Merging two systems? I'm not too sure if this is the right title but anyway... I have an old macbook early 2009 that I bought through my school and purchased the digital software as well- I have no disks and I don't know how to link anything to my name? Is that even possible if someone else set it up? So my old laptop has great programs to use on it but I now have a new 2014 macbook pro mid range and I would only like to transfer some of the applications, but from my research- correct me if I'm wrong, large applications like adobe acrobat pro have files throughout the computer and can't just be copied over. I don't want all the applications so a time machine transfer is out of the question. What can I do?

Thanks in advance.
Generally speaking the Apple Migration Assistant will (optionally) transfer applications as well as documents. How well that works with any individual application will be up to the application vendor. And that info may be on their web site.

So it is theoretically possible to transfer settings, documents and applications from one Mac to another (ethernet, Firewire, Thunderbolt, etc...) though I don't believe you can choose exactly which Apps, Docs, Pics, etc. get transferred. So you may have to transfer everything and then delete the stuff you don't want/need.

Just run the Apple Migration Assistant on the two computers that you have connected together and follow the prompts, it's real easy...