Editorial Standards

Scope

These standards cover the guides, rubric pages, comparison pages and sample reviews published on this site. They do not describe how an individual university evaluates an application. For official rules, always use the university’s admissions page or the Common App / UC instructions.

Independence and sources

We are independent. We are not affiliated with Common App, the University of California, the College Board or any university. A link to an official source does not imply endorsement.

When a page states a prompt, word limit or application rule, we check it against the official source and link to it. When a page describes our own scoring rubric, we label it as our rubric. We do not present our rubric as an official admissions formula.

Primary sources we check:

• Common App essay prompts for the seven prompts and the 650-word limit.
• UC Personal Insight Questions for the eight PIQ prompts and the 350-word limit.
• University admissions pages for school-specific requirements and AI policies.

How content is created

We use AI tools to help draft and edit some articles. A member of the team reviews the draft before publication, checks factual claims against primary sources and edits for clarity. We do not publish AI-generated quotes, statistics, student outcomes or testimonials.

Original examples are written for the site and labeled as illustrative. They are not presented as real admitted essays or real student results. If a page uses a fictional sample, the page says so near the top.

Evaluation content vs. official rules

Our six-dimension rubric is our own. It is designed to surface the qualities readers describe — specificity, reflection, voice, structure, character and writing quality — not to reproduce an admissions office’s internal process. We publish the methodology, including the weights and limitations.

We do not claim that a score predicts admission. We do not publish “chance” percentages or claim that a high score guarantees a particular outcome.

Corrections and updates

If you find an error — a wrong prompt, a changed word limit, a broken source or a claim that does not match the evidence — email hello@freecollegeessaygrader.org with the page URL and the specific passage. We will review it and correct the page if needed.

Each content page shows a last-updated date where the page format supports it. Material corrections are reflected in that date. We do not silently rewrite a page to hide an error.

AI use in the product

The essay review is generated by an AI model through a third-party API. The model’s output is validated: dimension scores are clamped to the rubric, the total is calculated on our server, and quotes are checked against the essay. The review is feedback, not a final judgment. Read the methodology and the privacy policy for the full picture.

Contact

Corrections, privacy requests and general questions: hello@freecollegeessaygrader.org or the contact page.