Published in full

The essay rubric

This is the exact standard every draft critique in AdmitForge scores against. We publish it because feedback you can't inspect is just vibes, and because the standard itself isn't the secret. Meeting it is the work.

1

Answers the prompt scored 0–5

Every part of the question actually asked, within the word limit. Adcoms read thousands of essays that answer a different, easier prompt than the one posed.

2

Vision: why MBA, why now, why this school scored 0–5

A career direction concrete enough to act on, and a reason this degree, this year, this program. Not a paragraph that could be mailed to five other schools.

3

Specificity: only you could have written it scored 0–5

The exact conversation, the number, the moment. If 200 other applicants could truthfully paste your sentence into their essay, it scores low. This is the criterion AI-written text fails hardest.

4

Authentic voice scored 0–5

It reads like one real person talking: consistent register, no essay-speak, no thesaurus varnish. Admissions officers say they can hear when a voice is borrowed.

5

Structure scored 0–5

A hook that earns attention, a spine the reader can follow, and an ending that lands something rather than summarizing the paragraphs above it.

6

Slop-free scored 0–5

No clichés, no flattened generic phrasing, no AI-patterned language: the 'delve' vocabulary, tidy triads, and em-dash overuse (the long dash stitching clauses together is one of the loudest AI tells). Flagged passages are quoted back to you with the question whose answer replaces them.

What the feedback will never do

  • Write your essay. No replacement sentences, no sample prose, no “try this phrasing.” Critique, flags, and questions only. Your words stay yours, designed to comply with every school's AI policy because we never draft.
  • Invent your facts. If a detail is missing, you get the question that surfaces it, not a fabricated stand-in.
  • Guarantee anything. A high rubric score means the draft does its job. Admissions decisions weigh far more than essays.

Every AI critique is logged, and you can export a per-school AI-disclosure record any time. Increasingly, schools ask exactly how AI touched your application. Yours will be an easy answer: it critiqued; you wrote. See the full AI Integrity Policy.

Hold your draft to the standard.

Versioned feedback at 2am, draft after draft, included in your plan. A consultant charges more for one essay review.

Forge your first critique →