Nationally competitive awards and fellowships have a wide range of AI policies, from absolute prohibition to allowance with or without disclosure, to allowance for some but not all parts of the application process. Applying for fellowships is a cumulative process—ideas and language from one application are often revised for future applications. To ensure that students do not find themselves unintentionally violating a fellowship policy, we require that students refrain from using AI to draft material for any part of their essays or answers for nationally competitive awards.

Ways students are allowed to use AI include:

• Editing, proofreading, or improving grammar/clarity
• Rewording or condensing text to meet character/word limits
• Translating text
• Researching the award, program, or host institution/country
• Formatting citations or references

Undergraduate Research and Fellowships will use AI identification software and our own judgment to determine if AI was used to compose the text of an application essay. If a student has used AI in a way that violates this policy, consequences would range from rewriting the essay from scratch to disqualification from applying for the opportunity in question.

Grants internal to Northeastern (including PEAK fellowships and the AJC Merit Research Scholars) should follow the same guidelines.