How Kolly grades a college essay.

    Paste a draft of 100 to 1,500 words and Kolly grades it in about a minute. You get an overall grade, a score for each of six dimensions, the strongest line in the draft, the weakest moment, and a verdict from four AI admissions readers who argue over the essay before they vote: the Holistic Reader, the Selective Skeptic, the Yield Strategist, and the Devil's Advocate. The quick read is free and needs no account.

    How the grade works

    Kolly scores the six things admissions readers weigh, each from 0 to 5, and flags the weakest one so you know where to start.

    • Hook. Whether the first lines earn a second paragraph. Most drafts open with the situation instead of the moment, and the fix is usually to start later in the scene.
    • Theme. Whether one idea carries the essay from the first paragraph to the last. Strong essays show one thing about you. Weak essays show six.
    • Detail. Specific scenes versus resume language. Generalities do nothing for a reader. The smell of burnt sugar does. The yellow notebook with the cracked spine does.
    • Authenticity. Whether it sounds like you or like a committee. If a paragraph could have been written by any thoughtful 17-year-old, this score is low. It rises when the phrasing and the noticing are unmistakably yours.
    • Reflection. Whether anything changed in you. What you did matters less than what doing it taught you, and the essay has to make that turn on the page.
    • Writing. Rhythm, economy, and control. Whether every sentence does work and the paragraphs build instead of repeat.

    What the number means

    The big number is a percentile, not a score out of 100. It shows where your draft lands among accepted essays of the same type from top US schools, so a 70 means the draft scored higher than about 70 percent of the accepted essays Kolly compares it against. Kolly is calibrated against 500+ accepted essays, and each percentile falls into a band:

    Exceptional
    85 and up
    Strong
    60 to 84
    Solid
    35 to 59
    Developing
    15 to 34
    Weak
    below 15

    The number moves when the writing moves. Revise the weakest dimension, paste the new draft, and grade it again to see whether the change landed. The quick read uses Kolly's lighter scoring model in one pass, and the full review uses a stronger one, so the two may not match exactly. The useful part is not the number. It is knowing which sentences are holding it down. Read how the scoring was tested in the Kolly scoring methodology.

    What you get free

    • The quick read, no account. The percentile, six dimension scores, the strongest line, the weakest moment, and the four-reader verdict.
    • The full review, with a free Kolly account. Kolly's stronger scoring model, notes on each paragraph, and a fix-it plan for the paragraph hurting the essay most. Your first full review is free, no credit card. Paid plans add unlimited reviews on every revision, for every essay and every school.

    Why not just ask ChatGPT?

    A general chatbot is built to be agreeable, so it finds something nice to say about a polished draft that says nothing. Kolly grades against essays that got in and tells you when a paragraph has no point or an opener is generic. For the full comparison, read Kolly vs ChatGPT or Kolly vs Claude.

    Grade an essay for a specific school

    Writing a supplement? Each school page below shows that school's current prompts next to the grader. For any other school, the supplemental essay reviewer has prompts for 189 schools and reads answers as short as 50 words.

    Common questions

    Is the college essay grader free?
    Yes. The quick read runs without an account. A free Kolly account adds one full review with paragraph notes and a fix-it plan, no credit card.
    Can it grade my Common App essay?
    Yes. Paste any draft from 100 to 1,500 words: a Common App personal statement, a supplement, or a scholarship essay. For short answers under 100 words, use the supplemental essay reviewer, which reads from 50 words.
    What is a good college essay score?
    The bands give you a frame. Solid (35 to 59) is a workable draft with clear fixes, Strong (60 to 84) holds its own against accepted essays, and Exceptional (85 and up) sits at the top of that set. Whatever the number, the weakest dimension is where to start.
    How is this different from a teacher grading my essay?
    A teacher grades against a writing rubric. Admissions readers compare you against everyone else in the pile. Kolly compares your draft with essays that got in, so the grade reflects the comparison that decides your application, not the one that decides your English class.
    Will Kolly write my essay for me?
    No. The grader scores your draft and names what to fix. Inside the app, every suggested edit is yours to accept, reject, or rewrite, so the essay you submit is the one you wrote.