College Confidential
» CC HOME » FORUM HOME

  College Confidential > College Admissions and Search > College Admissions
New User

Welcome to College Confidential!
The leading college-bound community on the web
Join for FREE now, and start talking with other members, weighing in on community polls, and more.

Also, by registering and logging in you'll see fewer ads and pesky welcome messages (like this one)!
Discussion Menu
»Discussion Home
»Help & Rules
»Latest Posts
»NEW! CampusVibe™
»Stats Profiles
Top Forums
»College Chances
»College Search
»College Admissions
»Financial Aid
»SAT/ACT
»Parents
»Colleges
»Ivy League
Main CC Site
»College Confidential
»College Search
»College Admissions
»Paying for College
Sponsors
SuperMatch - The Future of College Search!
CampusVibe - Almost As Good As A Campus Visit!
Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 02-08-2009, 11:51 AM   #1
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: WUSTL '14
Posts: 427
Are you supposed to write or type applications?

I downloaded one and I'm trying to type on the PDF but can't. Do I print it off and hand write it, or does that look sloppy?
Ari7 is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 01:06 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Swarthmore
Posts: 3,227
You should be able to type on applications if you go to www.commonapp.org and register. I don't know much about technology, but unless you have a certain program, I don't think you can type on PDF documents. Printing the document and handwriting your application is perfectly fine, as long as you have legible handwriting.
dchow08 is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 01:26 PM   #3
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,259
Do you have access to a scanner? My kids have messy handwriting, so what they've done is print off the PDF and scanned it, saving it as a TIF file. We have MS Word 2003, so the next part could vary depending upon what you have. They've opened Word, selected Format, then Background from the drop-down menu, and then Printed Watermark. Next, they've clicked on the radio button for Picture Watermark and selected the scan of the PDF. They choose a scale of 100%. Then they unclick the check next to "Washout" to keep the PDF from printing in light gray. The form then shows up in their Word document. With most forms they've been able to select the entire watermark and move it up or down slightly to better match the line spacing used by Word. They have to use tabs, spaces or hit Enter to move around the page using Word. I've heard there are programs which are designed to save PDFs in such a format that you can type on them, but this method has worked for our family.
2blue is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 01:40 PM   #4
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: WUSTL '14
Posts: 427
Its not for the common app, unfortunately

I have pretty bad handwriting so I'll have to try your method, thanks
Ari7 is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 02:00 PM   #5
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,259
Let me know how it works for you.
2blue is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 02:30 PM   #6
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,259
Also, sometimes to best fit a line, you can enter your text, select it, choose the Format menu, then Paragraph. In the pop-up box under Spacing you can choose different "Before" or "After" spacing to force a line a text to better fit the blanks in the PDF.
2blue is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 02:39 PM   #7
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: WUSTL '14
Posts: 427
My dad told me a way to scan it in and convert it to a word file, so I'm going to see if that works
Ari7 is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 03:04 PM   #8
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 1,259
If it does, post how you did it. It would be really helpful for the rest of us who deal with the same issue.
2blue is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 03:28 PM   #9
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Posts: 978
I know PDF tax forms can be typed...I'm surprised colleges don't have these.
geeps20 is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 04:59 PM   #10
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: SRQ, FL ---> Emory '13
Posts: 1,115
I wrote out a lot of my stuff. I like my weird handwriting.

And handwritten stuff may stick out.
hilsa is offline   Reply   
Old 02-08-2009, 05:57 PM   #11
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Posts: 43
There is a free program that you can download called Foxit Reader ... it has a typewriter tool that allows you to type on PDF documents, but unfortunately you cannot save them unless you pay for the complete program.

However, I use the free version for all my PDF needs and it has always kept me satisfied.

Here is a link:
Foxit Software - Foxit Reader 3.0 for Windows
mintjingle is offline   Reply   
Reply

Bookmarks

Thread Tools



All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:13 AM.




Copyright 2001-2011, Hobsons, Inc., All Rights Reserved