<p>For the schools that send you a free application and a decision in 3 weeks, what’s the catch? Would I have to put their names under the CSS profile? And is their decision/admission binding? </p>
<p>Thanks in advance :]</p>
<p>Generally they are smaller lesser-known schools looking for ways to appeal to students.</p>
<p>Yeah. There’s no harmful catch or trick to you, but a lot of these schools have less “prestige” (as far as US World News or whatever rankings) and are trying to get a leg-up by appealing to talented students strapped for cash after spending hundreds of dollars applying to a couple of state schools. </p>
<p>Of course, that doesn’t mean that these are bad schools or anything, but it doesn’t mean that you should apply to all of them either.</p>