Useful, honest writing for families navigating the process — no hype, no fear-mongering, just what actually matters.
We read the published AI policies at 19 selective colleges. They disagree more than you'd expect — Cornell lists brainstorming essay topics as ethical, WashU lists it as unethical, and six schools have published nothing at all.
Colleges report what they weigh every year, on the record. Almost nobody reads it. We pulled the Common Data Set grids from 33 selective schools — the essay outranks test scores at 20 of them.
A simple test for telling apart AI that helps your kid reflect from AI that just writes the essay for them.
You want to help without writing it for them. Here's the parent's actual job on the essay — and the one line you shouldn't cross.
The admissions boost is smaller than it looks — and ED is binding. A skeptical-but-fair look at when it actually makes sense.