<p>screwitlah is dead on about demonstrated interest. I agree that it is strange to have to equally acceptable applications, but the incentives just aren’t there to favor one over the other. </p>
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<p>Are you suggesting that students should use school applications whenever they are available? Assuming you have an equally high probability of messing up the Common Application as a school’s application, your choice of application would not matter for any particular school. Since this is true for each school, there is no aggregate advantage to using school applications (unless you believe that school’s favor their own applications).</p>