ok is it 100% absolutely true that they will treat the common app and a schools app totally equal?
i just am so worried im gonna mess myself up if i use the common app
<p>I think so, some school actually just sent me the common app. (with their supplement) I can't remember which but it was a fairly prestigous institution.</p>
<p>Yale and Harvard both sent me the Common Application, with no sign of their individual applications. I almost think they prefer it.</p>
<p>Don't worry about it. If a school takes the common app, they take the common app. They aren't going to reject or accept you based on that.</p>
<p>Yale and HArvard exclusively use the common app; they don't have their own application.</p>
<p>I know they're required by law to accept the common app equally, but in a college admissions book I read, I think the one by Hernandez (not sure?) says to use the individual college application, especially at lower tier schools because it shows more interest in the college. At higher tier schools like the Ivies, it doesn't matter because they know that you have an interest in the school but are using the common app and applying to other schools since the chances of getting in aren't great. But at lower tier schools, which many use as safeties, need to think that they are of high interest to you.</p>
<p>I'm too lazy to type up a new response, but I dug up a pertinant post I had written before about a very surprising and enlightening event.
[quote]
It is true that colleges have to sign a non-discrimination agreement when they decide to accept the common application, but that does not mean that they have to honor it. When I was touring colleges in the Twin cities with my friends, I asked whether one way of applying is preferred to the other, and I was told about the sworn statement they have to sign. At the next college we visited, another student asked if that college accepted the common application. The presenter (the dean of admissions) answered that yes, X College does take the common app, but that they give preference to students who take the time to fill out our individual application. !?! Personally, I may use the common application for my safety schools, but I would not take the risk at my top choces.
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