<p>Carolyn:</p>
<p>Adobe Professional comes in a version for students and educators. It's $100+ (I can't remember by how much); lots cheaper than $499, but still pricey. It's a great idea to use a public library's computer if it is already installed!</p>
<p>So Carolyn - does the solidpdf.com allow for the same kind of changes that Adobe Prof allows? Have you installed it yet? How does it work?
I had suggested S use Adobe Professional until he told me the price of the program. Yikes! I don't think we'll be doing that.</p>
<p>It really bugs me when colleges get snooty when parents use the word "we" when discussing the college process. We've have worked our tails off to be able to provide the best education we can for our kids, we've dragged them off to various colleges, and supported them financially and emotionally for 17+ years. Sure my kid will fill out and design his own application, and may not even want us to read his essay. But the process as a whole involves the family, as does supporting him once he's in college.</p>
<p>so it is okay to send it in on paper? i might have better piece of mind that way anyway...</p>
<p>Marite-Thank you for the info about the student version! This does make a difference. I found a site that offers it for 118.00. It may be worth it to him for the flexibility.
Yes, igrok, a paper version via snail mail is fine.</p>
<p>Igrok - Don't forget the college-specific supplements!</p>
<p>Igrok,
If you send it by mail, be sure to check with the post office about ways to insure that it gets delivered to the right place. You can get signature cards (registered mail) that the school has to sign when the package arrives.</p>
<p>ASAP, I don't know anything about the program I mentioned - just found it through a search here on CC. It converts pdf files to Word files so you can write and print them that way. </p>
<p>Marite, Thanks for the info as well. ASAP, would you mind PMing me with the site where you found it for $118?</p>
<p>I think that adcoms don't have a problem with the use of "we" in certain contexts.</p>
<p>For example, "we" provided our child with access to helpful software for filling out applications or "we" had a discussion about his educational goals and how much our family can afford to contribute to support them.</p>
<p>Those kinds of "we" usage aren't problematic to adcoms. (I'd put the software access in the same category with my parents advising me to take a typing class in summer school before my senior year of high school and encouraging me to use some of my savings from my after-school job to buy a typewriter. Those were actually suggestions they made with a longterm perspective on what would be useful in college, not just on the college application, but they certainly did make it easier to do my college application!)</p>
<p>But when parents speak of "our application" or "we finished the application," I can understand why adcoms would get nervous. There ARE parents who force their children to apply to schools they don't want to attend, and part of the job of adcoms is to figure out whether the applicant truly wants to attend their college. And there ARE some parents who spend vast amounts of money on "packaging" advice from Catherine Cohen and her ilk.</p>
<p>After hanging out here for a while, I feel I almost "know" the longtime posters on this board and I have every confidence that the parents who've posted on this thread were careful to respect appropriate boundaries during their kid's application process, regardless of their offhand usage of the word "we" in this discussion.</p>
<p>But I could see how such shorthand usage might give the wrong impression to someone who hadn't been reading these boards over a long period of time.</p>
<p>Adcoms have only very brief moments to get impressions of parents' involvement in the process and I can understand why they might bristle when they see/hear the use of "we" language in certain contexts.</p>
<p>Carolyn - <a href="http://www.studentdiscounts.com%5B/url%5D">www.studentdiscounts.com</a> has a student/faculty discount - scroll down to about the middle of the page and you'll see it.</p>
<p>wisteria - I know that some parents are over the top in involvement - but I guess I don't feel it's the college's role to try to make judgements and assumptions about a parent's involvement from brief encounters such as inquiries about application processes.
Some colleges do react very negatively to any hints that parent's might be overly interested in the college process, so
it's good for parents to know this if just to be very careful in dealing with adcoms that you always appear "in the background."<br>
Any college that makes too much of this, however, makes me "bristle."</p>
<p>I have a brother 10 yrs younger than me. He was very unmotivated and only applied to his local state university. Our mother asked me to help him apply to out of state university. I remember sitting down at the typewriter filling out the application for my brother! I basically interviewed him and typed in the app, using his answers to complete the essay type questions, "editing" on the fly and feeling that I was approaching a gray area; Were they his answers or mine? That was almost 30 years ago, so maybe things haven't changed all that much. My involvement in my son's applications was limited to technical help in using a very awkward online word processor (ie, the common app). </p>
<p>The royal "We" doesn't bother me when it refers to parent and child. When it refers to husband and wife I get a bit uncomfortable. I was shocked when a parent stated in a conversation that she had written her child's Yale essay while her husband had composed the Harvard essay.</p>
<p>Thank you for the info on that website. However it looks like they will not process Adobe orders from K-12 students or teachers.</p>
<p>Sorry, on closer look, you're right. Even K-12 faculty can't puchase Adobe.</p>
<p>I'm going to keep searching.</p>
<p>I bought it at our local store. I can't remember, however, whether I had to provide proof or not.</p>
<p>My son used the common app for all of his colleges last year and was admitted to all of them. He did nothing special to his essay other than formatting it as the instructions suggest. No, it did not look perfect, but I really think that the admissions people are well used to the quirks and limits of the common app and read for content. So relax. If it makes you feel better, put a quick note at the bottom of the essay about not being able to use italics or whatever and let it go.</p>
<p>It looks like students K-12 can order from <a href="http://www.academicsuperstore.com%5B/url%5D">www.academicsuperstore.com</a>. </p>
<p>If not, big sis will order it for him. :)</p>
<p>A.S.A.P. is correct, it seems. Click on Adobe Acrobat Professional and a little box appears, listing eligibility to purchase. It includes k-12 students. The software sells for $119.95.</p>
<p>I'd only recommend the purchase to someone who has many applications to fill out and has truly lousy handwriting (like my S), or thinks s/he will use the software again for other purposes. Essays can be printed on separate sheets (with name and date of birth on each page) and formatted to one's heart's content.</p>
<p>One thing we moms are good for is shopping! :D</p>
<p>PDF Converter Professional 3 software is less expensive than Adobe Acrobat Pro and received reasonably good reviews from PC Magazine.</p>