<p>Do schools really hold both at the same weight? or do they just say that to be diplomatically correct? the essay prompts at some of the schools (princeton, penn) that i want to apply to don't allow me to put enough of my personality into them, as opposed to commonapp's (topic of your choice). any comments? thanks</p>
<p>If you feel like you can write a much better essay with the common app, by all means do so.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter which you use. If they cared, they wouldn't have signed onto the Common App (like UChicago didn't).</p>