your credit.

For everyone else, the safe version of AI help is the version that leaves you the author: feedback, questions, and revision directions on writing that is already yours. That is a rule you can follow at a school with no published policy and still be able to defend what you submitted.