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Do Colleges Check for AI In Application Essays?

Your college essay should be written without the help of AI; however, most students give in to the temptation to use it, and wonder if college admissions officers use AI detector tools to find out if they “cheated” by using AI to write their essays. The answer is: You shouldn’t use AI to write your essay because if you do, it will be obvious to a college admissions officer. 


There are only two possible reasons why you are wondering this question:


  1. You are thinking of using AI to write your own essay

  2. You are afraid of an AI detection tool unfairly labelling your essay as AI-written


In this article, I explain why it’s best not to use AI in the process of writing your college essay or personal statement. I also show that most, if not all, of the time, you don’t have to worry about your essay being unfairly labeled as being AI-written by the use of AI detection tools.

Picture of a robot on a bench reading a book.

AI detection: A troublesome ethical issue

AI is all the rage, and it has permeated every aspect of academic and student life, including the writing of the college essay. Some colleges and professors have embraced it, and others remain firmly against it. Several universities have policies and systems in place that aim to verify whether or not students have used AI to write their essays. 


This is called AI detection, and the ironic thing about it is that it uses AI to determine if your essay is written by AI. Many have questioned the ethics of AI being able to accurately determine if an article or essay has been written using generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Several studies have shown that it is unreliable. Yet, this hasn’t prevented many schools from continuing to use AI detection tools to judge students’ essays. To learn more about this issue, you can read a prior article here: AI Detection Reliability: A Thorny Issue. In short, you have every right to feel that you might be treated unfairly if your essay is put through an AI detection tool and your essay fails even if you never used AI. 


Now, I should make it clear, when I say AI, I mean tools that write your essay from scratch. I am not talking about tools like proofreading software or grammar checkers, although many of these tools, like QuillBot, are multifaceted and used both as basic grammar checkers and to generate AI content. Using software for traditional grammar checking and proofreading is generally acceptable. 

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Why colleges don’t want you to use AI

If you’re thinking of using AI, just know there is no advantage to doing so. Yes, using AI is fast, but speed is not the same thing as being effective or efficient. If you define efficiency as “How quickly can I write my essay?” then sure, using AI is awesome. 


However, if your definition of efficiency sounds like “How can my college essay help me get into my dream school?” then you should stay as far away as possible from AI tools when crafting your college essay. The point of a college essay is to tell your own unique story. This cannot be achieved with AI. 


AI-written content is derivative. It is nothing more than a condensation and rearrangement of other people’s stories and experiences. Any experienced or intelligent reader, like most college admissions officers, will be able to tell instantly when something is written with AI, as the technology is famous (or rather notorious) for its bland and robotic tone. 


This means using AI content for your essay will give off a bad impression. College admissions officers are looking for people who can write and tell their story, and unique passion and experiences with craft and originality. Using AI means that, in their eyes, you have eliminated yourself from the crowded pool of capable applicants. 


Lastly, if you are afraid of being wrongly accused of using AI to write your essay because of some AI detection tool, research has shown that some universities use AI detection tools for college essays, but balance it out with human oversight. So the best approach is to be as honest as possible and leave AI out of your college essay writing process. 

Cite this EminentEdit article

Antoine, M. (2026, January 07). College Essay Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/do-colleges-check-for-ai-in-application-essays


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