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Laptop for College

C

Compnewbie01

Senior member
I am going into the Computer Engineering field for my major and I was wondering if a laptop would be necessary. If so, are there any suggestions?
 
Not for class. I'm a third year and I'm telling you laptops are useless for class. If you really wanna take notes, please just do it the right way. A few pens (multiple colors) + highlighter + kick@$$ notebook. You can't beat that for drawing diagrams and what not unlessy ou have a tablet maybe, but still....

But laptops are nice to have around. Like when I get assigned phones duty at work, I whip out my laptop and I start surfing because 3 phone calls / hour is pretty lame. Having a laptop is quite useful, but not necessary for school.

That said, look into a Lenovo T60 or something..
 
no I can tell you it is not necessary and I don't even recommend one. All it does is provide incentive to goof off online in class. I rarely see people using them for actual notes(most people use pencil and paper...it cannot be beaten)
 
Im an ECE now doing my masters degree, and im gonna be honest, I bring my laptop to class to play FreeCell while I take notes. Thats about it. Plus I get wicked fast bitorrent downloading off my schools network.

For software it can be nice to quickly type code out, but since most of my class deals with hardware/electronics at this point, diagrams and formulas need to be hand written.
 
Originally posted by: PurdueRy
no I can tell you it is not necessary and I don't even recommend one. All it does is provide incentive to goof off online in class. I rarely see people using them for actual notes(most people use pencil and paper...it cannot be beaten)
Click to expand...

Exactly, but you learn from experience. I brought my laptop like 30% of the time to class, but I learend NOT to use it last year. I brought hit close to 40 - 50% of the time my first year and I used it to goof off all the time. Last year I probably goofed off 10% of the time, meaning the other 20% I left my laptop in my backpack. Those 10% were mainly because I had things I NEEDED to get done and then ended up goofing off after I was done.

I recommend getting a laptop for the sake of convenience and what not, but if you have very little self control, don't get one. I can tell you I've used my laptop for my fraternity chapter meetings and what not in the past few weeks because it was used for an audio source and projector purposes, and I would dread having to use someone else's junk-loaded laptop to display my stuff and deal with email/USB drives.

Plus when I need to do stuff at my neighbor's apartment down the hallway, I can just lug my laptop along and multitask.

But don't think college = get laptop.
 
Not to go off topic here, but how many people use voice recorders at school? Just wondering (hoping to start in the spring)
 
don't spend much on one if u don't have the cash. its overrated. its not like u'll whip it out for a quick whatever. laptops don't just whip out, its a freakin chore, worry and burden to carry one around really unless u really really really need one.
 
Not really useful, mine sits at home most days. I do like it for course/project work, it means i don't have to have to worry about shifting files from the lab machines to my machine at home to carry on working on it. If you do get one then make it a cheap one. Nothing you do will be really CPU intensive, if it is then you should just schedule time on your universities mainframes.
 
Whoa now... I don't know what you people do at school, but mine has been invaluable - not to take notes. .. 😕 BUT to do schoolwork and projects with. For example, I brought it regularly while working on our junior engineering project for working on functional specs with people, drawing up schematics, laying out our circuit board, and eventually programming our microcontrollers. I'm going to be bringing it again this semester for programming our DSP board for DSP class.

Also, a lappy is good for doing Matlab-based homework or running circuit simulations or typing up lab reports.....
 
Thanks for the input. I think I will hold off for now at least. I just hear about how laptops are great for college, but I already have a computer I'll be taking and it seems that I will not need another. Yea, pen/pencil and paper notes are still easier for me.
 
I always thought that you should have a nice desktop to do work on and a light cheap laptop for getting online at school.. while It dose promote slacking off it also helps since teachers like to put powerpoint slides on the internet and you can get them real easy. I always liked the small sony's but they are kinda expensive, the dells are pretty good if you do not mind having the same laptop as everyone else in the school
 
Originally posted by: vorgusa
I always thought that you should have a nice desktop to do work on and a light cheap laptop for getting online at school.. while It dose promote slacking off it also helps since teachers like to put powerpoint slides on the internet and you can get them real easy. I always liked the small sony's but they are kinda expensive, the dells are pretty good if you do not mind having the same laptop as everyone else in the school
Click to expand...

macbook works well too =). I don't believe in big powerful laptops. That's why I have a nice desktop workstation in my apartment, and a decent laptop to do stuff on, but nothing huge CPU intensive stuff
 
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