how AI changed my college experience

15 Oct 2026 · 2 min

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In this video, a third‑year college student reflects on a rapid shift in higher‑education policy driven by the rise of generative AI. The university has instituted a campus‑wide “no laptop, no tablet, no technology” rule, requiring handwritten notes and printed assignments even in computer‑science classes. The student notes mixed feelings: the ban may improve attention during long lectures but also makes extended sessions harder to endure. Simultaneously, the school has tightened AI‑use policies, prohibiting AI tools for any assignments because detection is becoming more difficult. Paradoxically, the institution is also rolling out AI resources—providing every student with Claude Enterprise access, launching AI‑learning initiatives, and offering grants for AI internships. The speaker highlights the tension between the demand for AI‑related skills and policies that restrict AI use in coursework, and observes that similar policies are emerging at other elite institutions as administrations scramble to keep pace with AI development.

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So I just started my third year of college, and I've noticed a really interesting shift in higher education right now. This year, pretty much in all my classes, is a no laptop, no tablet, no technology policy, which has never been the case before. And this is in both my econ and my computer science classes. First two years of college, there were very few cases where we weren't allowed to use laptop in class to take notes at all. But this year, they were like, absolutely not. You have to print out everything. You have to write your notes on a physical notebook. Even in my computer science classes, I have. Mixed feelings about this because I think on one hand, it's helpful that everyone is super attentive and engaged in class, but for huge lectures that are 3 hours long, you could imagine it would get quite difficult. But that probably is part of the problem, that we aren't able to focus. I also heard that in the first-year, like, core humanity classes, a lot of them are also required to write essays with pen and paper, which was not the case when I took these classes. We were never allowed to use AI in any of our assignments, but Maybe because it's getting a lot better and a lot harder to detect, there has to be stricter rules to prevent any type of usage. The twist here is on an institutional level, I think there's a lot of effort to integrate AI. This year, our school just opened Claude Enterprise access to every single student. There's also a lot of new initiatives for learning AI, a lot of grants for AI internships. There's a very interesting contrast between the in-demand skills that the school wants you to learn and also the ways that it could detract from your learning. I also heard a lot of other schools are doing the same, including Ivies. The administration is like catching up to the development of AI.