<p>It should say that a student doesn’t need an expensive printer, since most work is submitted electronically. However, a basic printer is still important. Who wants to go out on a cold rainy night to the library to pick up their printed copies? </p>
<p>Also, there are still some old fashioned profs who want printed copies.</p>
<p>Yes, used or rental textbooks are cheaper. However, many courses now also require an internet access card that is only good for one semester. If you need the access card, it may be cheaper to buy new than used. Just make sure you compare prices, instead of buying from the college bookstore.</p>
<p>My kids have credit cards with their name on the card for emergencies. However, for every day things, they are supposed to use their ATM cards, to spend the money they earned over the summer.</p>
<p>For both of my kids’ colleges, profs wanted hard copies of papers, not submitted electronically.</p>
<p>Both my kids applied for a credit card under their own names while in college. The limit is minimal and they generally use their debit cards for most purchases anyway – they don’t want to have to worry if they have $$ to pay the bill at the end of the month vs. knowing that they have the funds right now.</p>
<p>When you need a printer, you REALLY need a printer.</p>
<p>Campus health insurance – may be unavoidable if the coverage you have at home doesn’t cover the parameters of what the college expects students to have when they are in their college town. Had to fill out an extended questionnaire at S1’s school about the percentage of various services covered before they’d grant a waiver from the otherwise mandatory school coverage.</p>
<p>Our kids did/do not have data phones, which I realize puts them back in the last century. Am debating the attractive nuisance vs. organizational/management tool issues for S2 at this stage.</p>
<p>I think credit cards are good - you just need to make sure your kid doesn’t abuse them. We’ve never had an issue with either kid. My son now has a printer that a previous roommate didn’t bother to take home with him. He found having to go to the library to print things a pain in the neck. We have good health care, but there were no local doctors near his campus so we ended up getting the school plan. He used it a lot (not for illness, but all the shots he’s needed for travel). He didn’t use many text books and the classes that had them, had the sort that don’t resuse well (language books with exercises you write in for example). We’ve been discussing the meal plan, but at least this semester son will get the all you can eat plan because, personally I’d rather he not have to be fussing about how to get an inexpensive quick and healthy dinner. My older son, got the smallest meal plan possible with the most flex dollars because the way his campus was set up, made that the more sensible choice. We gave our son a data phone as a present, and he swears he’d be fine without it.</p>
<p>At my DS’s school, .50 per page to print at Library…buying him a printer this weekend.
He does have unlimited meal plan (req’d for Freshman), Cable comes with dorm,
debit card, no car, he’s on our insurance ( $1800 for school plan…that doesnt seem that affordable), on our smart phone plan-not THAT expensive, …</p>
<p>The only things on this list S had were health insurance–we were uninsured at the time-- a nice laptop purchased through the school at a great price that lasted for all four years, and a meal plan (required). No printer, no credit card, no expensive phone plan (just a basic one on our account with text, no data), no car, no cable (no tv at all). I think he bought some used books and some new ones–don’t really know, that was his bailiwick.</p>
<p>He’s now in journalism school, and he still doesn’t have a printer. (There’s apparently one in the computer center in the place where he lives.) It will be interesting to see how that develops. I think journalists are more likely to be up to date on electronic communications. :)</p>
<p>I don’t know what MSU charges for health insurance, but I checked out Michigan’s once, it’s insane. It adds up to like 3 or 4K for a year or something. For one person, one college student aged person. </p>
<p>Makes more sense to go without. </p>
<p>Though I agree with the sentiment that the list is awful and in aggregate, probably only applies to a very small portion of students. Most students are going to need at least one of those things.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Most of the city bus routes are done by 7. I think the latest ones go until 10. If you’re trying to study at night, good luck getting home without a car unless you live very near to campus and can walk.</p>
<p>Also, what are these schools that require students have health insurance? I fail to see both, how that’s the business of the school, and how that could be implemented. What, the school’s gonna check every student’s insurance?</p>
<p>Vlad, I just had an emergency surgery that came to 30k before insurance. It’s something that strikes without warning even in young, healthy people. It NEVER makes sense to not have insurance.</p>
<ul>
<li>Students absolutely do need laptops. While they don’t necessarily need the latest top-of-the line MacBook Pro, they do need a portable computer with decent computing power.</li>
<li>Printers aren’t terribly expensive, and even if the school offers free printing and copies, it can still be convenient to have a computer/scanner in your room.</li>
<li>If it’s an urban or suburban campus, the student probably won’t need a car, but if it’s a small town or rural campus, they almost certainly will. </li>
<li>A credit card is not a problem as long as the parents educate the student in how to use it responsibly. The earlier you start building up your credit, the better, and the longer you wait, the worse off you’ll be when you want to buy a car or take out a mortgage.</li>
<li>Smart Phones are getting to be a necessity these days, and there are tons of apps out there that are useful for studying, review, and note-taking. Also, most plans include unlimited texting at a fairly low price these days, so a good plan doesn’t need to be too expensive.</li>
</ul>
