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Does your university force you to buy or lease a laptop?

D

DWW

Platinum Member
I'm curious if this is the policy at many schools.

One school my sister applied to for teacher's college forces you to LEASE an IBM thinkpad for $1300/year (yes $1300). And, at the end of it, there is NO buy out option. They will however, sell you a slightly discounted other brand of laptop but not the one you put $1300 into per year, every year you are there :frown:

They somehow believe that all students must have them to excel at school
rolleye.gif
. It is pretty laughable because its a crappy school and I think IBM probably donated a computer lab or two on that condition (we scratch your back, you scratch ours).

I've seen laptop programs at a few other schools but most let you have the choice whether or not to get one.

And this isn't even for CS or degrees that require computers to do work--all programs have to have 'em (!)

I don't know. At college I always thought I would have bought a laptop cause I took programming. I never ended up getting one and am happy because if you want to pay attention to the lecture you really have no need for a laptop unless you are bored between classes. Even then we had open labs which almost always had machines open.

Most students that I saw bring laptops to class (and proceed to use during class time) had dismal marks and/or failed after a couple semesters heh.
 
What if you have your own laptop? Are you still required to lease an IBM from them? What if you have the EXACT same Thinkpad that they lease?
 
yes i've heard of this... i know several people in polytech (engineering school basicly) and they force you to lease a ibm thinkpad.
 
Originally posted by: Jeff7181
What if you have your own laptop? Are you still required to lease an IBM from them? What if you have the EXACT same Thinkpad that they lease?
Click to expand...

No there are absolutely no exceptions. She called to clarify this earlier today and I was beside her.

She basically said "okay thanks, by the way you might reconsider your policy because I'm now going to another school".

The other school is much better anyhow but she just wanted to check her options out.
 
For the Information Technology Management program at my university in Canada, students are forced to lease or purchase a new laptop (new = less than 2 years old I believe). I myself am very skeptical about the benefits of this and have avoided buying a laptop because I figure a pen + paper is quicker to take notes with any day of the week. If I need computer access at uni, I'll go into a lab.

There's at least two colleges in the Toronto area who also have this requirement for tech-specific programs of study.
 
That's disgusting. Tell your sister not to go there if she's accepted. I can see requiring ownership of a computer, but to force you to lease one of theirs for less than a medium-quality one would cost you to buy is flat-out wrong. Sad to see a school sinking that low.
 
I'm surprised they don't just ad $1500 to the tuition and then say they're giving you a free laptop to use while you attend school. That would be the sneaky way to do it.
 
Wow, that laptop isn't to shabby... Not to mention the software that you get with it! I have to buy Pspice, Matlab/mathmatica etc myself if I don't want to use the labs.
 
starting this fall, clemson is going to require all incoming freshmen to have laptops, and they're sleepin' with IBM, but I don't see anything that says they ::have:: to be IBM's..

 
leasing a laptop for $1300 a year? Hahahahahaa! i'd tell them just like your sister did, "Thanks, you just made my decision to attend another school."

at Virginia Tech, everyone had to have a computer, and it had to meet certain minimum performance requirements. but you certainly weren't forced to buy it from any one place, and you certainly weren't forced to lease it!!!
 
Just to keep this from being a unanimous crucifixion of the laptop program, I'm going to say that most of the costs go into the instant, no questions asked hardware replacement policy the schools get from the manufacturer.
 
Georgia Tech has a policy that requires incoming freshmen to have desktops. However when I was a undergrad, there was no enforcement and people got through without having one. However, given the fact that everyone needs one for surfing, work, games, movies etc etc, a multi functional comp could save a lot of space!
 
My brother's college gives a free laptop to every student. And not crappy ones, either. He's a Junior now, and he got a 800mhz machine when he was a freshman. It's Grove City College.
 
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