I’m looking for computer/laptop advice for my son. I see the laptop system requirements UT has published. The preferred OS is Windows 10 64-bit. Does it make sense to make the purchase from the campus store instead of say, a Costco?
Costco, in my experience, would probably beat out the campus store in value (I do not go to UT, however). Compare prices and products.
Check out if the computer at UT comes loaded with software, that your child would have to buy separately.
Is the campus store includes free onsite warranty service and the laptop is preloaded with software like MS Office and other school software then I’d consider buying it there. Otherwise if there’s no real benefit then buy wherever is cheaper or makes the most sense for you personally.
Check out if the school has education licensed software available even without purchasing the laptop from the campus store. I purchased a laptop for my D when she started her freshmen year in engineering on the web when I found a good deal. The campus store usually has very limited choices, but she still has access to all the software from school including Office360
We didn’t find any benefit to buying at our campus store. Ours sells the computers, but it is just that, the service is done by sending the laptop/PC out which is no different than buying it from somewhere else. In the past, Costco has some fabulous deals this time of year and they are pre-loaded with everything at great prices. They also have a 2 year warranty under their Concierge service and they actually answer the phone when you call.
Also check with the different companies online. Most offer student deals where all you need is a valid .edu email address.
I would wait till Jul/Aug to get the best deals and most up to date laptop. I would also check if the school offers repairs onsite if the laptop is purchased from the school. If you decide to purchase it outside of the school make sure it meets the requirements for the engineering program. Compare laptop weights since most students are taking them to class and they don’t want to carry around something big and heavy.
Check the warranty at the bookstore. We went that route because they guarantee 4 years and free loaner while being repaired. That bailed out my son more than once. The specs for engineering computers were very power heavy and geared towards 2 in 1’s, so reasonably priced options were rather limited.
Sometimes if you buy a laptop through a college they will provide service if needed. Read all the fine print as to what is included (software, guarantee etc. ) in each deal.
For my D’s school, she uses most software on the network for her engineering classes. All she needs is good network connection as it is just used as a terminal. She is a junior already and she is still using her 3 year old i5 laptop.
If your kid has a decent laptop, send him to school with it and let him discover what’s best for school usage while there.
My D18 has an HP Spectre x360 and it’s a great machine. If it’s still in good shape when she heads off to school in 1.5 years then she’ll use it and figure out what she needs there.
UT requirements don’t look too bad. The issue we had was a requirement for Integrated Active Digital Stylus (like Wacom). That added significantly to cost and pushed you to 2 in 1 or regular power laptop and high powered tablet. Actually the cost for the 2 alternatives were pretty similar so in the end went with tablet and laptop. After frosh year he mostly left laptop in his room and carried tablet that had the stylus and tons of power. Turned out to be a great solution for him. But not cheap.
One last thing - buy an external backup or set up a solid Cloud environment and make sure your kid religiously backs up the computer. The stories are rolling in this time of year that kids are having computer problems here at the end, and losing project and study info at the worst possible time. And a surprising number did not have backups. It’s really sad to hear and tremendously stressful at a time that’s already full of it. And it can be prevented. It’s a pain to deal with getting a loaner and figure out it out, but if you can at least download everything it’s much more manageable.
And educate them on basic cybersecurity principles. It’s amazing how many people don’t understand basic things like phishing, and not to click on links from emails, etc. Also stay away from sketchy websites and file sharing download sites.
My recommendations:
- A good 2-in-1 laptop (if you can afford it, I’d recommend the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, but there are cheaper options)
- A subscription to a good security suite such as McAfee or Norton
- A subscription to Office 365, or at an absolute minimum get OneNote
- EndNote (unless the school recommends different reference/citation management software)
- An external monitor (ultra wide-screen if you can afford it).
- A cloud storage account (OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, etc.)
- An external drive such as Western Digital’s MyBook
Check what the school provides, since some things on the list (like a security suite and Office 365) may be provided by them.
OneNote is one of my favorite applications. I use it every day in my job to organize notes from client meetings, product research, etc. The benefit of having a 2-in-1 is that you can write directly into OneNote in rather than trying to type notes in as you would with a standard laptop. This eliminates the need for paper notebooks.
The external monitor will make getting work done back in the dorm easier since you get a second (and much larger) display. For example, writing a paper is a lot easier to complete when you can see your notes from OneNote, an article that you’ve downloaded, and MS Word all at the same time.
I used EndNote extensively when working on my MS to collect and organize references for papers. I seem to recall MS Word supporting an import of EndNote citations, which made properly referencing my sources a breeze.
Cloud storage solutions allow you to synchronize your files on the laptop with the cloud storage. Benefits include having a backup copy of the files in the cloud, being able to access the files from any connected device (such as a library PC or iPad), and being able to grant access to specific files to others. I personally use OneDrive since I get 1TB included with my Office 365 subscription, but I think other options work just as well.
The external drive complements the cloud storage by keeping backups of file versions offline (I just use Window’s File History to accomplish this). If the cloud storage account is compromised, or if you need to recover an earlier version of a file, you can do so from the external drive.