My Stance on AI in Our Work Together (2026)

What I believe the college essay process is for

Before I say anything about AI, I want to share what I think the whole college application process is actually about.

The college essay isn’t a hurdle to clear. It’s an opportunity for a student to figure out what they actually want to say about themselves, find the words to say it, and put something true on the page. When it works, the essay sounds unmistakably like the student. When you read it, you should hear their voice, not a “corporate” version of what they think a college wants to hear. When students can achieve this, the results follow.

My role in this process is to be a guide, strategist, and collaborator. I ask questions. I push back. I give direct feedback. But the answers, the stories, the voice—those have to come from the student. That’s not just an ethical position. It’s a practical one. Admissions officers notice when something doesn’t feel real and they definitely recognize patterns in AI-generated writing from reading thousands of essays.

So when I think about where AI fits into this work, my belief is: the student’s authentic voice is the whole point. Anything that protects that is worth considering. Anything that replaces it is not.

What I do use AI for

I use AI to be more efficient at the administrative and logistical aspects of my job, never the student’s writing. For example:

• Translating newsletters, college night invitations, and other communications into other languages so non-English-speaking families can stay fully informed

• Researching specific colleges, including whether they’re need-blind or need-aware, and what they say they’re looking for in applicants

• Helping ESL students translate their ideas from their native language before they begin writing, so the starting material is theirs

• Adjusting and updating student timelines when life gets in the way: a vacation, a busy stretch at school, a shift in priorities. Every student starts with a general roadmap, but the pace needs to stay adaptable, and AI helps me revise those plans quickly without losing the thread.

What I don’t use AI for

I want to be clear about what I do not, and will not, use AI for.

I won’t use AI to help draft or revise a student’s essays, including “Why This College” responses. Those need to be grounded in things the student actually knows and feels about a school, and that can’t be outsourced.

I won’t use AI to generate hook sentences or opening lines for a student to model their own work on. Even presented as inspiration, that crosses a line I’m not comfortable with. Instead, I share actual past student work as case studies. The way a student starts their essay should emerge from their own thinking, not from a prompt I fed to a machine that never crossed the desks of admissions.

I won’t use AI to compare two of a student’s drafts and tell me which one is stronger. That kind of judgment is part of my job, and it should reflect my actual read of the student’s voice, not an algorithm’s.

What I’m still working through

To be clear, I don’t have everything figured out. The tech landscape is literally changing day-by-day, so I think intellectual honesty matters more here than false certainty.

A few things I’m actively thinking through:

• Using AI to help a student understand their financial aid award letter. On one hand, this is complex, confusing language and families deserve clarity. On the other hand, I want to make sure I’m the one providing that context, not just passing along what AI says.

• Building a college comparison chart for a student based on their priorities. This feels like a tool I might use to organize my own thinking, not something I’d hand directly to a family as a finished product.

I’m also thinking carefully about equity. For first-generation students and lower-income families who may not have the same access to support, AI can feel like a leveling tool. And it can be, but it can also become a shortcut that robs a student of the very process that would have made their application stronger. I hold both of those things at once, and I don’t pretend the tension is simple.

What to expect from me

If you ever wonder whether AI played a role in something I’ve shared with you, ask me. I’m happy to explain if I did and exactly what I did and why. If you have questions about whether your student can or should use AI tools on their own, that’s a conversation worth having directly. Different schools and programs have different policies, and I want to help families navigate that ambiguity honestly.

You might’ve noticed I called it an “AI Stance” rather than an “AI Policy.” My position is this: I use AI thoughtfully, with clear limits I’m comfortable explaining. The goal is always to serve the student’s best interests, which means protecting their voice, their integrity, and their genuine shot at the schools that are right for them. But I recognize college admissions and essay writing will evolve as technology evolves, so I want to stay open-minded. This is my current stance. It will evolve too.

If something in this document raises a question for you, please bring it up. This kind of transparency is part of how I want to work with families, and I mean it.

What this means for students

The standard I hold students to is simple: your work should be yours. The test I'd ask every student to apply is personal: Am I proud to say this is mine? If there's any hesitation, that's the answer.

In practice, that generally means not using AI in any part of the writing process. Most colleges have policies that say the same thing, and staying ahead of that protects your student. AI detection tools are imperfect, but getting flagged, even incorrectly, is a distraction no one needs during an already high-stakes process.

Where I think AI can genuinely help is on the research side. Manually hunting down information about colleges, programs, or essay topics takes time, and AI can speed that up. I'm comfortable with students using it that way as long as they verify what they find. AI gets facts wrong, and submitting inaccurate information in a "Why This College" essay is a real risk.

If you're ever unsure whether a specific use crosses the line, ask me. I'd rather have that conversation early than untangle it later.