How GradPilot works
Built for better second drafts.
GradPilot checks your essay against a rubric built for your exact application. It shows you what to fix, quoting your own sentences. Revise, run it again, and see if your changes worked.
Every critique quotes the sentence it is about.
The review
Three separate checks.
Good writing can hide a weak answer. A good story can get lost in unclear writing. GradPilot checks each part separately, so one strength can't hide a problem.
And when a section is already strong, the review says so instead of inventing feedback.
The writing
Is the writing clear?
Structure, clarity, and whether the essay still sounds like you.
The prompt
Does it answer the prompt?
Every application is checked against its own rubric. A Common App essay and a medical school statement are different jobs.
AI signal
Could it read as AI-written?
Optional. We flag sentences that might look machine-written to a school's detector, so nothing surprises you later.
A chatbot, twice
IllustrationSame essay. Different answer each time.
GradPilot, twice
Same criteria. Same score, until your essay changes.
Scores you can compare
The same essay gets the same score.
Ask a chatbot to grade your essay twice and you can get two different answers, depending on how you ask. GradPilot uses the same fixed criteria every time. When your score moves, it's because your essay changed—so you know whether a revision helped.
That's how most people use it: most Full Review customers re-run the same essay within a day of revising it.
Scores are revision signals, not admissions predictions.
AI detection
It's a signal, not proof.
Many schools run AI detectors on essays. GradPilot runs one first, so you're not surprised later. With detection on, a Full Review flags the sentences that might read as AI-written. You see exactly which ones, and you decide what to change.
- This check is for you. Your essay is never reported to anyone.
- Detection never claims to prove who wrote a sentence.
- Pro users can turn it off. Free Quick Reviews don't run it at all.
Detection partner
We use Pangram, a specialist AI detector, instead of asking a chatbot to judge its own writing.
Clear
No sentences stand out.
AI-polished in places
A few sentences worth rewriting in your own voice. Your scores are not affected.
Flagged
Parts read as AI-written. Shown to you, not to schools.
Each flagged sentence names the pattern it shows, for example:
The rubrics
Built from what each program actually asks.
Every rubric starts with research: the official prompt, the application's rules, and what admissions committees say they look for. We test it on real sample essays before it goes live.
The criteria are public. You can read exactly what your essay will be checked against before you submit anything.
Browse all 112 public rubricsOne review system
A different rubric for every application
Trim suggestions
IllustrationIt looks for cuts at three levels:
Words & phrases
Sentences
Paragraphs & sections
Trim
Over the word limit? Trim helps you cut.
After a Full Review, Trim suggests exact cuts—a phrase, a sentence, or a whole passage—and shows how many words each one saves. It protects the parts of your essay that are working.
Nothing is cut automatically. You choose which suggestions to take.
What is allowed
Permission
What you must say
Disclosure
How it may be checked
Enforcement
University AI policies
Know your school's AI rules first.
Schools treat AI differently. Our directory tracks what each school allows, what you must disclose, and how rules may be checked.
Every record links its source and shows when we last checked it. Always confirm the current instructions on the school's own site.
Search 180 university policiesYour words stay yours
See what your essay is doing—and what to fix next.
Start with a free Quick Review. Make the changes you agree with. Run it again.