Computer Shopping for Boarding School

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>Okay...what's the deal?</p>

<p>Laptop or desktop?</p>

<p>Windows or Mac?</p>

<p>Any special features that are essential? Any that seem important that aren't worth it?</p>

<p>I'm especially curious if anyone has wisdom regarding Windows Vista which I understand will not work with Office 2003. And, if you get Office 2007, it is not backwards compatible to Office 2003 unless you save it as an Office 2003 document (in which case, you have to buy Office 2007 to generate Office 2003 documents). Do you just buy Windows XP ($99) and install it over the Vista?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance, whether you're an IT wizard or someone who's dropped his laptop enough to know that a desktop is the way to go.</p>

2

<p>Is price a factor?</p>

3

<p>OK, unless your son needs to type his classroom work or they have kids routinely bring laptops to class at the specific school, I strongly recommend a desktop. Much less likely to be stolen, broken etc. Neither of my older kids had laptops for boarding school, but have for college.</p>

4

<p>A laptop is more convenient, and I think most of the students prefer one over a desktop. At least, that's what I've observed at Blair. Your son can also bring the laptop home to do work. </p>

<p>You should contact his school's tech department to ask about Windows or Mac -- wireless or not. </p>

<p>At this point, I don't know anything about Vista & Office 2007. I'm going to keep my XP and Office 2003 for as long as I can.</p>

5

<p>Laptop. No question.</p>

<p>Much easier to pack and move (unless you are already committed to a U-haul). Dorm rooms are crowded enough already as well. Most laptops only leave the desk occasionally (go to the library), so the chance of breakage is small.</p>

<p>Here's an interesting suggestion. If you have an older hand-me-down laptop, it is better. First you don't have to address the Vista issue long-distance. Second, if it is broken, not much is lost (except the data which is generally more valuable than the computer itself).</p>

<p>If a kid has enough time to be gaming and needing a faster computer processor, you've sent your kid to the wrong school. LOL</p>

<p>If you get the hand-me-down, upgrade the memory to as much as you can cram in it, clean off all the spy-ware and other junk programs that eat the memory (basically go back to the recovery disk that either came with it or you made - if you were reading the directions - and update your operating system/browsers/etc). A decent 2-year-old laptop will suffice for the word processing and web research needs of 95% of prep students (the other 5% are doing high performance video/audio work for art type classes and will need a desktop with mongo power).</p>

6

<p>mac or windows - depends on the school. </p>

<p>but i disagree with goaliedad. It sucks if the computer crashes when you are writing a 20 page final english paper due the next day, which happened to me just now. I am kinda screwed right now</p>

7

<p>If you're luck enough to go to Peddie and I think Deerfield, they give you a laptop and everyone is linked in and has the same software if I'm not mistaken. Teachers are in constant contact that way with students and questions etc. Seems like a valuable program and everyone is on the same page.</p>

8

<p>**D'YER MAKER'S EXPERT AND PERSONALIZED COMPUTER TROUBLESHOOTING SERVICE FOR HOTCHKISS SCHOOL STUDENTS WHO ARE UP THE PROVERBIAL CREEK WITHOUT MEANS OF LOCOMOTION.</p>

<p>ISSUE:** Computer crashes while writing 20 page final English paper due the next day.</p>

<p>**1. IS YOUR COMPUTER PLUGGED IN?</p>

<p>A:** Yes.</p>

<p>**2. HAVE YOU RESTARTED YOUR COMPUTER?</p>

<p>A:** Yes. I'm communicating with you, right?</p>

<p>**3. ARE YOU TRYING TO RECOVER THE FILE?</p>

<p>A:** Yes, you idiot!</p>

<p>**4. ARE YOU TRYING TO RECOVER THE FILE BY VISITING COLLEGE CONFIDENTIAL THE NIGHT BEFORE SAID PAPER IS DUE AND SEEMINGLY LOST?</p>

<p>A:** Of course I am! Do you think I don't know what I'm doing?!?!</p>

<p>**5. POSSIBLY. ARE YOU PLANNING TO ATTEND THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN NEXT FALL?</p>

<p>A:** Absolutely!</p>

<p>**6. THEN I HAVE NOTHING FURTHER TO SAY TO YOU. YOU ARE DEAD TO ME.</p>

<p>A:** Thanks, D'yer. That solved the problem!</p>

<p>**7. DON'T MENTION IT.</p>

<p>A:<a href="Sound%20of%20hair%20being%20pulled%20out%20by%20the%20roots.">/b</a></p>

9

<p>St. George's had the best tech program of all the schools I saw. The students all had tablet PCs that everyone has to purchase. Assignments and class notes and other materials would be transferred in class from teacher to students at the press of a button. It worked seamlessly and was ubiquitous.</p>

<p>Of course if the school was providing a computer, I wouldn't ask.</p>

<p>There's no requirement to even have a computer. There are plenty of computers available throughout campus and each student has space on a server and print jobs can be sent to the library or a couple of other locations. There's no preference from the IT Dept. as to Windows or Mac. So the decision is wide open.</p>

<p>I've got a spare printer.</p>

<p>I think the only reasons to go with a laptop seem to be a) smaller footprint in a dorm room; and b) portability of data during breaks. I've got a Windows 98 laptop that I held onto until January '06. My wife and I have XP laptops. A sluggish XP desktop and a year old XP desktop. I would be loathe to part with my laptop as I use it for work. I'll talk to my wife about giving him her laptop...allowing her the chance to "upgrade" to a Vista laptop. She has a work laptop, so hers is mainly a web surfing device. He should keep the laptop in his dorm room and not take it to classes as I don't see him taking notes on a laptop.</p>

