<p>Do college kids, specifically engineering majors, carry their laptops to their classes and to other places? The reason I'm asking is because I want to buy a 17 inch laptop, but have not done so yet because of it not being portable. Don't people generally take their notes using pen and paper? Why do you need to bring a laptop to class? And I can still bring a 17 inch laptop to the library once in a while right? I mean, its not that heavy that I won't be able to carry in any where. The reason I want the 17 inch is because it has a lot more features than the 15 inch laptops. The Dell Inspiron e1705 is the perfect laptop for me. It is top notch and comes out to only $2500 with everything maxed out. It has great power, but its obviously heavy and won't have extraordinary battery life. So thats why I'm asking, do college kids generally carry around their laptops around campus?</p>
<p>All I know is that when we visited RPI many kids were sitting in the student union doing stuff on their laptops. (Some were shopping, some were downloading music, a few appeared to be doing schoolwork.)</p>
<p>My son is an engineering major and doesn't even have a laptop - nor does he really miss having one. Most of the engineering coursework is done on computers that are in the lab - these are the ones that have the specialized software packages that are needed.</p>
<p>Im an computer engineering student and sont have a laptop, yes most of our work is done in labs, thogh it looks to be easier to use a laptop, because you can just bring it in to the TA's and not have to setup a workstation in there office.</p>
<p>so in general you dont need one but its nice to have one, especially for group work in librarys.</p>
<p>Son has a desktop and a 17" (kind of heavy) laptop. He does not carry it around campus, never has, not even for labs. Like you, he wanted to buy it for the stuff it had on it, not for a portable notepad. In class, he takes notes with pencil and paper. I don't know if my son is the norm or not, but he's happy keeping it in his room and only carries it to bring it to a friend's house or home.</p>
<p>i have a 17" and bring it around with me. it's not that heavy if you don't make a big deal about it</p>