The 8 Ivy League Schools Have 8 Different AI Policies

Harvard and Brown are the only Ivy League schools classified at L4 — an outright prohibition on AI use in application materials. Both also require D3 attestation, meaning applicants must certify they did not use AI.

Harvard's policy is a dramatic reversal. In our September 2025 review, Harvard was L0/D0 — no mention of AI at all. By February 2026, the admissions office had added explicit language equating AI-generated essay content with plagiarism and fraud under the Common App policy.

Brown similarly tightened its disclosure requirement from D0 to D3 between reviews, adding an attestation while keeping its L4 ban.

Four Ivies land between full prohibition and silence. Yale (L3) allows grammar checks and topic brainstorming but considers AI-composed content “application fraud.” Cornell (L3) and Dartmouth (L3) similarly restrict AI to brainstorming only.

Columbia (L2) takes a more moderate stance, permitting line-level editing and paraphrasing. All four schools tightened their policies between our two reviews — Cornell moved from L2 to L3, Dartmouth from L1 to L3, and Columbia from L0 to L2.

Notably, none of these four schools require disclosure (all D0). The rules exist but there's no formal mechanism asking students to report AI use.

Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania have no AI-specific admissions policy at the institution level (L0/D0/E0). Neither school's admissions website addresses AI tools directly.

Penn is especially notable: in September 2025 it was classified L1/D1/E1 — permissive with optional disclosure. By February 2026 the relevant language had been removed, reverting Penn to L0/D0/E0.

The absence of policy is itself a finding. Students applying to Princeton or Penn receive no institutional guidance on whether or how to use AI in their applications.

Institution-level codes tell only part of the story. Several Ivy League schools have program-specific policies that diverge significantly from the school-wide stance. Columbia is a striking example: while the institution is L2, the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the School of the Arts, and the Law School all operate at L4 — a full prohibition.

Applicants targeting a specific program should always check the individual school detail page for program-level overrides.

Between September 2025 and February 2026, 8 of 8 Ivy League schools changed their AI policies. The direction is overwhelmingly toward greater restriction:

• Harvard University: L0→L4, D0→D3
• Yale University: E3→E1
• Princeton University: L1→L0
• Columbia University: L0→L2
• University of Pennsylvania: L1→L0, D1→D0, E1→E0
• Brown University: D0→D3
• Cornell University: L2→L3
• Dartmouth College: L1→L3, E0→E1

Only Yale and Penn moved in a loosening direction on any dimension (Yale's enforcement dropped from E3 to E1; Penn removed its AI language entirely). The net effect across the Ivy League is clearly toward more explicit and more restrictive policies.