Too much of a good thing

As a college counselor, I think that the Common Application is a wonderful tool.  It simplifies the process and eliminates the tedious task of creating 8 different applications for 8 different schools.  I believe that the Common Application works perfectly in tandem with careful college matchmaking and knowing exactly why a student is applying to each school.  But it does a disservice to both the students and the institutions when applicants spam, say, 20 schools with their application just because it's easy to select colleges with the click of a mouse.  This article concerns me about the advent of the Universal College Application, the Common Application's competitor.  I'm not sure that what is needed is greater ease of applying to a greater number of schools.  More is not better when it comes to college applications.  If anything in the college application process should be done to excess, it is the researching and evaluating of the colleges on a student's list.  I worry that these mass applications are turning high school students into college consumers as opposed to bright individuals who are mining for the best matched place to spend the next 4 years.