<p>If I am aplying online to schools, do I have to print out teacher recommendations, mid year reports, all that stuff and send that in by mail? How does this work with the common app?</p>
<p>Rule No. 1: you personally must see to it that all things are sent, and not just that you have asked them to be sent but that you verify they have been sent. How you get them sent depends on the college and even your high school. Many colleges have a counselor's form (even with the common app colleges have their own additional supplemental app that may include that) to be filled out by your high school counselor, who does so and sends in your transcript with it and often also sends in recommendation letters which the recommenders give to the counselor. In fact, many high schools have that type of process in place regardless of whether the college has a form for it. As to mid-year grades, you have to order those sent to the college. When there is no counselor process, you order your transcript sent and have rec letters sent by the persons who prepare them directly to the college -- you should give them the envelope with a stamp to send it -- because colleges prefer getting rec letters that you have not been shown.</p>