<p>Should freshman bring their laptops? If so, do most students carry them around or leave them in the dorm?</p>
<p>Laptops are a definite must for any college student these days. Some carry them around to work portably, but your workstation will usually stay in the dorm.</p>
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<p>Completely wrong and misleading. You don't have to have a laptop on campus. It's up to personal preference with note taking, financial resources, computing preferences, etc. If you have one, can afford one, and think it'll help, then bring a laptop. If you don't want one, can't afford one, don't think it'll help, use a desktop. Or if either section doesn't go well, the Units provide free computing resources for its students (at certain times).</p>
<p>There are many options and nothing is a "definite must."</p>
<p>I agree with eiffelguy87 that it is not a definite must, and I would furthermore state that a carrying a laptop around makes you a prime target for crime.</p>
<p>I honestly don't know one student at Cal or elsewhere who doesn't have a laptop, or at least a desktop for their own personal use at college.</p>
<p>I just bought a 15' widescreen laptop, and it's about 7 lbs and relatively big. I am beginning to regret buying this instead of a 13" laptop...</p>
<p>If you are shopping for one, I would HIGHLY recommend a smaller laptop due to its incredible portability. Try a laptop 13" or under. It weights around only 3 lbs, which is actually lighter than my Calculus textbook.</p>
<p>On the contrary, I have a 15.4" laptop that is only ~6lbs and it's fine. I prefer the wxga+ resolution as opposed to the small desktop space offered by smaller screen laptops. Laptops are not necessary, but definitely more versatile (bring it to the library to use while studying, bringing it to a study group meeting, carrying it to class to take notes)</p>
<p>Same here, I find myself strained to view a laptop screen that is smaller than 15". There are laptop models out there with 17" LCDs yet weigh only 6-7 lbs, which to me is actually quite small (my five year old Dell Inspiron 8000 weighs over 9 lbs, which still isn't enormously heavy IMO).</p>
<p>17" is too big but super for movie watching...15.4" laptop fits snuggly into my jansport backpack</p>
<p>Well, I love portable big screens, and have no problem with carrying around heavy loads (my backpack size on average during my senior year in high school was 20+ lbs).</p>
<p>i mean i would love a 17", but my jansport backpack cannot hold one!</p>
<p>i have a few questions:</p>
<p>are there computers are libraries? are there usually some not being used?</p>
<p>is wireless access all across the campus?</p>
<p>yes; but during finals computer availability decreases dramatically</p>
<p>wireless access available at most places.</p>
<p>Computers in the library are very old and restricted to do next to nothing except launch Internet Explorer.</p>
<p>AirBears is everywhere and reliable in most of the places; however, traffic is unencrypted.</p>
<p>I <em>would</em> recommend a laptop, something small like a 15" iBook (G4, not Intel). So you can take it to the library, into the lounges on the dorm floors, etc.</p>
<p>Well, DarkPyr0 recommended Apple, so his credibility is completely gone--ignore what he said. My question is this: how many students actually use a laptop to take notes? It seems like that is rare.</p>
<p>Not too many.</p>
<p>It's interesting that most of the people I saw at Berkeley had laptops, but kept them in their dorms. Anyway, it seems easier to have a small piece of hardware in the dormroom than a desktop setup.</p>
<p>I also see people holding their laptops with their hands while walking down the berkeley streets... crazy people have no idea how dangerous that is.</p>
<p>It's dangerous, but you live on the edge at Cal.</p>
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Well, DarkPyr0 recommended Apple, so his credibility is completely gone--ignore what he said.
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<p>Before you insult me, make sure you actually have a clue. If you search through my posts I recommend Apple because not everyone is a computer savvy person that can rebuild a kernel in his/her sleep. Hell, even people in EECS can't do that.</p>
<p>If anything, have some school pride, Apple is also BSD based (using the microkernel), BSD stands for Berkeley Software Distribution and we even have a Wozniak lounge.</p>
<p>I'll be the first to bash Apple for fun but I do respect them for their quality products (after first generation). I myself don't even own Apple. I like PCs and I believe they are easy to use but it can't be applied generally because most people lack the common sense that it requires. </p>
<p>It's kind of a balancing thing; I'm the one fixing computers for people I know. The more people that get Macs, the less work I do. The more people that get normal PCs, the more free lunches/dinners I get. That's not to say that Macs don't break down as often as PCs (when Macs do break, it's often beyond repair), but in general, there are less nuisances to deal with.</p>
<p>Many people in History 124B use laptops to take notes.</p>
<p>Professor Babak (EE20) even requested a few students take notes on their laptops and hand them in so he could have a copy.</p>
<p>Professor Sethian (Math54) told people he would take away their laptops if he ever saw them in class. A laptop in any math class is pretty much useless unless it's a tablet (same goes for Physics).</p>
<p>In CS61c, it's handy to have a laptop to test things you learn in class. I see a guy with a small iBook doing his CS projects, homework, and labs on it.</p>
<p>If you're like me, you won't be able to read your own handwriting so it makes more sense to type notes. Then again, I don't take notes.</p>
<p>Laptops are a convience. It also helps kill time in the gaps during your classes...or if you're at work with nothing to do (look at the people in the small booths at the parking entrances or the security monitors after 5PM in the dorms, they ALWAYS have a laptop .).</p>
<p>Overall, is it useful? Yes. Is it necessary? No.</p>