<p>How exactly do most people here fill out their apps? I'm guessing most don't do the paper version, but do you have to download the forms in PDF or something? I'm computer illiterate, so if someone can explain how you can actually type on a PDF file and send it back to the college (with supplemental materials or whatever) I would appreciate it. Or does anyone actually use the paper app anymore?</p>
<p>People do do the paper apps still. Some universities also offer PDF versions of their apps. Some of these allow you to type answers onto the PDF document itself (inside Adobe Reader), but many are just downloads where you have to print out the form and then fill it out and fax it or send it. To know if one is the fill-in-able kind, you open the app in Adobe Reader. If it is, then a little yellow note appears at the top of the window that tells you it is.</p>
<p>The advantage to paper apps, and probably the main reason they're still heavily used, is because teacher recommendations and parent signatures must often be furnished with the app and these must be sent in anyway. It's easier for colleges to keep track of everything if it all arrives in one envelope.</p>
<p>Online apps are nice in the sense that they don't require postage and they don't require the college on the receiving end to type the information into the computer (well, in many cases), and so online apps sometimes come without application fees. However, most still require you to send something.</p>
<p>And then there's the hybrid version, among them the Common App (correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a couple years), in which you can fill it out online and then submit it either in online form or print it out with your info already typed-in, sign it, and send it in on paper.</p>
<p>Wow thanks laldm! I like the sound of the hybrid one best...but how many places do that? On most of the websites, it looks like it's all PDF or something.</p>