B
Brian
Founder of Arzo · Former Yale Alumni Interviewer
Every few weeks a student asks me the same question: what AI tools should I actually be using? Most of what gets recommended online isn't built for this job. Here's what's actually worth your time, broken down by what you're trying to do.
The only distinction that matters first
Before any specific tool recommendation — there are two kinds of AI for college essays. AI writers generate text for you. AI coaches ask questions and give feedback, but the writing stays yours. The first category is a liability. The second is genuinely useful. Every tool below falls into one or the other.
For brainstorming
This is where AI earns its keep. The hard part of a college essay was never the sentences — it's figuring out what you actually want to say before you write a single one.
•Arzo's Story Mining process is built for exactly this stage. Instead of asking what to write about, it runs you through guided questions designed to surface the moment or detail that's actually yours — the stuff students dismiss as not essay-worthy until they trace what it reveals. Free to start; $29/month for the full season.
•ChatGPT and Claude (free tiers) can work as brainstorming partners if you prompt them right — ask either to interview you about a specific memory, not to suggest topics. Useful for thinking out loud. What you lose compared to a purpose-built tool is any sense of what an admissions reader is actually looking for.
For feedback on drafts
Once you have a direction, what you need is specific notes — not 'this is good' or 'add more detail,' but something you can act on at 11pm. Your opening is strong but the ending feels rushed. You're telling instead of showing in paragraph three.
•Arzo coaches the drafting stage sentence by sentence without ever writing the sentence for you. That part matters.
•Grammarly (free) is fine for grammar and spelling. Be careful with its tone suggestions — they tend to sand essays toward generic.
•Hemingway Editor (free) is useful for tightening prose you've already written. Not for shaping the ideas underneath it.
For staying organized
Tracking supplement requirements, deadlines, and activity lists across ten or twelve schools is where students lose the most time. It's also the most preventable kind of mistake.
•Arzo's application planner maps your full season against real deadlines, alongside coaching for the 150-character Common App activity entries that are harder to write than they look.
•BigFuture (College Board) is worth bookmarking for scholarship and deadline research.
Three questions before you trust any tool with your application
•Does it write for you, or coach you? If it generates essay text, that's a real problem at selective schools.
•Is it built specifically for college applications, or a general chatbot pointed at this task? Purpose-built tools understand what works in admissions essays. General tools don't.
•What happens to your writing? Some tools train on student essays. Know whether yours stays private before you paste anything in.
The tools that actually help are the ones that make you think harder about your own story. Not the ones that think for you.
Get new posts in your inbox
Like what you see? Subscribe for more college admissions advice from a former Yale alumni interviewer.
Ready to find your story?
Arzo coaches you from brainstorm to final draft. It guides, but never writes for you.
Write your first essay free →No credit card required
