The Truth About AI vs Human Writing for College Essays in 2025

The very first publicly accessible generative AI was introduced to us back in 2022 by OpenAI. Well-known today, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm and offered a wealth of revolutionary applications. From extracting practical insights from huge data sets to writing and debugging code – generative AI has been promised to change a variety of industries. And, of course, its power to create human-like content in seconds didn’t leave students overboard!

Ever since its introduction, college students have found a massive academic potential in ChatGPT and similar tools that appeared along the road. Using AI for generating college essays still sounds like a straightforward solution. Yet, even after a few years of development and improvement, it still seems to fall behind human writing. Not to mention plagiarism-related concerns and risks of using AI in school.

This guide is meant to compare AI writing vs human writing and tell students everything they need to know about using AI in the academic sector in 2025.

Why Do Students Have a Need to Use AI or Human Writing Tools?

Generative AI has become a hot topic and a real dilemma for students for a reason. It’s no secret that academic curriculums are pretty intense these days. They often make students push beyond their limits to keep up with a tense workload that consists of numerous lectures, homework assignments, and exams. Yet, academic writing, which makes up a huge part of the load, is believed to be one of the primary challenges facing students, with 70%+ of them reporting it to be hard and over 15% of students calling it extremely hard.

That’s where the dilemma between human writing vs AI writing becomes prominent. Finding it incredibly challenging and unable to handle it on their own, the majority of students start seeking help with their academic essays and other papers. They do it to:

• Keep up with pressing deadlines
• Improve their grades
• Leave enough time for work, personal life, and other important matters
• Make up for a lack of subject knowledge or writing skills
• Just take a break from tedious studies and rest

For many years, the best solution to all these problems was turning to a professional writing service, such as EssayPro. However, the rise of AI got college students wondering if it can replace such services, generating pages of text in seconds and at no cost.

Human vs AI Writing: Understanding the Difference

Generative AI is an artificial intelligence that leverages generative models to create text-based and other forms of content. The best-known example of such AI is ChatGPT – a model trained on roughly 570 gigabytes of text data to produce human-based content. It works as follows:

1. Users create a prompt that explains what kind of content they need.
2. ChatGPT analyzes the prompt with the help of natural language processing (NLP) technology and produces custom replies based on it.
3. Users can further refine or adjust the final piece by providing additional prompts.

An essay writing service, in turn, is an online platform that connects students with professional writers who hold degrees and expertise in the needed field. The main difference from ChatGPT is that the writer from such a service produces fully human written text based on the provided requirements. Based on the EssayPro example, the process is as follows:

1. Users sign up on the platform and complete a short order form, clarifying their instructions and sharing additional materials.
2. After submitting the form, users evaluate the available writers and pick the one they like most.
3. Users can relax and mind their own business while the chosen writer gets the work done. Then, they receive the final draft and pay for it (or request additional revisions if needed).

The Risks of Using AI-Generated Essays in College

Looking at the principle of work behind AI versus human solutions, it becomes clear that AI can generate essays in nearly no time and for free, which are the primary reasons why students consider it as an alternative to conventional writing services. Yet, comparing the two solutions, it’s important to consider the risks of AI in the academic field.

While it may sound like a convenient and fast solution, AI is considered a shortcut that undermines academic integrity. According to the latest research, only 6% of public school teachers in the US see more benefits than harm in AI. The rest tend to consider it a form of plagiarism. That is, the majority of schools actually have strict policies against generative AI, and using it can result in:

• Plagiarism charges
• Lowered grade
• A necessity to resubmit the assignment
• Hindered student reputation and even expulsion

It’s very easy to detect, too. At the moment, there are plenty of AI detection tools that easily identify non-human text. Used by teachers, such AI or human essay checker tools can easily reveal the fact of using AI in student writing.

Human writing, on the contrary, offers a much more holistic solution. It helps students handle their tasks while also teaching them new knowledge and skills. And it doesn’t have as many risks. For example, multiple EssayPro reviews report in-depth research and excellent quality of writing that actually help students improve their academic performance rather than put it at risk.

AI vs Human Writing Examples: A Detailed Comparison

So which solution is best? Below is a detailed comparison of short intro passages produced by AI and a human writer from EssayPro on the topic “Is vegetarianism healthy?”

An AI generated text example is straightforward, yet somewhat vague. It attempts to provide some background info on the topic but does it in a very superficial way, failing to capture the reader’s attention. Instead of making a firm thesis statement, it introduces the following content, telling readers what they will find further. All in all, the generated piece looks sloppy and lacks individuality. Of course, it’s easily detected with AI detection software, which may also put students at the aforementioned risks.

A human-written text sample provided by EssayPro has a more natural, human-like flow. It captures readers with relevant facts and recent study findings. It skillfully addresses arguments both for and against vegetarianism, gradually leading readers to the thesis statement.

Human Writing vs AI Writing: Which Is Better?

Although generative AI can seem powerful and produce human-like content, at the moment, it still lacks the capacity to compete with human-based writing. AI still lacks contextual understanding and can’t analyze student assignment requirements and prompts as deeply as a human writer. Besides, it still has restricted access to databases and can’t use the latest statistics and data. Moreover, many users report catching ChatGPT using made-up facts.

Given all these downsides and the significant risks of using AI in college, it’s clear that traditional essay writing services like EssayPro still remain a more holistic and reliable solution for college essays.