William & MaryAI Policy for Admissions
- PermissionCan you use AI?Brainstorming only
- DisclosureMust you disclose AI use?Must attest no AI used
- ComplianceHow is it verified?Manual review possible
Quick Answer: Can you use AI at William & Mary?
William & Mary permits applicants to use AI as a starting-point tool — for example, to spark ideas, structure thinking, or clean up grammar — but expects that the final essays and personal statements reflect the applicant's own voice and are not substantially written by AI.
Disclosure: William & Mary embeds an affirmation directly in the submission act itself: by clicking submit, applicants certify that all materials are their own original work and not primarily the product of AI, constituting an explicit AI-specific attestation.
Compliance: William & Mary relies primarily on soft compliance, with admissions readers trained to focus on individual voice and authentic storytelling, meaning inconsistencies in personal voice across application materials may prompt closer scrutiny.
Generally safe
- Use AI to generate initial topic ideas or prompts before you begin drafting — then set those suggestions aside and write in your own words.
- Ask an AI tool to help you create a loose outline or logical flow for your essay, then fill in all the content yourself.
- Run your completed, self-written draft through an AI grammar or spell-check tool for light polishing without altering your authentic voice.
- Treat AI suggestions as a brainstorm partner, not a ghostwriter — every sentence that stays in your final submission should come from you.
Things to Avoid
- Do not treat AI-generated paragraphs as a starting draft that you simply revise — this crosses into territory W&M explicitly cautions against.
- Do not submit an essay or personal statement that was drafted or substantially written by an AI tool, even if you edited it afterward.
- Verified Feb 2026
“AI tools can be helpful for brainstorming, organizing ideas or refining grammar, essays that depend too much on AI often miss what matters most”
AI and the Application Process at William & Mary - Verified Feb 2026
“the materials submitted are your own original work - not primarily the product of AI”
AI and the Application Process at William & Mary - Verified Feb 2026
“By submitting your application, you affirm that the materials submitted are your own original work - not primarily the product of AI”
AI and the Application Process at William & Mary
Allowed Uses
- brainstorming
- organizing ideas
- grammar refinement
Not Allowed
- AI-generated essays or personal statements
- over-reliance on AI for writing
- submitting work that is primarily the product of AI
- https://www.wm.edu/admission/undergraduateadmission/how-to-apply/first-year-applicants/application-checklist/essay/
- https://law.wm.edu/admissions/jdprograms/facts-figures-policies/admissionpolicy/
- https://law.wm.edu/admissions/jdprograms/facts-figures-policies/faqs/
- https://www.wm.edu/offices/academicaffairs/_documents/initiatives-documents/aipi_final_report.pdf
- https://law.wm.edu/policies/ai-policy.pdf
Compliance is soft (C1): no technical detection tools are referenced; instead, admissions staff rely on voice consistency and authentic storytelling as their primary signal, making genuine personal narrative the best compliance strategy.
William & Mary has a dedicated undergraduate admissions AI-use page, representing a significant policy upgrade and one of the more explicit stances among peer institutions.
No program-specific AI policies have been identified for William & Mary's law school (governed by LSAC CAS baseline terms) or the Mason School of Business, so applicants to those programs should apply the undergraduate-level caution as a reasonable default.
Significant upgrade from previous (P0) classification. W&M now has a dedicated admissions page on AI use. The policy explicitly permits brainstorming, idea organization, and grammar help (P3 uses) but warns against over-reliance and requires applicants to affirm work is not primarily AI-generated. The attestation is embedded in the submission act itself ('By submitting your application, you affirm...') and explicitly references AI, qualifying as (D3). Compliance is soft (C1) as the page emphasizes readers focus on understanding applicants' individual stories and personal voice, implying voice consistency review. No AI-specific admissions policy found for graduate or law school admissions. The university-wide AIPI report and Law School have academic AI policies but none specific to graduate admissions essays.
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