<p>I will be attending (at the moment, an unknown) college this fall, and had just a trivial question - do many college students use backpacks on campus? Since I am a girl, I guess this question pertains more to the female population of CC - do you use those cute tote bags (which I use sometimes on light textbook days), carry handbags, etc...? Or just use a regular backpack? Should I go out and buy a hugeeee new backpack so I can stuff things like laptops and multiple textbooks in them (do people even USE laptops to take notes in class?)? Or will my ol' high school backpack do?</p>
<p>Haha, sorry :( There might be a thread on this already, but I was curious...</p>
<p>It's kind of a personal preference. At my school, a lot of girls carry tote bags. I use a messenger bag, and there are many students who use backpacks. As far as laptops, it's also a personal preference. It seems like very few students in my classes use them (I'm majoring in bio), but I've heard engineering students use them more.</p>
<p>Walking around my state uni campus, basically everybody (girls included) had backpacks. On another campus, almost no girls had backpacks. I don't think on either campus anybody would think you were weird for what kind of bag you threw your stuff in. I wonder if the trends had to do with the size of the campus, campus culture, or what. Also it depends on scheduling. Of course you're not going to carry a totebag around if you have a ton of classes back to back, and textbooks to carry to boot.</p>
<p>In general messenger/tote bags are more trendy (even at my HS) but seriously, I think the school pack is the least important part of the ensemble.</p>
<p>I don't know about laptops b/c you can't tell that from just walking around :). I kind of wish it were the norm to type up notes in class (handwriting is gross...and slow...and binders a mess), but it seems like the consensus is it's rare, and sometimes people are even annoyed by the keys clicking.</p>
<p>I use the same L.L.Bean backpack I've had since 7th grade :) </p>
<p>Most classes don't require you to bring the textbook to class, but this varies by school and professor. My accounting class is the only one (out of 5) that I have to bring a book to because we do the end-of-chapter problems at the end of class. </p>
<p>Laptop use also varies. Last semester it seemed like 50% of the people in my classes brought their laptops for either notes or facebook, chat, etc. This semester I only see 5 or 6 per class.</p>
<p>Since my campus is rather small (trends go around quickly) the majority of the girls use tote bags. The tote bags are annoying because almost EVERY girl has one.The guys either have a backpack or, like me, just carry a spiral or binder to class. It all depends on how your classes are scheduled and what you need to bring. Honestly, just do what is comfortable.</p>
<p>Laptops aren't very widely used at my school. Maybe two or three in my literature lecture of about 40 students, and none in any of the math/physics courses. I think they'd really only be helpful if you were in a humanities class or a softer social science where you wouldn't be using any diagrams or things like that. For harder social sciences and natural science/math/anything involving symbolic notation/graphs/diagrams, you want to go by hand. I think I've only heard of one person who was ever capable of typing up math notes in a typesetting program at the same pace as the lecture.</p>
<p>Most people kind of switch day by day depending on what they need for the day. I carry my backpack whenever I want to carry my computer with me. It's better for my back to have the weight evenly distributed and it's safer for the computer (not to mention that my backpack is waterproof, so there's no chance that it'll get wet and fry my computer). I use a tote bag if I'm carrying less stuff.</p>
<p>As for taking notes on computer, it depends on what your classes and what your studying style and the professor's testing style. If it's essentially a lecture, I'll take notes on my computer. That way, when I study for tests, I essentially have the entire lecture (in narrative format), so its easier for me to understand. If it's a course that gives lots of examples on the board (chem, math, physics) then I usually adopt some other way to take notes.</p>
<p>I use a tote bag, but if you carry too much stuff in it, you might pull a muscle like I ended up doing in my back. I'm seriously considering going back to my LL Bean backpack. If it's a day where I only have say, two classes and the books aren't too heavy, then it's not too bad. A few semesters ago I had four classes a day and those books were heavy! So it was backpack all the way :)</p>
<p>I'd say it's about half and half, for the girls. The boys either take a backpack or just carry a notebook and a pen around. Personally, I use both....the backpack for when I have heavy items or large items that wouldn't fit comfortably in a tote bag, and then a couple of other bags that I can either wear on one shoulder or messenger style, which I use when I only have a notebook to carry around. I only take my computer to one class, and I put it in my backpack. I seriously carry about 1/10th of the stuff I did in high school, but then, in high school, I was never able to get to my locker and I had 30lbs of books...</p>
<p>I carry a messenger bag designed for a laptop and other things. I find it useful since I do carry my laptop with me around. I find it easier to take notes on my laptop since I type a lot faster than I write.</p>