Do I need a laptop for college?

Student Lounge College Life
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<p>@Star: If you’re getting a new laptop, and you don’t play intensive games (think Bad Company 2), photoshop, or edit videos, you probably don’t need to bring your desktop.</p>

<p>The biggest advantages of a desktop over a laptop are the modularity, large screens, and power of a desktop compared to a laptop. Going into detail:</p>

<p>-Modularity: Unlike laptops, desktops can easily be taken apart and have their parts swapped out. Forgive me if I jumped too quickly to a conclusion here, but based on your question and the fact that you have an HP Desktop, I take it you probably aren’t comfortable with opening up your PC, so this point is irrelevant for your purposes</p>

<p>-Large Screens: I have dual 24" monitors myself, and honestly the large monitors are underrated. I find myself much more productive on the larger monitors than I am on my 13" laptop, due to being able to read multiple documents at once without switching back and forth. If you think you can survive with a smaller laptop screen, then ignore this point as well, but if you think the transition from a desktop monitor to a laptop might be hard, you should consider this.</p>

<p>-Power: Before anyone replies back, I just want to clarify that laptops to have extremely powerful parts as well. Unfortunately, compared to similar desktop parts, powerful laptop components are both more expensive and hotter. Laptops are more expensive because of the die shrinking needed, and hotter because laptops have much worse airflow than your typical desktop. Therefore, if you’re going to get an extremely powerful machine (along the lines of a Core i7 with a high end graphics card), a desktop is the only way to go.</p>

<p>However, this is entirely dependent on your needs. The only times you will ever need so much power that you need to go to a desktop is if you either play hardware-intensive games or if you do some sort of media editing. If all you use your computer for is for homework, web surfing, chatting, watching videos, and listening to music, then you should invest in a laptop instead. Even a basic laptop with the new Intel Core i3 and an integrated graphics chip should be more than enough power.</p>

<p>Hope that answers your question and didn’t confuse you too much!</p>

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<p>I would recommend getting a laptop. If you’re going to be in labs, then if anything you can take it in and even get a head start on data tables or on typing while you’re waiting for something to finish. Also, the class might require some program to retrieve data from meters, and a laptop would be the perfect thing to have.</p>

<p>Even if its just for the portablilty, a laptop is worth it. You will want to use your computer outside of colllege, so if you’re going to buy a new one, might as well be one that you can take on a train, bus, plane, car back home right?</p>

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<p>@mister7: I definitely disagree with your lab idea. Since my second semester started, I’ve yet to do a single lab where I wasn’t working with something toxic, poisonous, or cancerous. I’ve handled everything from extremely corrosive acids to Bromide, which can kill you if you ingest just two grams. This so far has all been in GE classes so far, nothing upper division. For safety’s sake, I definitely recommend no one use their laptops in labs. Even if you don’t work with something dangerous, you don’t know if the lab before you spilled E. Coli solution all over your workbench.</p>

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<p>I have a 15.6" HP laptop that I bought at Best Buy for $400. I plan on taking that to college.</p>

<p>They really aren’t that expensive anymore unless you’re obsessed with Apple, or you like gaming on your laptop.</p>

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<p>-Laptops are difficult to modify and upgrade.
-Awful battery life, especially when running programs that hog resources. Constant charging
-Very poor cooling
-Easily stolen
-Easily broken
-Come loaded with bloatware
-Cost more than desktops of equal and often greater computing power</p>

<p>But if you absolutely need that portability then you might as well get one.</p>

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<p>Whether or not to get a laptop partly depends on your personality.</p>

<p>Laptops can be a massive time suck and distraction. If you take a book and some notes to the library, or a coffee shop, or to class, you have little else to do but work. But if you take a laptop to one of those places, are you really confident you won’t be distracted by facebook or whatever your poison of choice is?</p>

<p>And writing a paper at the library computers might be no fun, but you are at least more likely to work on it and get it done, rather than spend 12 hours 20% working/80% web browsing on a laptop somewhere more comfortable.</p>

<p>I would bet that people without laptops, or those who never take them out of their bedrooms, do better in school.</p>

<p>keepittoyourself</p>

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<p>EVERY freshman needs a laptop for convenience IMO. We have 24 hour labs and what not but it is just NOT THE SAME. Personally, I was going to wait until next semester but I soon realized that a personal laptop was going to be NEEDED and I have not been wrong thus far.</p>

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<p>You seem to be confusing ‘need’ with ‘want’. How is it just not the same? What practical benefits does it bring?</p>

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<p>It allows me to not freeze on my way to and from the labs. It allows me to get extra sleep as I don’t have to walk to and from the labs. It allows me to be able to work outside of the campus if I feel the need to.</p>

<p>But to each their own. What works for me probably doesn’t work for everyone.</p>

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<p>That’s pretty weak stuff.</p>

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<p>That’s better.</p>

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<p>Get a laptop, if you can.You’re still going to have a few electives, and you still have lectures which it’s not always easy to take notes when the prof is flashing powerpoints across the screen. Most people type a <em>lot</em> faster than they can write, which comes in handy during college lectures.</p>

<p>For classes like math, you’re going to want to bring paper and pencils because you’ll be writing down equations, but it makes things a lot easier.</p>

<p>My best friend is a bio-chem major (basically a premed) and she uses her laptop quite a bit in the classroom and typing up lab reports. It’s also great, like other people have said if you want/need a change of sceen while working. You’ll save a lot of time not having to type up notes so you can understand them.</p>

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<p>For college, I would never consider taking a desktop, or even having a desktop again. I got a laptop in my sophomore year of high school (which is the one I’m using now), but I’m getting a new one for college this fall (switching from PC to Mac). I absolutely hate it when I have to use desktops, like in our computer labs in high school. I don’t know that I’ll ever buy a desktop. For college, you just want to look for a laptop that has good battery life, small, and lightweight. My current one is not that, but my new one will be. I’m going with the 13-inch MacBook Pro, and was waiting for the summer promotions to come out.</p>

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<p>Having a laptop is not necessary. There are computers in the libraries if you need them, so if you’d rather safe the money you can just go to the library to do work. I personally really like the convenience my laptop offers. Here’s a cool list I found about why laptops are not necessary but very beneficial. <a href=“Laptops: essential or not? | First-Year Lehigh Engineers”>http://■■■■■■/1xPoXPP&lt;/a&gt; </p>

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<p>Some schools require them. Western Carolina does.</p>