10

<p>I think bearcats ran afoul of one of the worst of Murphy's laws...</p>

<p>It is a mistake to let any device know that you have an urgent deadline. </p>

<p>Hence, the crash. Especially without a backup.</p>

<p>With the cheap thumb drives though D'yer the portability of data has become a non-issue. My D keeps a lot of her current work on her thumb drive so she can print it on the dorm printer (when hers is conveniently out of ink), or at the library.</p>

<p>Bearcats has a point about older computers being more prone to breakdown. I wouldn't send the Win 98 laptop, but a 2-year old machine should be good for at least one if not 2 more years. With a 9th grader who may not be very responsible, a machine that is worth $100 on Ebay is not as bad of a loss as that new Best Buy special.</p>

<p>Giving the wife the new Vista laptop is a bonus. She gets to guinea pig the technology and you get to look great for giving her the "new" machine.</p>

<p>Personally, I have the 3-year-old desktop at the bottom of the food chain. I don't need any more of a machine and don't have an ego to feed with the latest in technology, despite the fact that I make my living in IT. So my wife got the new laptop last fall and DD got the hand-me-down Toshiba.</p>

<p>The DD's Toshiba developed a small issue with the electrical connection pin which had to be re-soldered over spring break, but otherwise, it has been just fine.</p>

11

<p>Laptop. Without a doubt. Not up for debate!</p>

<p>Mac. Seriously, they're just better. I will never go back to a PC. I have NEVER had a virus or anything and I've had this for 2+ years (yet, it looks brand new, and still beats out most lap tops just coming out on the market in terms of specs and whatnot). I have a 15" Mac powerbook g4 w/ OS X 10.4.8, 1.67 GHz and 1 G and it is one amazing little machine. Although I wouldn;t mind a new macbook (but I have too many software programs on my computer to sacrifice).</p>

<p>Everything is more organized and easier to locate. No matter what it is on my computer, I can find it in a few seconds. Theres also a feature called Dashboard, which I cannot explain, but Apple can ( <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard&lt;/a> ). It's very useful. You name it.. any reference tool, you can get it on there, for free. Currency and metrics converting calculator, graphing calculator, dictionary, mini calender, virtual post-it notes, timer, ski report, yellow pages, multilingual translation, etc. All w/ one key tap.</p>

<p>My laptop has been through some hard times. It has fallen on the floor more than 50 times. Water, soda, liquid tylenol, you name it... it has all fallen into the speakers (which, despite only covering 1" x 4" of surface area, still play music loud enough to get me into trouble) and in the creases of the keyboard. Neither the keyboard, speakers, or aluminum frame seem affected at all. It's really tough. I wouldn't reccomend anything else.</p>

<p>Essentials: I would say a lot of memory. Think of all of the pages on Word you will have to save. </p>

<p>Programs: Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, etc..) Those are the essentials, everything else can come later I suppose. I personally think iFlash (virtual flashcards) is an amazing program for studying, and it's cheap. But that stuff comes later.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

12

<p>I have Office 2007 installed on my Vista laptop. How do I use Office 2007 to generate Office 2003 documents?</p>

13

<p>goliedad -- I'm going off-topic for a minute. I'm seriously thinking about getting a Mac next computer. However, Mac OS is based on UNIX -- which I believe requires a higher-level programming knowledge than WIN when there are problems. Comments?</p>

14

<p>@ blairt: One of the selling points of Vista is that it has the dashboard feature.</p>

<p>@ Redpride11: When you save the document, you select "Save As" and then choose the correct option under the "Save As (File) Type" pull-down menu. If you don't save all your files as 2003 documents, only Vista/Office 2007 users will be able to read them. So -- for the time being -- you've got to save them as Office 2003 documents in order for others to read them, which makes Office 2007 pretty much worthless.</p>

<p>@ Burb Parent: You have to have problems with your Mac for that to be an issue.</p>

15

<p>


</p>

<p>I'm that transparent, huh?</p>

16

<p>Burb Parent,</p>

<p>A little out of my specialty (I'm a database administrator), but both Mac and Windows have gone out of their way to make it more difficult for the end user to fix his/her own machine as the operating systems try (key word) to take total control. And of course with every new Windows release, they keep re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. It is still a poorly written operating systems that was designed with intentional holes (programs that operate outside of the OS), that has tried to limit that exposure unsuccessfuly with patch after patch (more baling wire and chewing gum). It's main advantage is the large number of people who think they know how to work with it.</p>

<p>My best advice is to back up often. Not just your data but a system recovery disk, so you can quickly recover if you corrupt a major program while fiddling under the hood.</p>

<p>As to the level of programming knowledge, I'd say UNIX based systems are probably the simplest, as with the open source movement, you generally get more transparent applications (fewer black boxes).</p>

17

<p>
[quote]
I'm that transparent, huh?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Aren't we all?</p>

18

<p>=O Vista is a knockoff! (As was the original Windows..) Microsoft is dirty!</p>

19

<p>I would go with laptop, microsoft, but try to get XP...vista sucks</p>

20

<p>Why not Vista? I've used Vista for quite a while and there have been no problems.</p>