About Essium
Essium is a web app that gives feedback on college application essays. You paste a draft, and the AI reads it, scores what admissions readers tend to notice, and points to the specific line worth rewriting so you can edit it in place. The aim is to keep the essay in the applicant's own voice rather than replace it.
Each draft is scored on story, voice, reflection and clarity. Personal statements and supplemental essays are kept together in one workspace, and a generator suggests angles when a prompt has you stuck. Higher tiers add faster feedback modes, unlimited AI writing and rewriting tools, an application-wide narrative map, planning of angles for specific colleges and a final-read checklist for each school.
The product is sold without a subscription. A free tier allows basic scoring and feedback, three AI reviews per day and up to 20 saved essays, while the paid Pro and Max tiers are one-time payments meant to last through the application season. The site describes it as built by students.
Key features
- Essay scoring on story, voice, reflection and clarity
- Inline line-by-line review with in-place rewriting
- One workspace for personal statements and supplementals
- Essay idea generator for stuck prompts
- Fast and Ultra Fast feedback modes
- Narrative map and college-specific angle planning
Good fit for
- Revising a personal statement before applying
- Tracking several supplemental essays across schools
Essium: questions and answers
- What is Essium used for?
- Essium is an AI college essay reviewer that scores drafts for story, voice, reflection and clarity, points to the exact line to rewrite and organizes every application essay. It is a good fit for revising a personal statement before applying and tracking several supplemental essays across schools.
- Is Essium free?
- Yes. Essium has a free plan, and paid plans start at $19 as a one-time payment.
- Is Essium open source?
- No. Essium is proprietary (closed-source) software and can't be self-hosted. In the Education & LMS category, open-source options include freeCodeCamp, Anki and AnkiDroid.
- What are some alternatives to Essium?
- Essium competes with Grammarly, Jenni AI and QuillBot.
Open-source alternatives to Essium
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freeCodeCamp
Education & LMS
freeCodeCamp.org's open-source codebase and curriculum. Learn math, programming, and compu
BSD-3-Clausevs Codecademy★ 457k
Anki
Education & LMS
Anki is a smart spaced repetition flashcard program
OSSvs Quizlet★ 32k
AnkiDroid
Education & LMS
AnkiDroid: Anki flashcards on Android. Your secret trick to achieve superhuman information
GPL-3.0vs Quizlet★ 12k
Stellarium
Education & LMS
Stellarium is a free GPL software which renders realistic skies in real time with OpenGL.
GPL-2.0★ 10k
Frappe Learning
Education & LMS
Easy to Use, 100% Open Source Learning Management System
AGPL-3.0vs Thinkific★ 3.3k
Kiwix Android
Education & LMS
Kiwix for Android
GPL-3.0★ 1.5k
SaaS alternatives to Essium
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Grammarly
AI Tools
AI writing assistant for grammar, tone and clarity across apps and browsers
SaaS
Jenni AI
AI Tools
AI writing assistant for academic papers with citation support
SaaS
QuillBot
AI Tools
Paraphrasing, grammar checking, summarizing and translation tools for writers
SaaS
Paperpal
AI Tools
AI writing and editing tool for academic manuscripts
SaaS
ProWritingAid
AI Tools
Writing assistant for grammar, style and readability checks
SaaS
SafeRender
Education & LMS
Reviews a student's assignment brief, draft and sources to flag missing requirements and citation issues
SaaS