<p>My son has a phone with slow internet access and without a touchscreen. I asked him if he wanted a new smart phone, and he said no, it would be too much of a distraction. He also thanked me for not letting him take his Xbox to college.</p>
<p>The greatest danger with a credit card is if there is not a tight credit limit and if the parents don’t see the bills.</p>
<p>In response to a comment above about needing a car: many colleges offer a free service to take students home after studying, after the regular bus service ends. At my daughter’s college, campus security will pick you up - but you better be sober. At other colleges, volunteer students will pick you up in a college van, and they are willing to take drunks home.</p>
<p>Ignoring the fact that having your own printer is more convenient than having to run to the computer lab to print, is a printer worth the cost?</p>
<p>I saw a $30 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier at Walmart, which I think is worth the cost (if it lasts the entire 4+ years of college). But my parents are against it because ink is ridiculously expensive and they think that my 12 suitemates will always want to print from it and use up my ink and paper…</p>
<p>Ink jet printers are not economical in the long run (read: after the supplied cartridges). Cheap ink jet printers are even more expensive to run because you have to replace ALL cartridges, not just the one exhausted.</p>
<p>If you get a printer, get a monochrome laser. It’s the least costly per printed sheet. Once in a blue moon, if you really need color prints, you can go to a copy shop.</p>
<p>If you need to scan a lot (my D does), get an all-in-one monochrome laser.</p>
<p>If you are to share the printer with your suitemates, it’s fair to ask them to contribute to the cost of ink and paper.</p>
<p>I had hundreds of pages of reading assignments each week in college that were only available online. I burned through my “free printing” within the first few weeks of the semester. Students at my school who liked to read 600 pages a week at their desks on their computers and who don’t like to take notes on the readings probably didn’t need a printer, but I definitely did. </p>
<p>I did insist on a color printer which in hindsight was silly, I only used it once or twice and the while my printer was still more cost effective than using the schools printers, a laser printer would have been even better. I was always out of toner.</p>
<p>-Some textbooks you need new because of online access codes found inside them
-if you get a cheap laptop, chances are it won’t last you 4 years and you’ll need another at some point, probably spending more on 2 decent ones rather than 1 new one.
-get a printer. everyone has a printer. everyone uses their printer.
-the price of a new smart phone is so marginal in the scheme of things its hardly worth listing. All the plans are stupid expensive anyway.
-cable TV comes in my dorm included but a lot of listed streaming services hardly do television justice. (you need cable for ESPN3 anyway…
-For the car you probably don’t need but I’d love to know where you get a lower premium for having it not at school because mine doesn’t matter at all…
-Credit card is kind of a personal decision
-high bank fees doesn’t really belong on this list IMO, no one WANTS or NEEDS that.
-be smart and you don’t need overdraft
-You eat a lot and get hungry a lot in college. You need money on that meal plan.<br>
-Health insurance is really up to you
-private loans are again something no one WANTS or NEEDS and doesn’t really belong here either…</p>
<p>I get discounted auto insurance because my daughter is more than 100 miles away without a car. It is the distant student rate since she can only drive a total of 10 weeks a year.</p>
<p>I don’t think undergrads need printers (I didn’t have one), but I agree that my printer has been extremely useful as a graduate student. I’m still on the same ream of paper I bought in September of last year.</p>
<p>I definitely had a landline in my dorm room and used it all the time. Saving those minutes! Plus call quality ws so much better. But this was also 2004-2008 before unlimited minutes were affordable.</p>
<p>And if a student is going to need a notebook computer anyway, you might as well get one that’s ideal for streaming movies and playing video games. The vast majority of students use their laptops as the primary mode of entertainment.</p>
<p>My own feeling is that anything that keeps them in the dorm room beyond sleeping time is unnecessary. And that the people who use Smartphones the most accomplish the least.</p>
<p>My son (a junior now) requested a printer right after he started his freshman year. He had to go to a different building to print things and sometimes it would be out of order or paper or there was a line of others waiting to use it and it was very inconvenient. An inexpensive printer from Walmart is what he got and it made college life go smoother, so that was a good buy.</p>
<p>I don’t know if he uses the printer as much now, tho, because many of his classes allow him to submit papers online. But I am one who prefers reading a hard copy of something I’ve written before submitting it to someone else, so I can understand how others prefer that as well.</p>
<p>Son has a MacBook and iphone, and they help him accomplish a great deal. As stated, there are programs and apps to keep you organized and caught up with your work. He also has a work study job on campus and he gets lots of emails regarding the job which he uses his cell phone to keep up with. Even something simple like taking a snapshot of notes or the page of a book on his cellphone so he can study from it later helps him. He’s in the honors college and has been on the dean’s list every semester, so he’s doing something right.</p>
<p>Smartphones are now necessary. Profs send plenty of emails and unless your student wants to constantly log onto his/her computer it’s the best way to go.</p>
<p>^ I disagree. I know quite a few people that are in college or just graduated that survived just fine without smart phones. </p>
<p>However, it seems more and more companies don’t leave you a choice. When we switched to AT&T they literally had no phones in the store that WEREN’T smartphones. My parents didn’t want to switch but they were left without a choice as that is the only service that works well where they live.</p>