<p>Some posters have made good points about saving stuff on computers. Anyone working on college computers would need to save their stuff on flash drives or other saving device. Also, I don't know if ordinary (as opposed to dedicated) college computers have software such as matlab, Mathematica, LaTex, foreign fonts, etc... which some students will need for their work. </p>
<p>As well, many exchanges take place over several emails that can be spread over a period of time. A student standing at a terminal in the library waiting for an answer for his/her email on a consistent basis is probably wasting as much time as a student videogaming.</p>
<p>i don't think anybody should ever have to buy their kid a computer. i don't have a problem if people do, but i personally think that's something a kid should buy on their own. </p>
<p>my little sister (age 17) commented the other day about wanting a new computer (she has a desktop but wants a laptop), but then i talked to her about it and now she's decided she's going to wait till she graduates high school and then buy herself a new laptop prior to going to college.. that way she can spend the same amt of money but have a nicer laptop for college.. and just "stick it out" one more year with her PC. (which is like a 2.6 ghz computer she bought when she was 14, so it's not like she's in the stone age )</p>
<p>your son will need a computer for college, however there is no law saying you have to buy it for him. have him work for a little bit and earn some money so he can appreciate the value of the computer that he will purchase. That's my thought on the matter.</p>
<p>The OP is not asking about who should be paying for the computer. He is asking whether a computer is necessary--his son is about to go to college, unlike your sister-- and he worries abouthis son's wasting time downloading, not about paying for the computer. Whether on a desktop or a laptop, a student can waste time just as well.</p>
<p>i know that. i'm just saying sometimes when a kid has something like that given to them is when they take it more for granted... so if it was me i'd send the kid to school without a computer and if he needs one he'll work and gain responsibility and get it himself... and hopefully by that point realize there is more to life than goofing off on the computer.</p>
<p>i have a similarity to ur younger sister i got a computer the april of my freshman yr of hs... my parents bought it for me and my sisters but im the main user b/c my sisters r never really home(out of house)and they usually use my parents laptop..I See computers and i want one i tell myself wait till college...wait till college! Im going into junior yr..</p>
<p>Your son will be at a devastating disadvantage without a computer and at a school like Pomona I am guessing will have trouble getting work in, communicating with professors (now done mostly by email) and learnign of assignments or last minute changes, which are emailed to students. At many schools, finals and tests are now taken over the computer --it's very difficult to do that in a noisy lab.</p>
<p>At Brown assignments and even reading materials are on the web and if you do not have a computer you would need to do costly printouts. Honestly, as a parent, I think not sending a computer in 2006 is a terrible idea that is bound to hamper and criple your child and get him off to a terrible start. My son did not know one person without a computer at Brown.</p>
<p>adding to what clover said, most schools are starting to charge money for print outs in the computer labs. i know my college gives you x amount of pages per semester free and after that it's a few cents per page.</p>
<p>If he isn't going to have a computer, a USB flash drive is a necessity...They even have some now with which you can have programs on the drive and run them completely through the flash drive, along with opening files and saving them, etc.; in fact, anyone who doesn't have a printer would also probably find one of these very useful.</p>
<p>I can't imagine sending my kid to college without a computer. </p>
<p>If you are worried about how he will spend his time on it, then you should let him know that if his grades drop because of his games/IMs/etc, then you will no longer be paying his pricey tuition (whatever amount you are paying). If he plays games/IMs and keeps his grades up, then it is really none of your business. </p>
<p>If you are not paying for any of his tuition, then it is solely his problem.</p>
<p>P.S. Why did you capitalize the first letter of each of your words??? Never seen that done before here.</p>
<p>First of all, let me say, I sent my kids off with computers, so I'm not arguing against that. But I think many posters here are living in Affluent-Land, if they think that a kid cannot survive and thrive without a computer at college.</p>
<p>At the college I work at, few students own computers. They use the college computer labs, which let me tell you are not as well-stocked or maintained as the ones at a more "elite" school like Pomona. Many of them don't live on campus, either, so it's not just walking across campus at night; it's driving or taking a couple buses.</p>
<p>Yet they manage. They communicate with profs, they use email, they IM, they're on Faqcebook (now that it's open to "regular" schools, not just elite ones) they blog, they have websites, they write their papers, they research. They make do, and it's not great, but it's doable. As far as saving their work, well, all students have private space on the school servers to save to; I'd be surprised if that's not true at other schools, too. Thousands and thousands of college students do not own computers, and thrive.</p>
<p>My D spent most of her senior year with various computer issues which meant she did most of her work in computer labs. She survived it too. She found a lab at Wesleyan where all her friends gathered, and it became a second home for her. Got some wonderful papers written there.</p>
<p>So, I'm not arguing that you shouldn't get a computer. Just putting a little brakes on this "Omigod, your student might as well have a quill and inkwell if you don't buy them a computer" mentality. It's nice, but in most cases (Marite gives some good exceptions) it's not do or die. It just takes a little ingenuity.</p>
<p>I finally asked S yesterday about computers on his campus. There is a computer lab that is open 24/7 and has printers (as well as support staff, though not 24/7). You also have your own space. One of his friends had to live without a computer for two months because the laptop he'd ordered was inexplicably shipped to Osaka, Japan, instead of Cambridge, MA, USA (huh?).
How often one needs to use a computer depends on the classes one takes. Many classes only assing a midterm, a term paper and a final, and for that, you need not use a computer as regularly as for classes that have weekly problem sets (and for which the profs sends out corrections almost immediately after posting the problems, and sometiems several corrections, at that).
So the degree of convenience or inconvenience depends partly on the type of classes one takes. As for the social aspect of things, I have a niece who used to hog the phone from 8pm to 11pm practically every evening. It was in France, before computers and e-mails (and those are not cheap either), and my brother refused to have another phone line. You don't need a computer to waste time.</p>
<p>Is a computer an essential. Probably not but is it nice to have. YES. My D like several other posters kids had to do without her computer for about 3 weeks. She had access to a computer lab in her dorm 24 hours a day plus various labs on campus and the library. She rarely saw another person in the lab. She actually came to like the quiet it provided.
She also survived quite well the first quarter not having her own printer.</p>