The process of applying to college is seldom straightforward. From writing compelling essays, creating a smart college list, enhancing the activities profile, preparing for interviews, obtaining recommendations, and navigating financial aid, it’s easy to get lost.

AI tools are starting to change that - but most platforms in this space are still focused on a narrow niche. They do one or two things and leave you juggling a bunch of subscriptions, logins, and different learning curves. That’s okay if you’re laser-focused on a single pain point, but for most students it means fragmented guidance and lost time.

We pitted Unive against ChatGPT and other well-known AI admission tools to determine how they fare throughout the whole application process - and which one provides truly quality end-to-end assistance.

ChatGPT: A Swiss Army Knife Without Instructions

ChatGPT can draft essays, recommend extracurriculars, or conduct an interview. Yet it’s not trained for admissions, so advice is hit-or-miss. It can’t link your essays to your school list, your activities, or your scholarship hunt automatically - unless you input all that context each and every time. The interviews it conducts will also be in text format and won't provide you any feedback on your tone, tempo and other important aspects of speech. 

Worse, even the newest GPT-5’s output is often generic or factually incorrect, and it has no built-in structure to keep you on track. It’s powerful, but without admissions-specific training, it’s like hiring a world-class chef to manage a chemistry lab — talented, sure, but in the wrong field.

Apply Genius: Personalized, But Passive

Apply Genius promotes itself as a 24/7 AI mentor you can text with questions. It’s affordable at $9.99/month and does offer customized guidance based on your profile, but you have to drive every interaction.

There’s no proactive essay review, no interview preparation structure, and no workspace to map out your process. It’s a helpful Q&A friend if you already understand what to ask for - but if not, you’ll probably be left with gaps in your application strategy. Moreover, it is also likely to hallucinate and give the wrong advice.

Esslo: Powerful Editor, Limited Scope

Esslo is one of the stronger essay feedback tools we’ve encountered. Upload a draft, and it will provide admissions-specific feedback to improve your writing. That’s useful if you wish to retain your own voice while enhancing structure, clarity, and depth.

But Esslo is a single-purpose tool: no school matching, no activities assistance, no interview prep, no scholarship search. At $40/month, it’s a premium service for only one part of the process.

EasyThanks: Resolving a Non-Core Issue

EasyThanks helps you write and keep track of thank-you notes and follow-up emails to admissions officers. While it's nice to demonstrate interest, this is a peripheral detail - not a core admissions task. On its own, it won’t move the needle.

Harvi: Big Vision, Small Execution

Harvi strives to be a one-stop counselor: essay brainstorming, school recommendations, scholarships, and task management. It’s free, which is not typical, but the site is buggy, under-developed, and sometimes inaccurate.

It feels more like a beta product designed to generate leads for its parent company’s paid services, rather than a polished, reliable tool.

Sups: Essay Support with a Side of Activities Help

Sups provides decent brainstorming and editing assistance for Common App and supplemental essays, along with some advice on how to maximize your activities list.

It’s a good value at $10–$30/month if writing assistance is all you require. However, it doesn’t cover interviews, letters of recommendation, or financial aid, so significant components of the process are left out. It's writing support could also go further.

Esai.ai: Comprehensive Features, Fragmented Experience

Esai.ai covers a lot of ground - essays, school matching, extracurriculars, scholarships, rec letters - but divides them into dozens of discrete “micro-tools.”

You’re constantly toggling between modules instead of moving in a continuous integrated workflow. What you’re left with is more checklists and scattered puzzle pieces, and at nearly $50/month, it’s also one of the pricier options on this list.

Unive.ai: Done Right, All-in-One

Unive is the sole platform here to integrate every core application function into a single unified, personalized experience. Rather than a single general AI, Unive utilizes highly specialized and  custom trained AI “tutors” that work together:

• Essays: Brainstorm, outline, draft, and edit both Common App and supplemental essays. Unlike other essay editing software, Unive AI also ensures that the content produced by it is undetectable by AI detection tools, so if you want to use different snippets in your essay, you are safe to do so!
  
  

• School Matching: Recommends best-fit colleges based on your profile.
  
  

• Extracurriculars: Consolidates your activities list and provides suggestions to strengthen your profile.
  
  

• Interviews: Simulates school-specific interviews with feedback not only on substance, but also on tone, tempo and every other aspect of your delivery.
  
  

• Rec Letters: Guides you on which teachers to ask for a letter, how to ask, and gives you a bragsheet to provide.
  
  

• Scholarships: Pairs you with opportunities and has deadlines sorted out.

Since these features are integrated, your essay directly mirrors your target schools’ needs, your interview preparation reflects your activities, and your scholarship hunt matches your general application strategy.

You’re not toggling between tabs or rewriting your personal information - it all appears in one location, working toward a single strategy. The caveat here: only 3 agents are presently accessible to the general public, but additional ones are developed and released every fortnight, with the full-stack available in a few months time - still in time for this year’s cycle. 

Feature Comparison

Bottom Line

Most of the tools here are great in their niche, but they make you piece together a patchwork solution - with all the friction, repetition, and inconsistency that comes with it.

Unive is different. It’s not just comprehensive; it’s coordinated. Every piece of your application is connected, so the guidance you get in one area reinforces the others.

That translates to fewer blind spots, fewer mistakes, and a smoother, faster path to a successful application. If you prefer one tool that really does everything - without feeling cobbled together - Unive is the way to go.